Quintinshill, near Gretna Green in Scotland, was a passing loop on the Caledonian Railway. On 22 May 1915, a distracted signalman forgot a stationary local train waiting at his signals, leading to a muliple collision between a troop train, the local train, a coal train in an adjacent siding and, shortly afterwards, an express train which ploughed into the wreckage. 200+ people died and 246 were injured - of the 500 soldiers of the 7th Royal Scots on the troop train, only 60 made it to roll-call the next morning. The precise number of fatalities is not known because the roll of the regiment was destroyed in the fire. The disaster was made much worse by fire caused by wooden carriages and gas lighting, and the troops were locked into the carriages, a common practice in those days.

The accident took place at a change of shift. George Meakin had worked the night shift and was relieved by James Tinsley. These two men had an agreement whereby if the local train was stopping at Quintinshill, Tinsley would travel on it and start work half an hour late. Meakin would record all the details of that half hour on a piece of paper and then Tinsley would copy this into the train register when he arrived, to cover up his late arrival. This arrangement, which distracted Tinsley to the extent that he forgot about the local train on which he had himself arrived, makes Tinsley and Meakin more culpable than if it had been just a simple case of a signalman forgetting a train standing on the line.

The signalmen, James Tinsley and George Meakin, were sentenced to three years in prison for neglect of duties. Quintinshill is poorly known because most of the victims were military and it occurred during the First World War, but in terms of casualties and destruction it is by far the worst rail disaster in British history.

Lessons learned

The Quintinshill disaster would have been avoided if the line had been equipped with track circuits which detect the presence of trains and so prevent the signals being changed to green. However, as Quintinshill had good visibility from the signal box, this station would have low priority for the fitment of track circuits.

See also: List of rail accidents, List of British rail accidents