TOPIC:

Thanks Iain, Meurig and Mike,

With those casualties it must have been the worst railway disaster of the war?

Best wishes,

Justin

Justin
Yes, it must have been a really bad incident. Earlier today I had a trawl through a number of references to see if they had any further information. Could not find a reference. Such a large number of casualties must have been caused either by one train running into another; or else a train going off a line. I have to assume that the incident was not due to sabotage.
Regards
IL.

Yes, as the report says, the train carriages rolled down an embankment. A speed of 80 miles/hr does sound like the engine got out of control.
IL.

JustinLDavies wrote: Thanks Iain, Meurig and Mike,

With those casualties it must have been the worst railway disaster of the war?

Best wishes,

Justin

Yes, it was the largest loss of life in the war for a train accident, and as IL says no sabotage or enemy involvement.

Other train wrecks:
30-07-1900 Frederickstad, Shropshire LI - 13 killed & 42 injured
07-06-1901 Pretoria, West Yorks - 9 killed, no injuries recorded
31-01-1902 nr Burghersdorp, Yorkshire Rgt - 0 killed 20 injured
12-04-1902 Machavie, NZMR - 13 killed 18 injured
05-05-1902 Daspoort, RF - 7 killed plus 3 from other units, no injuries recorded

In all I have 426 casualties involving the railway.

Given the thousands of troops transported by railway and operating in war time conditions the railway would seem to be have been well run and a safe way to travel.

Regards
Meurig

Iain, Meurig

Thanks. Here is a report from The Times with a breakdown and naming the officers but still no identification of Guard Ross, ex-Gordon Highlanders!

Best wishes,

Justin

Evening all

I am going to Barberton on Saturday and will take pictures at the Garden of Remembrance. From what I can remember the casualties were buried there. Unfortunately I had the pictures on my old PC which failed so will retake them again should anybody want a picture.

Jon