At 6.49am on Saturday 22 May 1915 a Liverpool-bound troop-train carrying half (498 all ranks) of the 1st/7th (Leith) Battalion, The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) (1/7RS) collided head on with a local passenger train which had been ‘parked’, facing north, on the south-bound main line at Quintinshill just North of Gretna, to allow a following express to overtake it. Normally the local train would have been held in one of the loops at Quintinshill but both of these were already occupied by goods trains. The troop train overturned, mostly onto the neighbouring north-bound mainline track and, a minute later, the Glasgow-bound express ploughed into the wreckage causing it to burst into flames.
The ferocity of the fire, and consequent difficulty of rescuing those trapped in the overturned and mangled carriages, was compounded by the fact that most of the carriages were very old, made of wood and lit by gas contained in a tank beneath them. Between the crash and the fire a total of 216 all ranks of 7RS and 12 others (see Note 1), mostly from the express, but including the driver and fireman on the troop-train, died in, or as an immediate result of what was, and remains, Britain’s worst railway disaster for numbers killed.
Note 1.–The 12 non-Royal Scots dead, in addition to the two crew of the troop-train were from the Glasgow-bound express, listed as two RN Officers, three Officers from 9th Battalion The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, two civilians and a sleeping car attendant, and, from the local train, a mother and her baby.
Artist’s Response
While at the studio, I decided to make the print diagonal to create perspective and depth in the work. Focusing on the signalling box at Quintinshill was important as this was the cause of the disaster that day. A signalling fault caused three trains to plough into each other which resulted in the worst rail disaster in Britain to this day.
As I am a painter, I mixed my own colours at the studio to create teal; cool colours to show the harrowing events that took place there.
Kelly Drum
City of Glasgow College
Tumblr: @artbykel
Kelly Drum is currently studying a HND Contemporary Art Practice at City of Glasgow College. She was given the story of the 1915 Quintinshill Rail Disaster which took place just north of Gretna. Kelly works with the mediums of paint and photography primarily. Kelly’s aspirations for her creative career are to become an art tutor and teach young creatives in the future.
