Railway accident at Gårdsjö

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The railway accident at Gårdsjö occurred on the night of June 28-29, 1945 at 1:30 a.m. in Gårdsjö (today Gullspång municipality , Västra Götalands län ) in Sweden .

the accident

On the night of June 28-29, 1945 at around 1:30 a.m., night express train 14 coming from Hallsberg from the south hit the end of freight train 4716 at Gårdsjö station in the northern part of the station .

In the collision, the locomotive of the express train and two bogie cars were thrown from the track over the embankment . Two more passenger coaches were pushed into one another and the last four coaches of the freight train were destroyed. The driver of the express locomotive and three passengers were killed, while eleven others were seriously injured. The material damage was put at 400,000 crowns .

Cause of accident

Freight train 4716 was on its way north and had stopped in Gårdsjö because a hot warehouse had caused a fire on a wagon. The fire was extinguished and the car turned off. The train, which had been rearranged, was ready to leave on through track III.

Just as the train manufacturer and dispatcher was about to let the train depart, the train conductor called from Falköping and said that express train 14 was to overtake freight train 4716 in Gårdsjö.

The dispatcher pointed out that it was difficult to carry out the overhaul due to the lack of tracks. In the station there was another freight train on overtaking track IV with train 4046, which should follow express train 14 according to the timetable. In Falköping, they insisted that the overhaul be carried out as quickly as possible and ordered the dispatcher to carry out the order.

For example, the dispatcher had freight train 4716 leave platform III on the actual entry track from Finnerödja (in the opposite direction, from the north). This entry track formed the extension of track II. However, track II had no switch connection to the exit track to Finnerödja and could therefore not be used for the overtaking process by the express train. This measure made track III free for the overtaking process. After the overhaul, freight train 4716 should push back onto track III.

After track III was free, the dispatcher set the entry signal for the express train coming from the south to "free travel". When the express train was at the level of the signal box in which the dispatcher was staying, he set the entry signal of the express train to "stop", contrary to the existing orders, and cleared the route even though the train had not yet left it.

Then he left the signal box to go into the station building. After a few steps, however, he turned around and switched the last switch in the disbanded route so that the freight train 4716 could push back to track III. This enabled him to steer the express train, which was traveling through the station at 90 km / h, onto the freight train standing in the entry track.

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