Poem ~ Scots Troops killed on Train - Monday, 24 May 1915

Source: File: Scottish Train Crash.jpg, 2015. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 24 May. P.3. Col.2-3. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11621705/Daily-Telegraph-May-22-1915.html  [Accessed: 24 May 2015].

i

Among the worst recorded disasters

To date of May 1915, was a railway

Accident. On 22nd in the early hours,

Were trains caught in triple collisions.

The Glasgow Express was travelling

North - as a local train manoeuvring,

While Royal Scouts travelled south

On a troop train - when all coincided

At St Quentins, near Scottish border.

The local Caledonian train, leaving

Some minutes after 6 a.m. moved

On the line, just before a troop train -

Containing the regimental companies

Of Royal Scots from Larbert, Falkirk.

A collision occurred between both

Trains, minutes before the Express

Was due to reach that spot - with

No time or attempts, to stop the next

Express train ploughing into them.

The resulting triple accident was

To create a bursting fire, that race

Amid smashed wood and twisted

Steel, spreading quickly to suffocate

And burn alive any wounded people.

ii

Raging flames broke through

The triple tragedy, so within

Minutes, three train wrecks

Were furiously burning -

Between two great engines

The Scotch Express sleeping

Carriages consumed

By fire resulted in officers

Being burned or killed

Outright - as well as troops

Ammunition was carried -

So that explosions amid

Burning carriages. blasted

Elements. adding further

To risk of deaths - nearly

All occurred on troop trains.

Despite the presence of fire

Engines, the wrecked trains

In fierce flame, reduced

To little more that twisted

Steel and iron - those able

To get from the wreck, turned

About to help those still

Trapped - the only way

To release some of them

With arm and leg amputations.

 by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1915. Scottish Train Disaster. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 24 May. P.8. Col.6. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11621722/Daily-Telegraph-May-24-1915.html [Accessed: 24 May 2015].

Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 24 May 2015). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11621705/Daily-Telegraph-May-22-1915.html

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