“SERIOUS ACCIDENT TO THE SCOTCH EXPRESS” screamed the bold headline of the Mail newspaper on Monday 1st October 1888 and for good measure added a sub-headline of “NARROW ESCAPE OF PASSENGERS”
In the style of the time, the language flowery and descriptive, exaggerated and speculative, the Mail gave a single paragraph report of the accident in the following terms.
“On Friday night a serious accident, which was fortunately not attended with loss of life, occurred to the Midland Pullman express that left Glasgow at a quarter-past nine. The train consisted of six ordinary carriages, the sleeping car, and two luggage vans, and was drawn by two engines. At Thornhill it was stopped and detained for about five minutes in consequence of a slow train being only a short distance in front of it, and for the same reason it was again detained at Closeburn. After this speed seems to have been put on to recover some of the lost time. When about half a mile to the north of Portroick Bridge (across the Nith) the driver of the second engine and many of the passengers felt a severe bump, the three last cars, consisting of two carriages and the rear van left the rails, and were dragged with a violent jolting motion over sleepers and against the rails in a zigzag manner as far as Portroick Bridge, the train at length being brought to a stand, when the first of these carriages was three-fourths of the distance along the bridge. Fortunately, in leaving the rails they did so on the side next to the down line, and not on the edge of the embankment, over which, in other circumstances, they would certainly have been precipitated with the most disastrous results. As it was, they made a very narrow escape from being pitched into the Nith. The passengers were greatly terrified and much shaken, but no one seems to have sustained even a bruise except the conductor of the Pullman car and the guard who occupied the last van, and their injuries were of a trifling character. The carriages were very much battered, all the wheels being broken. The grease boxes were scattered right and left, and the windows were smashed. The up line for a half a mile was completely wrecked, sleepers and rails alike being torn and twisted. The carriage had also struck the down line at various points, carrying off a number of the chairs. On the bridge the flooring, of 2½-inch board, has been ploughed through, and the iron work below is deeply indented. The brakes had at once been applied, but the broken condition of the wheels prevented them acting with sufficient force on the rear part of
