1. THE BRIDGE IS DOWN
1. For a discussion of number of victims of the Disaster, see Appendix 1.
2. Hepburn, H., ‘The Disaster that Echoes down the Years’, Weekend Scotsman, 24 November 1979.
3. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Tay Bridge Disaster, Minutes of Evidence, p. 31.
4. Ibid., p. 26.
5. Rapley, J., Sir Thomas Bouch – Builder of the Tay Bridge (2007), p. 139.
6. Ibid., pp. 23–4, 27, 34.
7. Ibid., pp. 12, 14; Dundee Courier, 29 December 1879.
8. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, p. 13.
9. Ibid., p. 21.
10. Thomas, J., The Tay Bridge Disaster: New Light on the 1879 Tragedy (1972), pp. 82–3, Prebble, John, The High Girders (1975), pp. 100–102.
11. Thomas, J., op. cit., p. 83; Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 106.
12. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 3–4.
13. Prebble, J., op. cit., pp.102–6.
14. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 5–6.
15. Ibid., pp. 16–18.
16. Ibid., pp. 18–19.
17. Dundee Advertiser, 29 December 1879.
18. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 15–16.
19. Ibid., pp. 52–4; Scotsman, 30 December 1879.
20. Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 97.
21. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 11–15; Dundee Courier, 29th December, 1879.
22. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 57–8.
23. Ibid., pp. 4–9; Scotsman, 30 December 1879.
24. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, p. 34.
25. Scotsman, 30 December 1879; quoted in Drummond, B., ‘The Story of the Tay Bridge’, Scots Magazine, 1949, pp. 427–34.
26. Dundee Advertiser, Sunday 29 December 1879; Scotsman, 30 December 1879; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 118–9.
27. James Smith to Mr Bell, Dundee University Archives (hereafter DUA), MS 30/8 (4).
28. For a discussion of the numbers of victims, see Appendix 1.
29. DUA MS 30/1 (4).
2. RAILWAY RIVALRY
30. Herpath’s Railway Journal, 11 January 1851.
31. Railway Times, 3 April 1853.
32. Robertson, C.J.A., ‘The Cheap Railway Movement in Scotland: the St Andrews Railway Company’, Transport History, 1974, vii, 1, p. 7.
33. Thomas, J., The North British Railway, vol. 1 (1969), p. 217; Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 21.
34. Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 24.
35. ‘Sir Thomas Bouch’, Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, vol. 63 (1881), pp. 301ff; Dictionary of National Biography; DUA MS 30/1 (20b) – obituaries of Sir Thomas Bouch.
36. Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, vol. 20, pp. 376–90; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 18; Paxton, R.A., 100 years of the Forth Bridge (1990), pp. 24–6; Bidder, G.P., ‘The Floating Railways across the Forth and Tay Ferries’, and Hall, W., ‘On the Floating Railways across the Forth and Tay Ferries, in connection with the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway.’ Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, 1861–2, XX, passim.
37. DUA MS 30/1 (25c) – obituary of Thomas Bouch.
38. Quoted in Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 18.
39. Ibid., p. 19; Paxton, R.A., op. cit., p. 24.
40. Walker, C., ‘Bouch the Railway Builder’, Railway World, 1972, ‘The Centenary of Hownes Gill Viaduct’, British Railway Journal, NE Region, vol. 9 (5), May 1938, pp. 126–7; DUA MS 30/1 (10); MS 30/1 (12).
41. DUA MS 30/1 (9); MS 30/1 (12).
42. DUA MS 30/2 (2).
43. Robertson, C.J.A., op. cit., pp. 1–39.
44. Ibid., p. 17; Scottish Record Office, BR/SNR/1/2, St Andrews Railway Minutes, 24 March 1865.
45. Dundee Public Libraries, Lamb Collection (hereafter LC), 303 (1), MS note on Tay Bridge, 10 July 1818.
46. LC 303 (10) – The Tay Bridge Disaster; John Leng & Co., The History and Construction of the Tay Bridge (1878) p. 11.
47. Thomas, J., North British Railway, vol. 1, p. 218; for a full account of Bouch’s plan for the Forth Bridge, see Paxton, R.A., 100 Years, Ch. 1.
48. LC 303 (2) – Dundee Advertiser, 18 October 1864; Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 14–15; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 28–30.
49. Rapley, J., Thomas Bouch, the Builder of the Tay Bridge, p.117.
50. Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 16–7; Minute of agreement between the North British Railway Company and the Provost and Town Council of Perth, 21 March 1870, National Archives of Scotland, NBR 3/9.
51. LC 303 (2) – Meetings re Tay Bridge Plan, 1869–70.
52. Leng & Co., History and Construction, p. 21.
53. Ibid., pp. 31–2.
54. LC 303 (10); Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 23–5; Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 32.
55. Leng & Co., History and Construction, p. 37.
56. LC 303 (10); Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 25; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 35–8.
57. Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 37–8.
58. Ibid., pp. 39–40.
59. LC 303 (1A) – Patrick Matthew correspondence; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 37–8.
3. THE BRIDGE TAKES SHAPE
60. LC 303 (3); Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 16, 35–6.
61. LC 303 (10); DUA MS 30/1; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 29–30.
62. Dundee Advertiser, 26 September 1871. The articles advocating a double line were written personally by the proprietor, John Leng.
63. Reprinted in the Dundee Courier, 18 April 1872.
64. Dundee Advertiser, 22 July 1872; Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 52–3; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 25, 30–4; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 39–41.
65. Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 40–1.
66. Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 52–3.
67. LC 303 (4).
68. The method of construction was explained in a series of four public lectures given in Dundee in March 1873 by Albert Grothe. LC 303 (4); Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 54–7.
69. Dundee Advertiser, 26 June 1871.
70. LC 303 (4).
71. Leng & Co., History and Construction, p. 68; Dundee Advertiser, 27 August 1873; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 55–7.
72. Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 68–70; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 54, 59–64; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 53–4, 56–8.
73. LC 303 (5); Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 45; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 39.
74. Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 58–9.
75. Lewis, P., Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay, p. 32.
76. Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 39.
77. Ibid.; Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, p. 180.
78. Thomas,, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 48–9; see for example the testimony of Frank Beattie in defence of the Wormit foundry, and criticism of it by Henry Law, Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 180, 241ff.
79. Gilkes to Wieland, 26 May 1877, quoted in Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 58–9.
80. The Times, 7 January 1876.
81. Dundee Advertiser, 1 September 1877; Leng & Co., History and Construction, p. 73.
82. There is no record of Grant’s actual words – this comment is put into his mouth by John Prebble (op. cit., p. 52). According to the report in the Advertiser, Grant merely remarked on ‘the singularly substantial character of the work.’ Dundee Advertiser, 1 September 1877.
83. McGonagall, W., ‘The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay’.
84. Quoted in Hamilton, A., ‘The Tay Bridge Disaster’, The Times, 1 December 1979.
85. Rapley, J., op. cit., p. 129.
86. Dundee Advertiser, 25 September 1877.
87. Barlow, W.H., to Roddick, R.D., 1 October 1877, DUA MS 30/8.
88. Quoted in Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 70–1; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 63.
89. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, p. 378.
90. Leng & Co., History and Construction, pp. 90–111; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 63–4; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 77–82.
91. Select Committee on the North British Railway (Tay Bridge) Bill, 1880, p. 3; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 65; Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 84–5.
92. Prebble, J., op. cit., pp. 85–9.
93. Pattullo and Thornton Collection, Dundee City Archives. GD/TD 1 6/24, 26.
94. Committee of Inquiry, Appendix, p. xli.
95. Rapley, J., op. cit., p. 130.
96. Ibid.; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 79.
5. AFTER THE FALL
97. DUA MS 30/2 (1).
98. The Times, 29 December 1879.
99. Quoted in Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 106.
100. Dundee Courier, n.d. January 1880, LC 303.
101. For a full account of the search and diving operations, see Prebble, J., op. cit. pp. 125–37.
102. LC 303 (13, 14); Edinburgh Courant, 31 December 1880; Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 127.
103. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 38–48; Prebble, J., op. cit., p.127. There is some confusion over the name of the diver, John Cox or Fox. He appears as Cox in the Minutes of Evidence, but as Fox in all the newspaper reports.
104. Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 131.
105. Ibid, pp. 152–5.
106. Dundee Advertiser, 15 January 1880, LC 303 (14).
107. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, p. 39; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 147–50.
108. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 38–49; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 112–4.
109. LC 303 (16) p. 5; Prebble, J., op. cit., p.137.
110. Dundee City Archives, CD/TD 1/21/9.
111. Ibid., GD/TD/1/21/2, 4, 8; Prebble, J., op. cit., p. 152.
112. Unidentified newspaper, December 1880, LC 304 (1).
113. Railway Observer, November 1988, p. 549; Unidentified newspaper, March 1881, LC 303 (16) p. 27; The Times, 30 December 1880.
114. Report of Dugald Drummond to Board of NBR, 17 September 1880. BR/NBR/10/8. While the engine proved to be salvageable, the carriages were too badly damaged to be returned to service, and the wood from them was commonly made into mementoes of the disaster. A wooden knife carved from a piece of a carriage used to be on display in the Ferry Inn in Broughty Ferry (the Ferry Inn is now a tapas bar – the Sol Y Sombra – but the knife is still in the possession of the proprietors, the Stewart family). Three walking sticks made from the same material were presented to the off–duty driver, guard and fireman, who should have been travelling in the train, but missed it through overstaying their time in a local pub. Railway Magazine, October 1875, p. 515.
6. COURT OF INQUIRY
115. Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Tay Bridge Disaster, and Report of Mr Rothery, pp. 2–3; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 110.
116. Report, pp. 3–55.
117. Precognition of David Young, Thornton Collection, DUA MS 17/7/2; Precognition of James Edward, Pattullo and Thornton Collection, Dundee City Archives GD/TD/1 6/24.
118. Precognition of W.B. Thomson, Ibid., GD/TD 1 20/91.
119. Precognition of Robertson, Whitehurst, Ibid., GD/TD 1 18/81, 20/92: Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster p. 124.
120. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 57–65, 85–7, 193–4.
121. Ibid., pp. 144–52.
122. Ibid., pp. 158–80.
123. Ibid., pp. 215–25.
124. Ibid, p. 303.
125. Ibid., pp. 379–95.
126. Ibid., pp. 385–91, 391–97.
127. Ibid., pp. 398–420.
128. William Pole and Allan D. Stewart to Sir Thomas Bouch, 25 February 1880, BR/NBR/10/8.
129. Report of Committee of Inquiry, pp. 10–15.
130. Report of Mr Rothery, pp. 15–48.
7. THE REASON WHY
131. E. Dean to Board of Trade, 1 January 1880; W.E. Surtees to Rothery, 7 January 1880; E. Talbot to Lord Sandon, 30 December 1879; James Murray to Board of Trade, 10 January 1880, BR/NBR/10/8.
132. A.J. Dickson to Adam Johnstone, telegram, 14 April 1880, BR/NBR/10/9.
133. Report of Dugald Drummond to North British Railway Board, 17 September 1880, BR/NBR/10/8.
134. Houston, S., ‘Thoughts on the Tay Bridge Disaster’, DUA MS 30/1; LC 303 (13); LC 303 (16).
135. Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 199–201; Dow, D.W., ‘Destined for Disaster’, Scots Magazine, December 1989, pp. 280–82.
136. Unidentified newspaper, L C 303 (11).
137. McKean, C., Battle for the North (London, 2006), p. 5.
138. Lumley, R., The Tay Bridge Disaster – The People’s Story, p. 176.
139. Scotsman, n.d., L C 303 (11).
140. Report of James Brunlees to Adam Johnstone, 14 April 1880, BR/NBR/10/8.
141. Unidentified newspaper cutting, L C 303(12).
142. Smith, D.W., ‘Bridge Failures’, Proceedings of the Institute of Civil Engineers, August 1876, pp. 367ff.; Martin, T.J., and Macleod, I.A., ‘The Tay Bridge Disaster: a study in structural pathology’, in Forth Rail Bridge Centenary Conference, Developments in Structural Engineering, 1993, pp. 6–8.
143. William Pole and Allan D. Stewart to Sir Thomas Bouch, 25 February 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/41. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, pp. 180, 248, 249, 481, 523; Telephone interview with William Dow; according to Martin and Macleod, Tay Bridge Disaster p. 6, in the tests it was the cast-iron lugs which failed in every case but one.
144. Lewis, P.R., and Reynolds, K., ‘Forensic Engineering: a reappraisal of the Tay Bridge Disaster’, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2002, vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 287–98; Lewis, P.R., Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay, (Stroud, 2004).
145. Lewis, P.R., and Reynolds, K., ‘Forensic engineering: a reappraisal of the Tay Bridge Disaster’, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2002, vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 287–98.
146. Rapley, J., op. cit., p. 125.
147. Martin, T., and McLeod, I.A., ‘The Tay Rail Bridge disaster – a reappraisal based on modern analysis methods’, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Civil Engineering, 1995, 108, May, pp. 77–83; ‘The Tay Rail Bridge disaster revisited’, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Bridge Engineering, December 2004, 157, Issue BE4, pp. 187–192. See also Tom Martin’s Tay Bridge Disaster Web Pages, www.taybridgedisaster.co.uk.
148. Lewis, P.R., Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay (Stroud, 2004), pp. 102–3.
149. William Pole and Allan D. Stewart to Sir Thomas Bouch, 25 February 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/41.
150. Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, p. 400, (Sir) T. Bouch to Col. Yolland, 6 October 1869; Col. Yolland to Bouch, 9 October 1869.
151. Scotsman, 15 July 1880.
152. Thomas, J., The Forgotten Railways of Scotland (1976), DUA MS 30/1 (5).
153. Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 195; L C 303 (16).
154. Observations of Major–General Hutchinson, 12 July 1880. Parliamentary Papers, 1880 [c.2642] LXXX 459. Hutchinson offered a very similar excuse to the Court of Inquiry. See Committee of Inquiry, Minutes of Evidence, p. 376.
155. Minute of the Board of Trade, 15 July 1880. Parliamentary Papers, 1880 [c.2642] LXXX 459.
156. Report of the Court of Inquiry, pp. 35–6.
157. MacLeod, I.A., Martin, T., Paxton, R.A., to author, 23 March 2015.
158. Ibid.
159. George Wieland to Adam Johnstone, 14 May 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/14.
160. Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords, 2 July 1880; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, pp. 177–79.
161. The terms of Dickson’s correspondence with Yolland and Barlow were recorded in letters he wrote to Adam Johnstone on 5, 14 and 16 July 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/23, 25, 31.
162. Wieland to Johnstone, 7 July 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/26; Stirling to Johnstone, 8 July 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/27.
163. Parliamentary Debates, House of Commons, 7 July 1880; Walker to Johnstone, 8 July 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/28; Bouch to Johnstone, 14 July 1880, BR/NBR/10/10/32.
164. Earnshaw, ‘Bouch’, pp. 17–8; Dictionary of National Biography; Thomas, J., Tay Bridge Disaster, p. 193.
8. FROM THE ASHES OF THE OLD
165. Scotsman, 30 December 1879; L C 303 (12) pp. 17, 29, 31.
166. Perthshire Constitutional, 21 January 1880; Perthshire Advertiser, 21 January 1880; Dundee Advertiser, 7 May 1880.
167. Report of Select Committee into North British Railway Bill, 1880, p. x; Barlow, C., ‘The Tay Viaduct, Dundee’, pp. 87–8.
168. Barlow, ‘Tay Viaduct’, pp. 88–9; Shipway, J.S., The Tay Railway Bridge, 1889–1987 (1987), pp. 12–3.
169. Barlow, ‘Tay Viaduct’, p. 129.
170. Shipway, Tay Railway Bridge, pp. 15–6.
171. Barlow, ‘Tay Viaduct’, pp. 91–2.
172. Unidentified newspaper cutting, December 1881, L C 304 (1); Shipway, Tay Rail Bridge, pp. 30–1; 44 and 45 Vict. c. cxxxviii – An Act to provide for the restoration of the Railway communications across the Tay, near Dundee, and for other purposes.
173. Barlow, ‘Tay Viaduct’, pp. 91–2.
174. Inglis, W., ‘The construction of the Tay Viaduct’, pp. 100–2; unidentified newspaper cutting, L C 304 (1).
175. Pall Mall Gazette, 5 December 1885. L C 304 (1).
176. Barlow, ‘Tay Viaduct’, pp. 93–4; Shipway, Tay Railway Bridge, pp. 16–8; Inglis, ‘Construction’, pp. 100–15. At some point after the completion of the new bridge in 1887, the old brick piers were demolished above the water line and allowed to fall on to the river bed. Their positions were rediscovered in 1994 using sonar scanning equipment. Duck, R.W., and Dow, W.M., ‘Side-Scan Sonar reveals remains of the first Tay Bridge’, Geoarcheology, 1994, vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 139–53.
177. The Times, 26 September 1883.
178. Unidentified newspaper cutting, 2 February 1884, L C 304 (2).
179. Unidentified newspaper cutting, 17 May 1884, L C 304 (1).
180. Unidentified newspaper cutting, 5 January 1885, L C 304 (5); Dundee Advertiser, 28 September 1885.
181. Unidentified newspaper cutting, 16 June 1886, L C 304 (5).
182. Dundee Advertiser, 20 June 1887; unidentified newspaper cutting, June 1887, L C 304 (4).
183. McGonagall, W., Poetic Gems.