Nashville Railway Accident

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The destroyed trains after the head-on collision near Nashville

The railway accident in Nashville (Great Train Wreck of 1918) was a head-on collision of two trains on July 9, 1918 in Nashville , Tennessee . It was the worst accident in the history of the US railroad . 101 people were killed and 171 injured.

Starting position

The route of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad was initially double-tracked for 16 km west of Nashville before continuing as a single-track route from the Shops Junction depot .

Train No. 4 on this route left Union Station from Nashville for Memphis at 7:07 am local time . The train carried two baggage cars and six wooden passenger coaches .

Train No. 1 was expected from the opposite direction. He led a luggage cart, six wooden coaches and two Pullman - sleeper in steel construction.

According to the schedule, the trains should have met in the double-track section. However, train no. 1 was about 35 minutes late that day. In the event of a delay on this train, it was planned that the staff of train No. 4 would watch whether the opposing train was passing and, at the end of the double-track section, wait for the train to pass from the opposite direction if they did not meet the opposing train on the double-track section was. In addition, the operating regulations stipulated that the engine driver had to check the journal of the switchboard shop Junction to make sure that train no. 1 had passed.

the accident

The staff of train 4 held a shunting run of empty wagons on the opposite track for train no. 1. When train no. 4 reached Shops Junction , the railroad worker in the signal box that secured this point released the entry into the single-track section with a signal . The train driver decided not to stop and check the signal box's diary to see whether train no. 1 had actually left the single-track section. When writing the train in the signal box log, the signalman noticed that train no. 1 had not yet been recorded. He reported the mistake to the dispatcher , who telegraphed back to trigger an emergency signal. The emergency siren was no longer heard by train no.

The trains collided head-on shortly after 7.15 a.m. It was subsequently estimated that both trains were traveling at around 90 km / h each. Both trains derailed and a number of the wooden wagons were smashed.

consequences

According to the Interstate Commerce Commission , which officially investigated the accident, 101 travelers were killed and 171 injured in the accident . Many of the victims were African Americans driving to work at a gunpowder factory outside Nashville (the accident occurred before the end of World War I ).

About 50,000 people came to the scene of the accident that day to help rescuing survivors, to look for relatives or to watch.

The Interstate Commerce Commission found that

  • both the locomotive crew of train no. 4 and the signal box employee had failed to make sure that the correct position of train no. 1 was on the route;
  • the railway administration had tolerated this lax application of the safety rules;
  • the train protection system is inadequate because, in addition to the records of the staff, it does not provide for the independent determination of where a train is on the line;
  • the wooden wagons are a construction that has increased the number of deaths considerably.

This was another accident that showed the danger to passengers and staff from the use of the (outdated) wooden passenger coaches.

Trivia

See also

literature

  • Mike Kilen: That Mournful Sound . In: The Tennessean v. July 5, 1998.
  • NN: N. & C. Wreck Near Nashville Takes Toll of Dead and Hurt . In: Nashville Banner v. July 9, 1918.
  • Dain L. Schult: Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis - The Dixie Line . TLC Publishing 2001.
  • E. Thomas Wood: Nashville now and then: Off the rails . In: NashvillePost v. July 6, 2007.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Francke, Marburg 2018. ISBN 978-3-86827-707-4

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wood.
  2. ↑ David Allan Coe - I've Got Something To Say at Discogs (English)

Coordinates: 36 ° 7 ′ 41.2 ″  N , 86 ° 50 ′ 54.6 ″  W.