Hommelvik railway accident
In the Hommelvik railway accident , two trains collided near Hommelvik , Trøndelag Province , Norway on November 19, 1940. 22 people died.
Starting position
The accident occurred during the German occupation of Norway in World War II . Railway operations ran under the conditions of the blackout . On the day of the accident it was hazy and there was blowing snow.
The train 2453 from Trondheim was pulled by the steam locomotive 31b 419 . Ten passenger cars ran behind the locomotive and were occupied by around 500 people. Most of them were workers who wanted to come from Trondheim to the construction site of Trondheim Airport in Værnes. The train weight was 427 tons, the train was braked with suction air . He arrived in Hommelvik at 7:40 a.m. about ten minutes late.
In the opposite direction the railcar Cmb 14c 18240 was on the way as train 2456 from Kopperå to Trondheim. The four-axle sidecar CFo3a 67 ran behind the railcar. The train, with a train weight of 44 tons and around 50 passengers, left Kopperå at 6:18 am and was supposed to reach Trondheim at 8:49 am.
At Hommelvik station on the single- track Trondheim – Storlien line , the delayed train 2453 was waiting for the railcar from the opposite direction to make the crossing . Dispatcher Øystein R. Nordtømme verbally issued the exit order to Oberzugführer Jakob Brevik of train 2453 as soon as train 2456 had entered. The platoon leader had evidently repeated the order. There was also an order from the occupying forces not to delay journeys unnecessarily, since the expansion of the airport was to be carried out with the highest priority because an attack by the Russians was expected.
The station and the train were completely darkened. No light penetrated from the windows of the cars, only the headlights of the locomotive exposed a horizontal light gap measuring 7 × 1 centimeters.
the accident
However, train driver Brevik assumed that due to the delay of his train, the multiple unit train would already be on track 3 and gave the order to depart. The dispatcher was of the opinion that the train would slowly pull up to the signal and wait there for the opposite train to arrive. When the switchman Rolf Bye reported that the train had left the station at increasing speed, the Nordtømme dispatcher tried to contact Nygården by phone. He received no connection there, so he tried Muruvik to stop the return train there. However, it had already passed there. So Nordtømme could no longer avert the coming disaster, only announce it. Immediately after he called the district chief's office in Trondheim, the trains crashed. Engine driver Oskar Solberg from train 2453 saw the counter train about 250 meters before the collision, but his emergency braking could not prevent the collision at km 25.1 from Trondheim at 8:03 a.m. The accident site was at the end of a right curve with a radius of 323 m into a longer straight.
consequences
Train 2453 collided head-on with the multiple unit train. The steam locomotive pushed the railcar, which was completely destroyed, 70 meters back in the original direction of travel. The sidecar was destroyed beyond the first bogie. The rescue train, which left Trondheim at 9.25 a.m., reached the scene of the accident at 10:05 a.m., the first ambulance vehicles followed at 10:42 a.m. Three doctors with helpers recovered the seriously injured and had them brought to Trondheim. Eighteen people could only be rescued dead, four more died of their injuries.
As a result, 22 people died and around 45 were injured.
Cleanup
After the people had been rescued, 20 workshop workers who arrived by bus at 11.35 a.m. began cleaning up. All drivable cars were brought to Hommelvik station by 4.30 p.m. and a special train to Trondheim on November 20 at around 3 a.m. The sidecar was pushed into the siding of the impregnation plant in Nygården at around 11:30 p.m., the partially destroyed derailed locomotive was put on the rails at around 6 a.m. and was also brought into the siding. The approximately 90 meters of track were then repaired and train operations resumed that morning.
In the official accident report, the material damage was estimated at 200,000 crowns .
Final report
In the final report of the Reich Commissioner , the complete blackout was found to be the cause of the accident. If the station had been lit normally and the locomotive headlights had not been darkened, the early exit would probably not have occurred, or if it had, then the train driver would have seen the oncoming railcar better after the curve on the straight stretch and would have been able to brake earlier.
Six railway employees were suspended from duty due to the accident, Oberzugführer Jakob Brevik was demoted to shunting and, according to the documents, was labeled a "scapegoat" by the German occupation forces. He got his position as Oberzugführer back shortly before the end of the war.
literature
- Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 , p. 105.
- Arild S. Sommerset: Hommelvik-ulykken . In: På Sporet 32 (1982), pp. 32-35.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Sando
- ↑ Sommerset p. 32
- ↑ Semmens
- ↑ Semmens, Sando
- ↑ Arlid S. Sommerset: Hommelvik-ulykken 19 November 1940. In: På Sporet. Norsk Jernbaneklubb, Oslo / Lillehammer, 1982, pp. 32, 32–35 , accessed on December 13, 2016 (Norwegian, ISSN 0801-1729 ).
Coordinates: 63 ° 25 ′ 23.7 " N , 10 ° 48 ′ 19.2" E