Scene of unparalleled catastrophe

It was the worst rail disaster in the city's history and left 28 people dead and many more injured.

The noise of the crash reverberated across the city.

Doctors were fetched and people flocked to help the rescue operation.

The ladies waiting room on platform four became a morgue (and remained so for a week), other waiting rooms were turned into first aid rooms where medics assessed the injured and Salisbury Infirmary coped as casualties were helped from the wreckage and given into its care.

"As day dawned on Sunday," noted the Salisbury Times, "Salisbury was the scene of an unparalleled catastrophe."

The cause of the crash remains something of an enigma the enquiry into it was inconclusive and theories advanced over the years are no more than that theories.

This Sunday, almost one hundred years to the day, an extraordinary memorial service to commemorate those who died will take place on platform one led by Railway Mission chaplain Maxine Morgan.

Those who attend will be given a brief outline of the sequence of events that unfolded shortly after 2am that morning.

What is beyond dispute is that 43 passengers, mostly Americans, disembarked from the transatlantic liner SS New York and boarded the ocean express at Plymouth.

Also aboard was the driver William Robins and fireman Arthur Gadd, a guard, two waiters and a ticket collector.

It was common practice for the more affluent transatlantic passengers to take the boat train from Plymouth the first point of landfall in this country to London, thus gaining a day over those who sailed on to Southampton and Portsmouth and made the journey from there.

Great Western also ran trains from Plymouth carrying transatlantic mail and it was not uncommon for the trains to race along two different routes with the passengers betting on the outcome.

However, there was no evidence that this was the case in this instance, but the boat train sped through Salisbury station at around 2am, travelling at such a speed that it left the rails immediately afterwards on the sharp curve at the eastern end of the platforms and careered along on its side for about 100 yards, catching the rear carriages of the London to Yeovil milk train.

Immediately afterwards, it smashed into a goods train standing at the station.

Robins and Gadd died instantly and 24 passenger lives were lost from the boat train.

The milk train's guard and the fireman aboard the goods train were also killed.

Sunday's service has been organised by Jeremy Moody, who has carried out extensive research into the crash and, with the help of local historian George Fleming, is trying to piece together the sequence of events that led up the disaster and what followed in its aftermath.

George says: "No one knows why Robins took the train through Salisbury at such speed.

"Both he and the fireman were experienced, both knew about the curve and the speed restriction.

"The train passed through Wilton at about 70mph, which is fine but somewhere between Wilton and Salisbury he should have cut off the steam and started the braking process bringing the speed down to 35mph.

"For some reason, Robins went past Salisbury West at 60mph and hadn't a cat's chance of slowing down."

Perhaps, George speculates, Robins suffered a heart attack, a stroke or a momentary lapse of concentration after nine and a half hours on duty, but no post mortem ever took place to establish a possible cause with the driver.

Jeremy is familiar to many as Frogg Moody, the creative force behind cult musical Yours Truly Jack The Ripper and, more recently, Daughter Of Destiny, a concept musical about a young Salisbury woman, Eileen O'Leary, who lost her life on the Titanic.

He and George formed the Salisbury Timezone Group in 2004 to research and bring to life incidents in the city's social history and it was while researching Daughter Of Destiny that he first heard of the disaster.

Eileen's father, Richard O'Leary, was an inveterate letter writer and had written to the Salisbury Times, praising the bravery of Sydney Chick.

Chick was a fireman aboard a goods train that was standing at what is now platform six at the time of the crash.

The complicated layout at Salisbury station had given rise to a speed restriction of 30mph through the station, but eye witnesses, including Salisbury station inspector John Spicer, reported that the boat train was going much faster than that The express failed to take the sharp curve immediately on its exit from the station, wrecked its way along the milk train passing through the station and immediately smashed into the goods train, which was stationary at platform six with its steam up.

Chick and the goods train driver Joseph Mortimer were badly scalded, but both refused medical treatment and stretchers in favour of others and made their own way down to the infirmary.

"Chick was far more badly scalded that Mortimer," says George.

"Basically, he was a dead man walking most of his skin came off with his clothes and he died at 1pm that day.

"But his bravery prompted a lot of reaction from the Americans and from staff at the hospital because this man who was severely burnt was prepared to step aside for others."

In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Salisbury people rushed to the area.

Jeremy has spent long hours trawling through the newspaper reports that appeared in the national press and the Salisbury papers.

The disaster also made headlines in the New York Herald and other American papers.

Much of what was reported forms the basis of a book that he and George have written which is subtitled Voices From The Boat Train.

Jeremy says: "There was some heart-rending accounts, some very brave.

"Postal workers were crawling into the wreckage which was fearfully dangerous because of the risk of exploding gas and a fire.

"Bill Abbott, who was carriage inspector of Salisbury yard, knew how the lighting worked and crawled in turning off the gas and oil reservoirs to prevent the risk of fire." By daybreak, the area was swarming with gawpers and newspaper reporters.

"A terrible sight was to note the crushed limbs or heads, the torn clothing and blood-spattered garments," wrote one reporter.

One carriage reportedly went over Fisherton Bridge and a passenger was flung out and the body found in shrubbery below the bridge.

The reporter wrote: "Pathetic indeed was another scene enacted a few minutes after my arrival.

"For God's sake, save him. I will give anything if only you will rescue him' was the agonised cry of a young lady, Mrs Cossett, who was on her honeymoon tour.

"But a few moments before, she had been observed talking lovingly to her husband, and soon, whilst she herself was free, the one she held so dear to her was pinioned down and, alas he had sustained such injuries that she is now a widow prostrated with grief."

Mayor of Salisbury Fred Baker telegrammed the American ambassador expressing Salisbury's regret at the loss of so much American life, and American president Teddy Roosevelt responded with a letter of thanks to Salisbury Infirmary, where the casualties received treatment.

Jeremy added: "It is always important to remember disasters such as the one that happened at Salisbury train station in July 1906.

"We believe that this memorial service is a fitting way of remembering and showing our respect."