Railway accident in the Heiligenberg tunnel
The railway accident at the Heiligenberg Tunnel was a railway accident at the Heiligenberg Tunnel on the Mannheim – Saarbrücken railway line that occurred on June 28, 1988 and in which a person was killed.
Starting position
Heavy rains caused stones to fall from the southern retaining wall of the eastern tunnel entrance onto the tracks .
the accident
A freight train pulled by locomotive 140 633 drove east through the tunnel. The driver noticed the break from a distance of 150 meters. Although he braked the train, he was unable to prevent the locomotive and three cars from derailing when it hit the obstacle at 75 km / h.
At about the same time, an express train with locomotive 110 104 was running in the opposite direction . Its engine driver noticed a voltage drop in the overhead line and incorrectly attributed it to a lightning strike. A short time later, he collided with the derailed freight locomotive that protruded into its clearance profile . The locomotive of the express train derailed in the direction of the northern retaining wall. After 120 and 130 meters, the trains came to a stop. The tracks and walls in the tunnel were severely damaged.
consequences
One passenger was killed, ten seriously and 28 slightly injured.
The route between Kaiserslautern and Hochspeyer was completely closed for 56 hours after the accident. The trains of the Alsenztalbahn branching off in Hochspeyer , which were always tied through to Kaiserslautern, ran during this time on the Kaiserslautern – Enkenbach railway line , which had been closed for passenger traffic a year earlier. The rerouting of trains on the Mannheim – Saarbrücken main line was more complex. Some were routed from Saarbrücken via the Nahe Valley Railway , others via the Landau – Rohrbach railway line . The trains with electric locomotives that went to Kaiserslautern were given a diesel locomotive there and also drove to Enkenbach station to make heads. They were then taken over the Alsenz Valley Railway to Hochspeyer station, since the connecting curve in the direction of Mannheim could not be used. After another change of direction, they drove further east.
The two damaged locomotives and a UIC-X car that was also damaged were initially parked for some time in the nearby Hochspeyer station. A few months later, the locomotives were dismantled on site.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines for passenger trains in Germany. 1980-1990 . transpress, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-71073-0 , p. 408 .