Castlecary disaster death-toll of 35

THE total death-roll in the Castlecary railway disaster is 35 - 29 men and six women. All the victims have now been identified, the riddle of the identity of an elderly woman passenger having been solved late on Saturday night. The body was that of an American woman, Mrs Annabella M’Leod Brown or Ritchie, who had been on holiday in this country with relatives in Fife.

The disaster, which shocked the country, involved, as already reported, the 4.3 pm express passenger train from Edinburgh Waverley on Friday and the 2 pm express passenger train from Dundee - both proceeding to Queen Street, Glasgow. In a blinding snowstorm the Edinburgh express, travelling at a high rate of speed, crashed into the rear of the Dundee train, which had come to a standstill immediately to the west of the station.

On Saturday morning, as reported in The Scotsman, it was known that 24 people had lost their lives, and the other bodies were recovered from the wreckage during the day. It was not until nearly 20 hours after the collision that the last body was extricated. The victim was a Glasgow man, James Duncan Fyfe, whose son had waited at the scene of the accident all through the night.

One Glasgow man who was taken to the Western Infirmary succumbed.

Of the large number of injured removed by ambulance to Glasgow infirmaries, early 20 were still detained yesterday. The conditions of John Shanks, a soldier resident in Glasgow is reported to be serious. He is in the Royal Infirmary.

Three other injured are still detained in Falkirk Infirmary.