Tay Bridge disaster warned of their unreliability, and declined to estimate conditions at Dundee from readings taken elsewhere. One modern interpretation of available information suggests winds were gusting to . Usage of the bridge was restricted to one train at a time by a signalling block system using a baton as a token. At 7:13 p.m. a train from the south (consisting of a 4-4-0 locomotive, its tender, five passenger carriages, and a luggage van (brake van) slowed to pick up the baton from the signal cabin at the south end of the bridge, then headed out onto the bridge, picking up speed.
The Tay Bridge Disaster by far the most famous ever written by McGonagall, and is still widely quoted. It begins: And it ends: William McGonagall wrote two other poems about the Tay bridges. The first one, written before the disaster about the first bridge, begins as follows: The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay: And it ends: After the original bridge collapsed, a new one was built, providing the opportunity for another poem, which begins: An Address to the New Tay Bridge The Tay Bridge Disaster "The Tay Bridge Disaster" is a poem written in 1880 by the Scottish poet William McGonagall, who has