Tay Bridge Disaster

One hundred and thirty-five years after the event, the Tay Bridge Disaster remains the single most catastrophic collapse of a British engineering structure. The fateful day in 1879 shood Britain and the world of engineeering to their core and sent a nation into mourning for the seventy-five souls lost to the dark, freezing waters of the Tay River. Here Lumley give the collapse a much wider perspective than the event of one night by delving into the lives of those lost to the disaster, both passengers and railway workers, against a background of a wider Scottish history. Packed full of personal tales and with more technical appendices for those that wish to further their technical knowledge, Tay Bridge Disaster is a must read for anyone interested in this poignant event of Scottish and British history.

Auteur

ROBIN LUMLEY is best known as a record producer and keyboardist member of bands with Phil Collins, David Bowie and Roy Wood, amongst many others. However, he has long been an avid railway and military history fan, as well as a railway modeller who has contributed regularly to magazines on that subject in the UK and Australia. This is his first full-length book, inspired by the fact that his great-grandfather missed being on the ill-fated train by a hair's breadth.

Résumé
On Sunday, 28 December 1879, the 5.27 mail and passenger train from Burntisland to Dundee went out across the world's longest bridge on a black, fierce night, only to be dashed to pieces in the River Tay as the bridge collapsed during one of the worst storms in Scottish history. The Tay Bridge Disaster remains to this day the worst catastrophic failure of a civil engineering structure in Britain the land equivalent of the Titanic sinking. In this book, author Robin Lumley brings a poignant human perspective to the fateful night in 1879 that shook Britain and the world of engineering to their core and sent a nation into mourning for the seventy-five souls lost to the dark, freezing waters of the River Tay. Packed full of personal tales and offering technical appendices for those who wish to further their specialised knowledge, Tay Bridge Disaster: The People's Story is a must-read for anyone interested in this tragic event in Scottish and British history.