Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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WIKIPEDIA
27 JULY 1840

ARDROSSAN PIER RAILWAY STATION

Ardrossan (Winton) Pier railway station was opened.

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GLASGOW HERALD
27 JULY 1895

CAMPING OF A. AND G. A. V. AT ARDROSSAN

About 200 members of the 1st Ayrshire and Galloway Artillery Volunteers are expected to go under canvas today at the Cannon Hill.

The weather is not very promising, rain having fallen all day yesterday.

The Company will attend a divine service tomorrow in the Established Church.

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GLASGOW HERALD
27 JULY 1894

DEATH OF THE DEPUTY HARBOURMASTER

Yesterday morning Mr. Charles Adair, deputy harbourmaster, died at his residence, Harbour Place, Ardrossan, in his 69th year. He had been complaining for some months prior to his death, but it was not until comparatively recently his indisposition assumed a serious aspect.

Mr. Adair was born at Irvine, and came to Ardrossan nearly forty years ago. He was first employed as a pilot, but twenty years ago he was appointed deputy harbourmaster, a post which he continued to fill till shortly before his death.

He was a man of the most obliging disposition, and enjoyed the esteem of his employers, traders to the port, and the general public.

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GLASGOW HERALD
27 JULY 1895

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT ARDROSSAN

Lieutenant-Colonel Yorke reports to the Board of Trade on the collision that occurred on the 10th of June at the Harbour Station at Ardrossan, on the Caledonian Railway.

Forty-six passengers are reported to have complained of minor injuries, but only three of these were unable to proceed to Belfast.

The report says: -

“This collision was undoubtedly due to the fact that the driver, THOMAS DICK, failed to reduce the speed of his train sufficiently when he was approaching the harbour station, in consequence of which it was necessary for him to apply his Westinghouse brake with full force when he approached the incline of 1 in 250, which commences 330 yards from the stops. The sudden application of the brake, combined with the speed, caused the wheels of the train to skid, with the result that the retarding influence of the brake was diminished, and the driver having lost all control over the train, it glided down the incline into the buffer stops.

This collision draws attention once more to the question as to whether the continuous brake or the hand-brake should be used for stopping trains in terminal stations.”

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GLASGOW HERALD
28 JULY 1899

ARDROSSAN BURGH ASSESSMENTS

The Commissioners have agreed to impose the following rates of assessment for the year: - Burgh general assessment, 1s per £1 – same as last year; roads assessment, 2½d per £1 – same as last year; public health assessments – for general purposes, including provision of new hospital, 4½d per £1; for sewage scheme, 2d per £1. Gas and water rates remain as before.

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GLASGOW HERALD
28 JULY 1890

ARDROSSAN ARTILLERY

The fifth battery of the 1st Ayr and Galloway Artillery Volunteers completed their annual competition for the Major’s Plate and a silver badge at their range on the Inches. The competition lasted for three nights in succession, and concluded on Saturday afternoon.

Conditions – seven rounds each; distance 300 yards.

The following are the three highest scores:-

Gunner Cuthbert (this year’s recruit), 78;
Bombardier Price, 77; and
Sergeant-Major Anderson, 76.

Gunner Cuthbert was declared the winner by one shot.

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GLASGOW HERALD
28 JULY 1896

A WILD YOUTH

At Ardrossan Burgh Court yesterday, JOHN ROONEY, labourer, pleaded guilty to a charge of having behaved in a drunken, disorderly, and riotous manner in Harbour Street, Ardrossan, on Saturday night.

The Fiscal stated that the accused had been very violent. Asked his age, John said that he was sixteen past. He was let off with a severe admonition and a modified fine of 5s.

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GLASGOW HERALD
28 JULY 1899

MAN JUMPS FROM A WINDOW

Yesterday afternoon a man named ROBERT LEASK caused something of a sensation by jumping over the window of his house in Harbour Place, Ardrossan. Leask resides on the second flat.

He appeared on the window sill, called out, “Here goes,” and leaped to the street below.

He was picked up with one of his legs broken and his head cut. He was removed to hospital.

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GLASGOW HERALD
29 JULY 1892

MARRIAGE

ANDERSON – BECKETT: At the New parish Church, Ardrossan, on the 28th instant, by the Rev. David Strong, D.D., Glasgow, assisted by the Rev. John McCall, minister of the parish, William Anderson, writer, son of Robert Anderson, Esquire, Wilton Bank House, Glasgow, to Jessie, second daughter of Hugh Beckett, Esquire, 7 Windsor Terrace, West Glasgow.

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GLASGOW HERALD
29 JULY 1890

FATAL RESULT OF AN ACCIDENT

The lad named H. McKenzie, who recently met with an accident at Ardrossan docks, where he had his fingers taken off in a crane, died of lockjaw on Saturday night.

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GLASGOW HERALD
30 JULY 1891

BIRTH

McKERRACHER: At 10 Seton Street, Ardrossan, on the 28th instant, the wife of James McKerracher; a daughter.

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GLASGOW HERALD
30 JULY 1895

Dear Sir,

ARDROSSAN RAILWAY ACCIDENT

Colonel Yorke’s report to the Board of Trade of the collision which occurred to the Irish boat train at Ardrossan Harbour Station, on the Caledonian Railway, on June 10 was issued on 26th instant, and a summary appeared in your issue of 27 July.

The Colonel says that the collision was undoubtedly due to the fact that the driver failed to reduce the speed sufficiently on approaching the station, in consequence of which it was necessary to apply the Westinghouse brake with full force. This caused the wheels to skid, and all control over the train was lost.

Although it is a rule that the speed on approaching the harbour station should not exceed four miles an hour, the evidence showed that it was upward of 12. Two other rules are quoted, after which comes the outstanding statement that he must place more reliance on the statements of the guard and assistant stationmaster as to the speed at which the train was running than on the statement of the driver.

In conclusion, he blames the driver for being the sole cause of the accident. Further, he says that the remedy for such accidents is an instruction that the hand-brake only be used as a general rule for stopping trains in such situations, thus leaving the air-brake available for any emergency.

In the first place, I take exception to his statement as to placing more reliance on the statements of the guard and assistant stationmaster than on the driver, as such a conclusion is altogether illogical.

Any practical railway man knows that a driver has 50 per cent more experience in judging the rate of the speed at which a train is travelling than either a guard or a stationmaster, and I am really surprised that the Colonel should have made such an error of judgment on this occasion.

We now come to the cause of the accident. The Colonel says it was too high a rate of speed. Just so! But the question naturally arises, who is to blame for trains being run at this excessive speed? Certainly not the drivers! The real delinquents are the managers of the various railway companies who try to run the swiftest trains to and from the coast. In consequence of this undue competition drivers are compelled to run the trains to time; and woe betide the man that fails to do so, as it won’t be long until he hears of his fault. If he loses a single minute on the journey he is sharply called in question, and the officials are not in the least afraid to tell him that if he can’t run the train to time they will very soon find a man who can.

Under the circumstances is it to be wondered at the drivers running these trains into terminal stations at a higher rate of speed than the rules allow? Not very likely! These men have attained their present position by years of faithful service to the companies, and you can’t very well blame them for running a little risk to maintain it. I contend that the primary cause of this class of accidents is the time allowed drivers to run the journey, and in this contention I am backed up by the evidence of the men in charge of the trains in question, who maintain that, despite the excessive speed at which it is alleged the driver was running, he failed to make up one single second on the journey from Eglinton Street Station to the harbour, thus conclusively proving that it requires a higher rate of speed to run the trains to time than is altogether safe. It is rather strange that on this – the main point – The Colonel is entirely silent. His formula for the prevention of this class of accidents is equally faulty. The real remedy for accidents of this kind is for the managers of the various railway companies to agree to give the drivers two or three minutes more time to run the journey, and thus do away with the necessity for drivers having to run into stations at excessive speed in order to maintain time. Unless the railway officials spontaneously agree to adopt this suggestion, or are compelled to do so by the Board of Trade in the interests of public safety, we will always have the danger facing us of a recurrence of such accidents as this.

I am &c.,
John G. Muir,
Organising Secretary, Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants.