Showing posts with label Railway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Railway. Show all posts

Monday 5 October 2020

A Tragic Railway Accident at Earlston Station

Historical newspapers regularly featured quite graphic accounts of tragic accidents in the workplace. 

One such event in Earlston involved John Thomson, a coal agent.    On 7th February, 1866, aged just 36, he died as a result of injuries to his arm being crushed betweenthe buffers and coal trucks at Earlston Station.    A newspaper report in ‘The Kelso Chronicle’ of Friday 9th February, 1866, gave the full details:

“John Thomson, who got his arm broken and severely bruised between the buffers two wagons on Monday last week, died from the effects of the accident about one o'clock on Wednesday morning.    Thomson having been sergeant in the Earlston Volunteer Company, the members the Corps, who were greatly interested in his case, and who in the beginning of the week thought it was assuming very serious aspect, subscribed to procure the services of a surgeon of eminence from Edinburgh, and in this they were liberally assisted by the public in general.

Accordingly, on Tuesday morning, Mr Andrew Murdison, a brother volunteer of Thomson’s, very kindly took the trouble of going personally to Edinburgh, in addition to sending a telegram (which, as is too common, landed at its destination long after the sender had been conveyed by train thereto) to seek the services of Dr. Annandale, to whom he had been recommended by Dr. Riddell.  [The local physician]

This gentleman accompanied Mr Murdison back to Earlstoun in the afternoon, and having seen and examined Thomson, deemed amputation of the arm necessary. This operation Dr Annandale performed about 4 o’clock in the afternoon but Thomson gradually sank, and about nine hours thereafter expired.

Thomson, who was a young unmarried man in the prime of life, was much respected in the place, and his premature death under such circumstances has excited deep sympathy for those of his family who survive him.”

  

Two trains in Earlston station
Copyright © A R Edwards and Son,  Selkirk.    (Cathy Chick Collection).   All Rights Reserved

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Background Notes:

  • ·       John Thomson’s Family
    John was born Earlston, 2nd May 1829, the fourth son, in a family of eight, children  of William Thomson and Janet Slight/Sleigh, the great, great great, grandparents of Auld Earlston member Sheila McKay.  


    In the 1851 census, William, born in Lauder, was described as a thatcher, with the family living on Main Street, Earlston. John’s occupation was given as a sawyer.


    Father, William died in 1860, with John named as the informant, on the death certificate.


    Where John was at the time of the 1861 census remains a mystery, as he was not in Earlston.     Could he possibly be the John Thomson, born in Earlston , aged 30, serving as a police constable in Chirnside?  Impossible to say when his name is so popular in the region. The Heritage Hub in Hawick holds a substantial collection of police records, but the Constabulary Records  for Berwickshire did not begin  until after 1866. 

    By the time of his death, John had had a change of occupation to that of coal agent. Coal represented the single largest freight traffic on the railways.  John would have been working in the coal merchant’s yard at the station. As the coal wagons arrived from the Dalkeith coalfields, his role involved liaising with the local coal merchants on the purchase of the coal.
  • ·       Medicine in 1866
    John was tended to initially by  the local physician Dr. Riddell, and we have a fine description of the doctor in  the writings on Earlston people and places by  Rev. William Crockett. 


"Here was a man skilled in diagnosis, a very capable servant, responsive to every phase of human distress. Even if (because of his slightly humped back), they spoke of him as”Humpy" Riddell, it was never with any feeling of disrespect. The doctor was endowed with a big brain; poor people said he had a heart of gold. He showed his queer habits on occasions   - a street fight fascinated him for instance.  Dr  Riddell believed in prayer and once told the minister "I always pray before I start an operation."  

This was a time of early days in the use of anaesthesia, with infection control weak, and the incidence of mortality following amputation high. It was only in 1867 that Joseph Lister published his work in using carboiic acid as an antiseptic.

  • ·       Earlston’s Community Spirit
    It is worth noting the generosity of the public to John’s accident and the readiness to provide funds to call on Edinburgh surgeon, Dr. Annandale to perform the operation.

  • ·       Earlston Railway
    John’s death in 1866 occurred in the
    early history of the Earlston railway.  The Berwickshire line had reached the village in 1863 and was extended to Newtown St. Boswells in 1865, with completion of the Leaderfoot Viaduct, the major engineering feat of the line and itself the scene of some railway accidents during its construction.





    A goods train from Earlston travelling between Gordon and Greenlaw.
    Copyright  © Bruce McCartney.  All Rights Reserved.  
     

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Sources of Information

  •  British Newspaper Archive - website

  • The Rhymer's Town:  Further Notes on Earlston's Past, by Dr. W. S. Crockett. In "The Southern Annual:1942.


    Cotributed by Sheila  McKay and Susan Donaldson 
     
     
     
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Sunday 18 September 2016

Early Days of Earlston's Railway

 

 As we mark the first anniversary of the return of the Borders Railway, look back at the early days of the original railway which passed through Earlston 1863-1965, linking the east coast Edinburgh to London route with the historic Waverley line through the central Borders.   

Some of the issues reported by local newspapers of the past sound familiar!  

THE PLANNING 
  • "The Southern Reporter" of 12th January 1861 reported that the  plans were in the hands of parochial teacher Mr. Aitkenhead and available for inspection. The route for the railway was outlined as:
  "entering the parish by a bridge across the Leader, then across the fields belonging to Misses Whales (gingham manufacturers), passing the foot of the West U.P. Manse garden, and crossing the road from Earlston to Redpath......
  • For farmers, their main concern was for a grain market  and a public meeting was held in the Reading Room to progress the matter with banker Mr.  Smail appointed honorary secretary. (The Southern Reporter: 12th January  1861)
  • Travelling and postal arrangements were also under scrutiny, as noted in "The Southern Reporter" 5th August 1863.  Take note of the powerful prayerful  language used in their argument  to the Railway Directors
 "The community of Earlston were impressed  with the courteous manner in which Mr George Wallace of the Commercial Inn and proprietor of the present conveyance to  and from Melrose had served the public - to often with slight advantage to himself.  It was  considered it necessary to forward a petition to the Directors praying for him to continue  as their postmaster. The petition ash been signed by merchants, traders and other influential parties. Should the Directors deem it fitting to grant the prayer of the petition, their so doing would satisfy the public and confirm a boon on an obliging and  industrious public servant." 

THE OPENING 
Thar the opening was imminent, was reported in "The Southern Reporter" of 29th October 1863. The Government Inspector had passed along the line; the construction company had dismissed a considerable number of their men and the horse stock was authorised for sale.


The actual opening in Earlston was reported in "The Kelso Chronicle" of 20th November 1863  with an  article which made the occasion seem rather prosaic and low key, and contrasted with   bands and bunting that marked the earlier opening in Duns.  But like its modern successor  "the number of passengers has far exceeded expectations"



ACCIDENT
But just one day after the opening of Earlston Railway Station, "The Kelso Chronicle" of 20th November 1863 headline read   "A  Serious Accident on the Berwickshire Railway" near Dunse. 


"This line which opened with much promise on Monday, was the scene of a rather serious mishap on Tuesday. ....A train on its way to Earlston with a few coal trucks, two carriages and two passengers was  startled by the axle of the one of the trucks giving way and tearing the rails....both carriages and trucks were dragged off the line, but fortunately none were precipitated over the embankment.........A large force of navvies were on the line and were exerting themselves to get the line in order again.  They intended to work all night and have it finished for the next day's traffic.........it was necessary to delay trains, much to the annoyance of a great number of passengers attending Dunse Fair.


LEADERFOOT
The major engineering feat on the line was the crossing of the River Tweed and the building of the Leaderfoot Viaduct, which involved  a nineteen arch structure  907 feet long and 126 feet above the level of the river bed.   Interestingly it is referred to in a newspaper article of December 1864 as the Drygrange Viaduct.

 One of the last trains over Leaderfoot in 1965 
Copyright ©  Bruce McCartney All  Rights Reserved.   

DELAYS 
 The item in "The Southern Reporter" of 24th October 1867 may strike a chord. 

 "The  railway arrangements of the North British appeared to be of the most annoying and expensive description...........to our mortification and the chagrin and disgust of between forty and fifty farmers and business men whose time is worth money, we were kept two and a half hours waiting on the train.......The Berwickshire Company may  find their small dividend will be reduced to nothing and the public will lose all confidence in the line."   


POSTSCRIPT
But the Berwickshire Railway survived.   Devastating floods across the  county in August 1948 meant that passenger services were suspended,  due to parts of the track bed being washed away.  Repairs were never fully carried out and only freight services continued on part of the line, which  was eventually closed without ceremony  on 16th July 1965 -  marking the end of the 102 year old line of the Berwickshire Railway through Earlston. 

In 1969 amidst the notorious Beeching Cuts,  the Scottish Borders lost all its rail services, making it the only region in mainland Scotland without a  train station.  But that  all  changed in September 2015 when part of the Waverly Line re-opened for 35 miles south of Edinburgh into the central Borders at Tweedbank.   


Steam train arriving at Tweedbank
Copyright © N. F. Donaldson, 2015.     All  Rights Reserved,