Railway accident at the Porta Westfalica
The railway accident at Porta Westfalica occurred on 20 January 1944, when the DMW 103 from Aachen to Berlin east of the station on the 300 mt Porta (since 1984: Porta Westfalica ) have come to hold D 3 from Cologne ascended to Berlin.
Starting position
The two fully occupied trains were express trains , the DmW 103 was an express train with a Wehrmacht part . They should run every 11 minutes according to the schedule . At around 6 p.m., they had left Bielefeld in the direction of Hanover within the space distance possible due to the block . However, both trains were considerably delayed. The timetable did not include a stop at Porta station . At 6:38 p.m. the D 3 passed the entrance signal for the station. There was then but emergency brake pulled and thus an emergency brake causes. Who pulled the emergency brake and why it happened could never be explained. The train came to a stop north of the station exit at the Großer Kurfürst hotel.
the accident
The dispatcher at Porta station should have waited until the D 3 was beyond the station exit signal before allowing the next train to enter the station. But that's exactly what he didn't do. While he was still trying to get an overview, the following DmW was reported to him. Without thinking, he set the entrance signal to "Drive" and thus cleared the entrance to the station for the next train. As a result, the DmW 103 hit the stationary D 3 at 6:51 p.m. The locomotive , baggage car and five passenger cars of the impacting DmW 103 and the last two cars of the stopped D 3 were thrown into the air, some of the cars caught fire.
consequences
79 people died as a result of the accident. There were 64 survivors, some seriously injured. A car buried a small house under itself.
The reason for the accident was thus human error, whereby the irregularities caused by the war and the high level of stress in rail operations also had an influence. On that day there had been several air raids between Bad Oeynhausen and Bückeburg . The dispatcher said he was confused by the constant wailing of the alarm sirens.
literature
- GR: 79 dead in Porta station In: Eisenbahngeschichte 25 (December 2007 / January 2008), p. 46 (with photo).
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 50.7 " N , 8 ° 55 ′ 22.7" E