A Quiet Death (24 page)

Bouch survived only four months after the report destroyed him. His melancholia advanced into madness and when he died on 1 November the Tay Bridge disaster had claimed its last victim.

One of the chief characters however had a surprising resurrection. Engine 4-4-0 No 224 was not permitted to end her days a rusting wreck, a constant memento of Dundee's greatest tragedy. She was gathered together, repaired, refitted and put back into service, where she remained for another forty-five years. Not without reason, she was known as 'The Diver'.

The high girders too were lifted from the river bed. Sold as scrap to a company of locomotive engineers in England and made into railway engines, each bore a small plate recording the origin of its metal. Many continued into the twentieth century.

The last word must go to William McGonagall, for Inspector Faro was right in his predictions. Long forgotten as a tragedian, dubbed by posterity 'Scotland's Worst Poet', he is remembered for his 'Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay'.

Good Heavens! The Tay Bridge is blown

down,

And a passenger train from Edinburgh,

Which filled all the people's hearts with

sorrow,

And made them to turn pale

Because none of the passengers was saved to

tell the tale

How the disaster happened on the last

Sabbath day of 1879

Which will be remembered for a very long

time.

It must have been an awful sight

To witness in the dusky moonlight,

While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry

did bray

Along the Railway Bridge of the Silvery

Tay,

I must now conclude my lay

By telling the world fearlessly, without the

least dismay,

That your central girders would not have

given way,

At least many sensible men do say,

Had they been supported on each side with

buttresses,

At least many sensible men confesses,

For the stronger we our houses do build,

The less chance we have of being killed.

###

There are fifteen titles in the Inspector Faro series available from bookstores and on www.amazon.co.uk. Available on Kindle:

Enter Second Murderer

Bloodline

Deadly Beloved

Killing Cousins

A Quiet Death

To Kill A Queen

Also available on Kindle in the Rose McQuinn series:

The Inspector’s Daughter

Dangerous Pursuits

An Orkney Murder

Connect with Alanna online:

Author's homepage:
http://www.alannaknight.com