Sujet
Catastrophe ferroviaire de Quintinshill - 1915
Légende
Les pompiers arrosent les wagons calcinés suite à la catastrophe ferroviaire de Quintinshill (Ecosse)
22/05/1915
The three worst rail disasters in British history featured steam trains and led to appalling loss of life.
The most devastating of all happened around 6.40am at Quintinshill junction near Gretna Green, Scotland, on May 22 1915, during the First World War.
A train carrying 500 soldiers from the Royal Scots collided with a local train that had been shunted to let the night Scottish express from London Euston pass.The impact was so great that the troop train was crushed to less than half its normal length, and overturned onto the northbound line.
Immediately afterwards, the express train ploughed into the wreckage and a horrendous fire took hold. In total, 226 people were killed and 246 injured.
The crash was caused by two signalmen forgetting about the northbound passenger train from Carlisle which had backed, as scheduled, onto the Caledonian RailwayÕs southbound mainline from Glasgow to Carlisle.Tragically, they let a southbound troop train, hauled by Caledonian Railway loco No. 121, proceed at speed along the same track, causing a head-on collision.
When the express ran into the wreckage, the elderly, wooden, gas-lit troop train coaches ignited and the flames also engulfed two goods trains which were stationary in adjacent loop lines. The signalmen were jailed for three years and 18 months respectively.
Date
22 mai 1915
Crédit
Photo12/Mirrorpix
Notre référence
MPX26A00_147
Licence
Droits gérés
Format disponible
24.5Mo (5.7Mo) / 29.1cm x 21.1cm / 3435 x 2498 (300dpi)