Railway Accidents by Greg Morse

Author:Greg Morse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Railway Accidents
ISBN: 9781784420307
Publisher: Osprey Publishing Ltd

The first block instruments had two positions – ‘Line Clear’ and ‘Train on Line’. These were later joined by a third – ‘Line Blocked’ – which became the default (or ‘normal’) position, and was similar in effect to keeping the signals at danger until a train was due.

As the Down loop was holding a goods train, Meakin decided to put the ‘local’ on the Up Main. Though not an ideal move, it wasn’t dangerous if the proper precautions were taken – that is, if he sent a bell code to Kirkpatrick signal box to let its signalman know that the running line was occupied, and placed a collar over the signal lever to stop himself allowing another train on to the same section of line. Today, he forgot – but even then all would have been well had the fireman of the ‘local’ performed ‘Rule 55’ properly; but the fireman merely signed the register while Tinsley was trying to copy Meakin’s scribbled train movements into it. The fact that two brakesmen were also in the box, chatting with Meakin about the war, probably didn’t help Tinsley’s concentration either.

Between the passage of the first Glasgow express and his own acceptance of the second, Tinsley accepted an Up troop train from Kirkpatrick. It was just before ten-to seven when it struck the ‘local’ waiting on the same line, and just after when the second express ploughed into the wreckage. In all, 227 people were killed and 246 were injured.

That Meakin and Tinsley were imprisoned for negligence overlooks the multi-causal nature of the accident. It was clear, for one thing, that the signalmen were poorly supervised; clear too that the war had not only created a need for more and more military traffic, but also forced the Caledonian to press old Great Central Railway stock into service, whose wooden bodies, wooden frames and gas lighting ensured that – as with Hawes Junction and Ais Gill – fire increased the death toll.

The war would have another, longer-lasting, effect on the railways, helping end the era of small private companies and start another of large corporations.

Yet the problems of SPADs, speed and signalmen’s errors would remain.

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