Few train crashes in Scotland can have had more of an impact upon one small community than the Gretna rail disaster which took place at Quintinshill Junction on the 22^nd May 1915.

Three trains were involved; a special troop train, a local train and the night express coming north from Euston Station, London. The special troop train carried the Leith based 7^th Battalion Royal Scots, Territorial Force bound for Liverpool on their way to Gallipoli as part of 156^th Brigade of the 52^nd (Lowland) Division. The Battalion had been mobilised at the outbreak of the First World War and had served on coastal defences. Bound for war and in high spirits they left Larbert in two trains and headed south. It was the second of these trains that was involved in the crash.

The Signalmen at Quintinshill, anxious to complete their paperwork, simply forgot the local train which should have been shunted on to a loop line but which was sitting directly outside their signal box and gave the all clear signal for the troop train to come through. The impact was so great that the troop train was crushed to less than half its normal length and the wreckage overturned on to the northbound line.

Minutes later the northbound express from Euston crashed into the debris setting it on fire. It was Britain’s worst train crash. Three officers, twenty-nine non-commissioned officers and one hundred and eighty two soldiers were killed or burned to death. Thousands lined the streets of Leith for the funeral procession and burial at Rosebank Cemetery.

Most of those who survived the crash returned home and the remainder of the 7^th Battalion sailed to Gallipoli. The two signalmen were held responsible and served terms of imprisonment.