Railway accident in Vonwil
When railway accident in Vonwil today Stadtquartier St. Otmar in the city of St. Gallen , derailed on December 31, 1879 at 11.10 pm from Winterthur coming train the United Swiss Railways (VSB).
Starting position
Train 9, which left Winterthur at 8.15 a.m., had to wait in Uzwil because the Eb 2/5 27 “Calanda” locomotive developed too little steam to overcome the subsequent incline. The Ed 4/4 64 "Silvretta" sent to Uzwil from St. Gallen came to the rescue as a leader locomotive. In the meantime, however, the “Calanda” locomotive had developed enough steam again that it could have hauled the train on its own. The train now consisted of the two steam locomotives , the 1233 freight car , the 941 two-axle baggage car , and six four-axle passenger cars and another freight car at the end of the train.
Before the derailment, several trains ran through the accident site, the last one at 9.50 a.m. by train 4.
the accident
At kilometer 81.5 in Vonwil, 1.2 km west of the St. Gallen train station , the leader locomotive “Silvretta” derailed. It was rotated completely around its vertical axis, tipped over and came to rest on the right in the railway ditch. The locomotive "Calanda" also derailed, but remained upright and bored into the left bank of the incision . The following three wagons crashed into each other and climbed onto each other with buffers and platforms.
consequences
The train driver who stepped from the baggage car onto the platform of the front passenger car at the moment of the derailment was killed. A corner of the baggage cart crushed the front wall of the passenger car, killing one traveler and injuring five. Two prisoners trapped in the baggage car and the staff of the “Calanda” locomotive got away with the horror. In contrast, the driver and the stoker of the leader locomotive “Silvretta” were injured. The heater suffered burns from the escaping steam.
The damage to the two locomotives was less than initially feared - they could be repaired.
Cause of accident
The derailment was caused by two track subsidence in quick succession, which apparently occurred in the thaw after a prolonged period of frost. The leader locomotive "Silvretta" was approved for a top speed of 45 km / h. Both locomotives were equipped with a speedometer . The evaluation of the registration strips showed that the train passed the scene of the accident at a speed of 47 km / h.
After the accident, there was a notable polemic in the specialist press . The mechanical engineer of the Nordostbahn (NOB), Heinrich Maey, attacked the VSB and its machine master Adolf Klose .
literature
- The railway accident in Vonwil near St. Gallen on December 31, 1879. (PDF 1.6 MB) Die Eisenbahn = Le chemin de fer, Volume 12 (1880), Issue 3, pp. 16-17 , accessed on February 1, 2014 .
- Association news: Zurich Engineers and Architects Association. (PDF 1.6 MB) Lecture by mechanical engineer Maey about the railway accident in Vonwil near St. Gallen. Die Eisenbahn = Le chemin de fer, Volume 12 (1880), Issue 7, pp. 41–42 , accessed on February 1, 2014 .
- Adolf Klose: Association news: Zurich engineers and architects association. (PDF 2.3 MB) On the railway accident in Vonwil. Die Eisenbahn = Le chemin de fer, Volume 12 (1880), Issue 9, pp. 52–54 , accessed on February 1, 2014 .
- Heinrich Maey: Association news: Zürcherischer Ingenieur- und Architecten-Verein. (PDF 1.7 MB) On the railway accident in Vonwil. Die Eisenbahn = Le chemin de fer, Volume 12 (1880), Issue 12, pp. 71-72 , accessed on February 1, 2014 .
- Anton Heer: Rorschach-St.Gallen-Winterthur: between 170 years of railway history and the future. (PDF 14.2 MB) Historical Association of the Canton of St.Gallen, 2005, accessed on February 1, 2014 .
Coordinates: 47 ° 25 '1.6 " N , 9 ° 21' 40.4" E ; CH1903: seven hundred and forty-five thousand and seventy-four / 253587