May 1915: The Gretna Rail Disaster

On 22 May 1915, five separate trains were involved in a devastating crash at the Quintinshill signal box near Gretna Green in Dumfriesshire, Scotland.

The collisions and subsequent fire resulted in the loss of at least 226 lives, although a definitive number of victims has never been established.

“The Gretna disaster establishes a record in that it is the greatest railway accident since communication by rail was established,” The Engineer wrote in the days following the disaster. “There has never been anything like it as regards numbers of casualties in this country or the United States, the total in this accident alone being as many as those killed in the United Kingdom during the last 10 years.”

The Quintinshill signal box overlooked the Caledonian Main Line linking Glasgow and Carlisle, now part of the West Coast Main Line. As well as northbound and southbound tracks, passing loops for both main lines were also situated at this point. On the morning of the crash, both loops were occupied; the southbound loop with an empty coal wagon, the northbound with a goods train that had left Carlisle at 04.50.