Castlecary – Train Memorial
Situated off Castlecary Road and inside Castecary’s Memorial Garden is a monument to one of the UK’s worst train crashes.
The Castlecary rail disaster occurred during a freezing snowstorm on the night of December 10th 1937, causing the deaths of 35 people and injuring 179 others. The accident happened when an Edinburgh to Glasgow express ploughed into a stationary train just west of the village.
An inquiry found that a signalling error led the driver of the express to believe the line was clear. The train from Edinburgh Waverley was travelling at high speed in a blizzard. Both the express and the other train, which departed from Dundee, were bound for Glasgow’s Queen Street Station. The Dundee train was running late and had stopped at signals outside Castlecary Station when the express train collided with the stationary carriages.
Castlecary Community Council created the memorial in 2007 It is made from railway sleepers, pieces of track and a wheel from a piece of rolling stock.
