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BRITAIN’S worst rail disaster was commemorated yesterday at a special service at Gretna on the Scottish-English border.
More than 214 soldiers and 12 civilians were killed in the three-train crash a hundred years ago, during the first world war.
At 6.50am on May 22 1915, a train packed with troops travelling from Larbert, Stirlingshire, collided with a local passenger service.
Straight afterwards, a Glasgow-bound express train smashed into the wreckage at the Quintinshill signal box, setting off a devastating fire which engulfed the troop train, packed with nearly 500 members of the Leith Battalion of the Royal Scots.
The troops were on their way to Liverpool, where they were due to sail to the front line of the war in Gallipoli.
Two representatives of train drivers’ union Aslef, Jim Morrison and Mark Friend, yesterday laid a wreath during a commemorative service at the site of the crash.
Aslef Scottish organiser Kevin Lindsay said: “We should never forget what happened 100 years ago, or all the efforts of so many people since to make the railway safe for passengers and staff.”
