British Rail Edinburgh to Aberdeen 1996 Remembering Tay Bridge Disaster 1879 . 60 died RIP

[@alistairshaw3206]

Another great video, Alrx. A fact that I didn't know about was the viaduct at Montrose was so badly built by Bouch, that it had to be rebuilt!

[@alrxanderwylie6512]

Hi Alistair so sad about Mr Bouch no doubt he put a lot of thought and effort into bridge design what can I say (no doubt broken heart) Thanks Alistair glad you enjoyed upload Take care Alrx 🚂🚂

[@RHR-221b]

Thank you, Alrx. A wee bit more than poignant and bittersweet. Rest In Peace. All the best. Rab ⏳ 🎲 🌠 💚 ---------------------------------------- *Tay Bridge Disaster* [Credit: wike pe dia Much more information available therein] On the evening of Sunday 28 December 1879, a violent storm (10 to 11 on the Beaufort scale) was blowing virtually at right angles to the bridge. Witnesses said the storm was as bad as any they had seen in the 20-30 years they had lived in the area; one called it a 'hurricane', as bad as a typhoon he had experienced in the China Sea. The wind speed was measured at Glasgow - 71 mph (114 km/h; 32 m/s) (averaged over an hour) - and Aberdeen, but not at Dundee. Higher wind speeds were recorded over shorter intervals, but at the inquiry an expert witness warned of their unreliability and declined to estimate conditions at Dundee from readings taken elsewhere. One modern interpretation of available information suggests winds were gusting to 80 mph (129 km/h; 36 m/s). Use of the Tay Rail Bridge was restricted to one train at a time by a signalling block system using a baton as a token. At 7:13 p.m. a North British Railway (NBR) passenger train from Burntisland (consisting of a 4-4-0 locomotive, its tender, five passenger carriages, and a luggage van) slowed to pick up the baton from the signal cabin at the south end of the bridge, then headed out onto the bridge, picking up speed. The signalman turned away to log this and then tended a stove, but a friend present in the signal cabin watched the train: when it got about 200 yards (180 m) from the cabin he saw sparks flying from the wheels on the east side. He had also seen this on the previous train. During the inquiry, testimony was heard that the wind was pushing the wheel flanges into contact with the running rail. Black explained that the guard rails protecting against derailment were slightly higher than and inboard of the running rails. This arrangement would catch the good wheel where derailment was by disintegration of a wheel, which was a real risk before steel wheels, and had occurred in the Shipton-on-Cherwell train crash on Christmas Eve 1874. The sparks continued for no more than three minutes, by which time the train was in the high girders. At that point 'there was a sudden bright flash of light, and in an instant there was total darkness, the tail lamps of the train, the sparks and the flash of light all ... disappearing at the same instant.'. The signalman saw none of this and did not believe it when told about it. When the train failed to appear on the line off the bridge into Dundee he tried to talk to the signal cabin at the north end of the bridge, but found that all communication with it had been lost. Not only was the train in the river, but so were the high girders and much of the ironwork of their supporting piers. Divers exploring the wreckage later found the train still within the girders, with the engine in the fifth span of the southern five-span division. There were no survivors; only 46 bodies were recovered out of 59 known victims. Fifty-six tickets for Dundee had been collected from passengers on the train before crossing the bridge; allowing for season ticket holders, tickets for other destinations, and for railway employees, 74 or 75 people were believed to have been on the train. It has been suggested that there were no unknown victims and that the higher figure of 75 arises from double-counting in an early newspaper report in the _Dundee Courier_ but the inquiry did not take its casualty figures from the press; it took sworn evidence and did its own sums. --------------------------------------------------- R 👋 ✝

[@alrxanderwylie6512]

"Thomas Bouch: Architect of the Tay Bridge disaster | The Independent | The Independent" www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/thomas-bouch-tay-bridge-disaster-trains-dundee-a9229646.html?amp Hi Rab Thomas Bouch only 26 years of age chief engineer He's not only to blame the Bridge must have went through all sort of inspections and passed sad sad Hope you're ok Alrx 🚂🚂🥃🥃

[@RHR-221b]

@@alrxanderwylie6512 Thank you for that, A. Sincerely accepting your rationale. I am fine thanks and, of course, dearly hope you are the same. Here is to the rest of our wee holidays ... Bye for now, A. R 👋 🕊