Quintinshill 98th anniversary

[matchmaker]

It was yesterday - 22nd May. Blackest day in British railway history. At least 227 died, many burnt alive

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintinshill_rail_dis...

[matchmaker]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I got it wrong but the edited version hasn't changed in the listing. Perhaps a mod could change it - it looks as if I'm applauding 227 deaths...

[Big Al.]

matchmaker said:

I got it wrong but the edited version hasn't changed in the listing. Perhaps a mod could change it - it looks as if I'm applauding 227 deaths...

Sorted.

[matchmaker]

Big Al. said:

matchmaker said:

I got it wrong but the edited version hasn't changed in the listing. Perhaps a mod could change it - it looks as if I'm applauding 227 deaths...

Sorted.

Thanks. One of the saddest things about it is this:

Wikipedia said:

Four bodies, believed to be of children, were never identified or claimed and are buried in the Western Necropolis, Glasgow.

.

Something similar happened at Charfield in 1928:

Wikipedia said:

Among the dead were stated to be the remains of two small children, who have never been identified. According to local accounts, from 1929 and up until the late 1950s, an unknown woman dressed in black used to regularly visit the memorial to the crash. But she has not been seen for several decades. There is a memorial to remember those who lost their lives at St James Church in Charfield, where the two unknown children are buried

[mrmaggit]

Read Tom Rolts book "Red for Danger" for an insight into Charfield. It's also just a pretty good book, but Charfield is one he goes into in depth about.

[mrmaggit]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I think there would have still been many casualties, you don't get a train hitting another, then one running into the wreckage, and not get casualties, especially as one was full to the brim with people.

[matchmaker]

mrmaggit said:

Read Tom Rolts book "Red for Danger" for an insight into Charfield. It's also just a pretty good book, but Charfield is one he goes into in depth about.

A great book with some great quotes; "Please go and tell the stationmaster that I am afraid that I have wrecked the Scotch Express". (Hawes Junction)

"Stop Mail"
"Mail left" (Norwich Thorpe)

[Yertis]

matchmaker said:

mrmaggit said:

Read Tom Rolts book "Red for Danger" for an insight into Charfield. It's also just a pretty good book, but Charfield is one he goes into in depth about.

A great book with some great quotes; "Please go and tell the stationmaster that I am afraid that I have wrecked the Scotch Express". (Hawes Junction)

"Stop Mail"
"Mail left" (Norwich Thorpe)

A favourite book of mine too, in fact it's just here next to me, alongside Athill's history of the S&D. Some interesting detective work has been done on the Charfield children recently, the details of which now completely elude me.

[neilb62]

I had one of the local Permanent Way Supervisors ride over there with me last year (I drive trains on the WCML) he told be that when working at Quintinshill they still regularly dig up buttons and belt buckles etc. Quite moving really.

[mrmaggit]

Yertis said:

matchmaker said:

mrmaggit said:

Read Tom Rolts book "Red for Danger" for an insight into Charfield. It's also just a pretty good book, but Charfield is one he goes into in depth about.

A great book with some great quotes; "Please go and tell the stationmaster that I am afraid that I have wrecked the Scotch Express". (Hawes Junction)

"Stop Mail"
"Mail left" (Norwich Thorpe)

A favourite book of mine too, in fact it's just here next to me, alongside Athill's history of the S&D. Some interesting detective work has been done on the Charfield children recently, the details of which now completely elude me.

Jimmy Boakes?

[matchmaker]

mrmaggit said:

Yertis said:

matchmaker said:

mrmaggit said:

Read Tom Rolts book "Red for Danger" for an insight into Charfield. It's also just a pretty good book, but Charfield is one he goes into in depth about.

A great book with some great quotes; "Please go and tell the stationmaster that I am afraid that I have wrecked the Scotch Express". (Hawes Junction)

"Stop Mail"
"Mail left" (Norwich Thorpe)

A favourite book of mine too, in fact it's just here next to me, alongside Athill's history of the S&D. Some interesting detective work has been done on the Charfield children recently, the details of which now completely elude me.

Jimmy Boakes?

He was struck by lightning.

Red for Danger said:

On the line between Brighton and Lewes on June 6th, 1851, engine number 82 (built by Sharp, Roberts and Co., 1847-48) was running down an incline between Falmer and Lewes with a passenger train. At a point where a high brick bridge, known as the Newmarket Arch, carries the line over a road, No. 82 struck a sleeper which was lying across the outside rail and became derailed. The engine and two coaches fell into the road below killing three passengers and the fireman and mortally injuring the driver. The question arose as to how the sleeper got there. There were a number of sleepers on the line side because re-laying was in progress. The men working on the line denied leaving the sleeper on the line and it was alleged that it was a wilful prank on the part of a ten-year-old boy called Jimmy Boakes who lived near the line. Despite the fact that he was questioned, nobody was able to trap him into making an admission.

Now comes the strange sequel. Exactly a year later, on the same day of the same month, at the same spot that the accident happened, Jimmy Boakes was struck by lightning and killed. Doubtless the incident was quoted with relish from local pulpits as an awful example of the visitation of divine retribution.

[neilb62]

I still think that all railway operations staff should be issued with Red For Danger, 90% of its contents is still perfectly relevant today.

[neilb62]

I still think that all railway operations staff should be issued with Red For Danger, 90% of its contents is still perfectly relevant today.

[mrmaggit]

matchmaker said:

mrmaggit said:

Yertis said:

matchmaker said:

mrmaggit said:

Read Tom Rolts book "Red for Danger" for an insight into Charfield. It's also just a pretty good book, but Charfield is one he goes into in depth about.

A great book with some great quotes; "Please go and tell the stationmaster that I am afraid that I have wrecked the Scotch Express". (Hawes Junction)

"Stop Mail"
"Mail left" (Norwich Thorpe)

A favourite book of mine too, in fact it's just here next to me, alongside Athill's history of the S&D. Some interesting detective work has been done on the Charfield children recently, the details of which now completely elude me.

Jimmy Boakes?

He was struck by lightning.

Red for Danger said:

On the line between Brighton and Lewes on June 6th, 1851, engine number 82 (built by Sharp, Roberts and Co., 1847-48) was running down an incline between Falmer and Lewes with a passenger train. At a point where a high brick bridge, known as the Newmarket Arch, carries the line over a road, No. 82 struck a sleeper which was lying across the outside rail and became derailed. The engine and two coaches fell into the road below killing three passengers and the fireman and mortally injuring the driver. The question arose as to how the sleeper got there. There were a number of sleepers on the line side because re-laying was in progress. The men working on the line denied leaving the sleeper on the line and it was alleged that it was a wilful prank on the part of a ten-year-old boy called Jimmy Boakes who lived near the line. Despite the fact that he was questioned, nobody was able to trap him into making an admission.

Now comes the strange sequel. Exactly a year later, on the same day of the same month, at the same spot that the accident happened, Jimmy Boakes was struck by lightning and killed. Doubtless the incident was quoted with relish from local pulpits as an awful example of the visitation of divine retribution.

Ah! No my memory comes back. I like the one about the chap loosing his ear after having screwed in the safety valve.

[Yertis]

My favourite is from I K Brunel, near the beginning of the book. Having helped himself to a locomotive to get back to London, and run on the 'wrong' (ie southern) of the two tracks (travelling up on the down line as we would now say), the great man was asked what would have happened if he had encountered another train heading in the opposite direction. He replied that "he would have put on all the steam he could command, with a view to driving off the opposite engine by the superior velocity of his own".

[matchmaker]

Yertis said:

My favourite is from I K Brunel, near the beginning of the book. Having helped himself to a locomotive to get back to London, and run on the 'wrong' (ie southern) of the two tracks (travelling up on the down line as we would now say), the great man was asked what would have happened if he had encountered another train heading in the opposite direction. He replied that "he would have put on all the steam he could command, with a view to driving off the opposite engine by the superior velocity of his own".

Images spring to mind....another Brunel/GWR one is a notice about a new signal outside Paddington Station which included the words "If the signal is not there the train must not pass it"