Buir railway accident

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In the railway accident at Buir on August 25, 1929 at around 8 a.m., the D 23 on his journey from Paris Gare du Nord to Warsaw in a switch at the Buir station on the Cologne – Aachen railway line , when he passed it at far excessive speed in a branching position.

Starting position

In the summer of 1929, all railway bridges on the Cologne – Aachen line were reinforced so that trains with a higher axle load could run. To do this, the superstructure had to be completely removed so that the superstructures of the bridges could be reinforced with steel girders. Because of the heavy traffic on the route , the work could only be carried out on Sundays. For each bridge, the track in one direction was blocked on the first Sunday and the track in the other direction on the next Sunday. Train traffic was maintained in the blocked direction by driving on the opposite track . The construction site was a "moving construction site", so that the operational conditions were constantly changing. The switches connecting the tracks in Buir station were in the branching line for a maximum speed of 50 km / h designed. Until shortly before the D 23, the change to the left track was only made at the Buir station exit. Since the construction site had moved in the meantime, the eastern station exit had to be included in the construction site area. On this day, the train was not supposed to run on platform 1 through the Buir station - as was otherwise planned - but instead switch to the opposite track at the western entrance to the station with a speed limit of 40 km / h.

The D 23 ran with 13 four-axle cars; it was hauled by the 01 034 locomotive, which was only two years old at the time of the accident .

the accident

The dispatchers and inspectors of the station Düren was on leave. A station personnel clerk worked as his deputy that day. The telegraph operator was also a representative who usually worked in a signal box. Before the D 23 entered Düren, the telegraph operator copied the precautionary order for the last express train that left, which only contained the instruction to travel at a construction site between Buir and Sindorf at only 30 km / h. For the D 23 was the first train to have new operating instructions. This contained the order that when entering the station in Buir from the direction of Düren, the opposite track should be driven into.

The dispatcher acting on his behalf signed an incorrect order and handed it over to the train driver , who passed it on to the engine driver.

The engine driver did not expect the platform to change until the station exit on the east side of the Buir station. Because the train was also late, it drove past the approach signal at the highest permitted speed. At that time, pre-signals did not yet have a special display for "slow travel to be expected", but simply showed "travel free to be expected" in the relevant case. A wing of the entrance signal of the Buir station was covered for seconds by the railing of a bridge for the driving engine driver. It had indicated the required, lower speed, but the engine driver recognized this too late. When he notice the signal status and asked to turn soft, he immediately initiated an emergency braking one. However, he could no longer brake the train sufficiently, drove into the switch at almost 90 kilometers per hour and derailed. The locomotive overturned sideways, eight wagons derailed and partially nested, some shot past the machine , three buried themselves in an embankment. The last five cars stayed on the track.

Most of the wagons still had wooden car bodies and offered little protection to travelers.

consequences

16 travelers were killed, 13 of whom died directly in the accident. 43 people were seriously injured and around 60 were slightly injured. Since the technical equipment of the helpers and the means of communication were very simple at the time, the rescue and relief work was sometimes chaotic and with great difficulty.

The dead were first buried in the Buir cemetery. However, within half a year they were all exhumed and transferred to their hometowns.

As a result of the accident, the registers of temporary speed limits (La) and three-aspect warning signals (display for “slow speed to be expected” possible) were introduced. The way the signals are set up has been changed in Buir station.

The accident locomotive 01 034, which was only about two years old, was repaired and was in service until 1964.

After almost a year, the D23 engine driver and the responsible employee at Düren station were tried in the summer of 1930. The train driver was acquitted, the station employee was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment on probation. Given the severity of the accident and the case law at the time, this was a comparatively mild judgment.

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Ritzau: Shadow of the railway history - catastrophes of the German railways . 1993. ISBN 3-921304-86-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the top left photo here : There is such a distant signal in front of the signal box.
  2. ↑ steam locomotive 01 034. Albert Gieseler, accessed on April 5, 2019 .
  3. ^ Report in the Kölner Stadtanzeiger from August 29, 2009.

Coordinates: 50 ° 51 ′ 40.7 ″  N , 6 ° 34 ′ 17 ″  E