Empelde railway accident

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The Empelde railway accident was the flank journey of a freight train into another on March 20, 1985 in Empelde . Both were transporting combustibles.

Starting position

The Hanover – Altenbeken railway line has two tracks in the accident area . A connecting curve from the bypass line for freight trains, which bypasses Hanover Central Station to the south, joins it at route kilometers 20.9 / 9.8, the Empelde junction .

The coal train Gdg 57 461, hauled by the electric locomotive 140 459 , was on its way from Marl-Sinsen to Hameln . He drove 19  self-unloading cars loaded with anthracite coal . The gag 76085, a train of 20  tank wagons loaded with around 1000 cubic meters of premium and regular gasoline , was pulled by the 150 079 electric locomotive. He was on the way from the main Hamburg port station Hohe Schaar to Kulmbach .

the accident

The coal train coming from the freight bypass was given a "stop" by a signal that secured the main line from leaving the entry curve. The locomotive driver , however, mixed up the signals, wrongly referred to the tank car train's signal showing "Drive free" and ran over the signal showing "Stop". This immediately triggered an emergency brake on the train. In the absence of a protective switch and sufficient slip path , the train stopped in the switch area , where the tank-wagon train running parallel to the main line towards Hameln immediately entered it.

consequences

Two of the tank cars were torn open in the collision, their contents, 110,000 liters of gasoline, partially leaked, and the car behind the locomotive immediately caught fire. The leaking gasoline caused an explosion with a column of fire about 200 m high. The overhead line was also torn down over a length of 300 meters. The leaking gasoline burned over a length of approx. 200 meters with flames approx. 20 meters high. Ten other tank wagons were in the immediate danger zone, were heated up considerably and there was an acute risk of explosion. The fire department pumped large quantities of water from a nearby lake and from a cistern to cool the tank wagons. Six of the coal-laden wagons as well as the buildings and inventory of surrounding properties also caught fire. Numerous buses were parked directly on the tracks on one property, around 30 gas bottles were also stored directly at the scene of the accident and a heating oil tank with a capacity of around 15,000 liters was also nearby. 39 people had to be evacuated from three multi-storey residential buildings directly at the scene of the accident. The leaking gasoline also spread at high speed in the ditches and canals accompanying the embankment, in the gravel and in the sewer system.

270 firefighters from the Benthe , Empelde , Ihme-Roloven , Linderte , Ronnenberg , Vörie , Weetzen volunteer fire brigades and the Hanover professional fire brigade were on duty. They fought the fire for twelve hours. They received a lot of praise for their commitment, including from the then Federal Transport Minister Werner Dollinger .

Situation in 2015. The coal train came from behind on the left.

As a result of the accident, the signal locations at the Empelde junction were changed. As a result, when driving from Hanover-Linden Hafen to Empelde, the signal for the route is always to the right of the signal for the Hanover-Linden to Empelde route.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany. 8th edition, Vlg. Schweers + Wall, o. O. 2011. ISBN 978-3-89494-140-6 , p. 122
  2. ↑ Markus H.

Coordinates: 52 ° 20 ′ 42.1 ″  N , 9 ° 40 ′ 26 ″  E