3-085-620 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The accident to a Scotch Express, 1898. 'Scene of the collision outside Dunbar Station; one of the wrecked engines; a wrecked carriage. Early on Monday morning, on the North British Railway line at Dunbar, the express train of the Great Northern Railway Company to Scotland, which left London on Sunday night, came into collision with a goods train, was thrown off the rails, and several carriages were smashed; a lady passenger, Miss Isabella M'Alpine, on her way to attend her father's funeral at Stirling, was killed, and other passengers were severely injured. The accident occurred on the curve which leads from the coastline into Dunbar. Some coal-trucks were being shunted to make way for the approaching express, and the concluding wagons did not clear the points as they were taken across the line by which the express was travelling in time to avoid the passenger train. With terrific force the express dashed into the coal-trucks; both its engines were thrown off the rails, and a number of the carriages were telescoped in the crash. The engine-drivers and stokers escaped with their lives, but were badly injured. The line was blocked for some hours by the wreckage of the two trains'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.