Railway accident at Mühlheim am Main in 1900
The railway accident in Mühlheim am Main was a rear-end collision between a passenger train and an express train between the Mühlheim am Main and Offenbach am Main stations on November 8, 1900. Twelve dead and four injured were the result.
Framework
The " Blockstelle 11" was located in the middle between the Mühlheim and Offenbach train stations, which are about 6 km apart . On November 8, 1900 there was thick fog, so visibility was poor. The D 42 Berlin– Frankfurt (Main) Hauptbahnhof consisted of a combined post / baggage car , two passenger cars and a dining car . He should pass the block at 10:17 p.m. , the following passenger train No. 238 from Hanau main station to Frankfurt at 10:31 p.m. This consisted of the locomotive and 9 passenger cars.
the accident
The express train was a little late, so that it did not arrive in Mühlheim until around 10:25 p.m. and had to wait there in front of the exit signal that showed "stop" . This covered a locomotive that was traveling empty from Mühlheim to Offenbach. This in turn was stopped at block position 11 because the block section in front of it was still occupied due to a freight train arriving in Offenbach . The express train from Mühlheim was allowed to leave Mühlheim at 10:27 p.m. because the block in front of it was now free. The signal at block position 11 again commanded “stop”, as the empty run had not yet reached Offenbach. Because of the poor visibility, the engine driver saw the signal very late, braked and only came to a stop 200 meters behind the signal. In the meantime, the block attendant had received a message that the empty run had reached Offenbach and gave the signal “Clear the journey” immediately in front of the express train. But the engine driver of the express train no longer noticed.
The block attendant noticed the passing express train and therefore released block Mühlheim – Blockstelle 11. The driver of the express train, mistakenly assuming that he had run over a signal showing "stop", brought his train to a stop and pushed it back behind the block signal. The block attendant only noticed the maneuver when the final signal of the train in front of him emerged from the fog again. He ran towards the train to warn the engine driver and to ask to drive in the direction of Offenbach behind the covering signal. But that was in vain. The visibility was still poor. The engine driver of the following passenger train No. 238 only recognized the block signal 11 showing "Halt" at the last moment, at the same time as the final signal of the express train, which was itself still reversing. The collision was no longer avoidable.
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The last car of the express train was so deformed by the impact that its doors could no longer be opened. Nevertheless, some of the travelers were able to save themselves. The gas from a burst container in the gas lighting of the express train car leaked and ignited on the fire of the driven steam locomotive . The last two cars on the express train caught fire and burned out. Four cars derailed from the passenger train that had run into it.
consequences
Twelve people died. In addition, one traveler was seriously injured and three were slightly injured.
The accident prompted us to think about more reliable train protection. It was also recognized that the closed wall construction of an express train car was much more stable and safe in the event of a rear-end collision than the walls of the traditional compartment cars, which were interrupted by external doors in each compartment. If these had been used in the express train, the number of deaths would have been higher. In addition, the accident accelerated the introduction of electric light as lighting for passenger coaches, during which time there were a number of accidents across Europe, the consequences of which were massively aggravated by igniting lighting gas.
Eleven of the dead were buried in the old cemetery in Offenbach , where a memorial for the victims was also erected.
Note
For inexplicable reasons, the accident is also listed in the literature as "happened near Hanau ". The two train stations Steinheim am Main and Mühlheim am Main were already between Hanau and the scene of the accident .
literature
- Ludwig von Stockert : Railway accidents. A contribution to railway operations theory. Vol. 1. Leipzig 1913, pp. 155 ff., No. 26; Bd. 2 Fig. 1 u. 2.
- Hans Joachim Ritzau: Railway disasters in Germany. Splinters of German history . Vol. 1: Landsberg-Pürgen 1979, p. 69.
- Ascanio Schneider u. Armin Masé: Disasters on the rails. Railway accidents, their causes and consequences . Zurich 1968, p. 70 f.
Web links
1900: Railway disaster shakes Offenbach. On the website of the city of Offenbach am Main
Remarks
-
↑ So with the
* Railway accident at Hawkes Junction, Great Britain , December 24, 1910 ( Lionel Thomas Caswell Rolt : Red for Danger . Edition: London 1978. ISBN 0-330-25555-X , p. 200 ff.),
* Railway accident at Ais Gill, Great Britain, September 1, 1913 (Rolt, p. 233 ff.),
* Quintinshill railway accident , Great Britain, May 22, 1915,
* St. Bedes Junction railway accident, Great Britain, February 1916 (Rolt, p. 213 f. ),
* Bellinzona railway accident , Switzerland , April 23, 1924,
* Charfield railway accident, Great Britain, October 23, 1928. This is said to have been the last railway accident in which leaking gas that caught fire worsened the consequences of the accident.
Individual evidence
- ^ Stockert: Railway accidents .
- ^ Ritzau: Railway disasters .
- ^ Stockert: Railway accidents ; Ritzau: Railway disasters .
- ^ Stockert: Railway accidents ; Ritzau: Railway disasters .
- ^ Stockert: Railway accidents .
- ^ So in addition to the literature mentioned below: Erwin Rückriegel: Railway accident on November 14, 1900 near Hanau and its consequences for those involved . In: Grindaha [Zeitschrift des Geschichtsverein Gründau] 15 (2005), pp. 13-16 (16); Martin Weltner: Railway disasters. Serious train accidents and their causes. Munich 2008. ISBN 978-3-7654-7096-7 , p. 14.
Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 44 " N , 8 ° 48 ′ 37.3" E