Quintinshill: Britain’s Deadliest Rail Disaster

BBC Two Scotland,

On the morning of 22 May 1915, one of the worst railway disasters in British history took place on track close to Gretna Green in Dumfriesshire. It occurred when a southbound troop train travelling at high speed crashed into a local service that had been shunted onto the main line because of congestion. Shortly after, the tragedy was compounded when an overnight express heading from London to Scotland crashed into the wreckage. At least 226 people died, a further 246 were injured.

So what went wrong? At the time, the accident was blamed on two signalmen working close to the site of the accident: George Meakin, who had covered the night shift, and James Tinsley, who had just taken over from him. Both were imprisoned for culpable homicide, and certainly both men