Ottersberg railway accident

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the Ottersberg railway accident on December 30, 1906 , an express train drove into a freight train at Ottersberg station , Kingdom of Prussia (today: Lower Saxony ) . Eight people died.

Starting position

The express freight train No. 5010, which mainly transported cattle for slaughter , was traveling in a south-westerly direction on the Hamburg – Osnabrück railway line . At Ottersberg station he was supposed to go to a siding so that the next night express train D 96 from Hamburg to Cologne could overtake him. The express train was very busy and was pulled by two steam locomotives. They were followed by a rail mail and a baggage car . In the rail mail car, 14 post officials were busy sorting the mail . The rail mail car also carried a large amount of money and securities that were due to be traded on the stock exchanges in London , Antwerp , Brussels and Paris by the end of the year . Their value was estimated at ten to twenty million marks . It was very cold, visibility was poor and there was thick fog in large parts of Germany when the express train approached Ottersberg station through the valley of the Wümme .

The entrance switch to the siding at signal box 1 was frozen, it was not possible to drive there from the direction of Hamburg. The dispatcher then gave instructions to pull the freight train on the through siding to the other end of the station and from there to push it back into the siding. In order to be able to carry out this shunting run safely, the entrance signal of the Ottersberg train station in the direction of Hamburg showed "Halt" and the corresponding distant signal "Expect halt". In addition, the exit signal from Ottersberg station in the direction of Cologne was on "Halt". The freight train, thus secured, carried out the shunting drive.

the accident

The driver of the leader of the express train overlooked all the signals and drove at an undiminished, high speed. He died in the following accident so that he could no longer be questioned. The engine driver of the second locomotive did not notice the signals either and then stated that he had been disoriented by the poor visibility and no longer knew where he was on the line. The express train passed through Ottersberg station and hit the freight train, which had not yet been fully pushed into the siding, on the flank at around 1 a.m.

consequences

Eight people died and 20 were seriously injured. Most of the victims were post office workers who had worked in the rail mail cars. The injured were initially cared for in local inns and then taken to the St. Georg Hospital in Hamburg. Among these injured were two fraudsters sought by the Hamburg criminal police who were on the run with loot of 200,000 marks. They were arrested by the police while they were still in the hospital. About 70 animals from the freight train were killed immediately. The numerous injured animals were emergency slaughtered by local butchers. The meat was auctioned off at the scene of the accident .

Both locomotives, the baggage car and the rail mail car were completely destroyed, and almost all other cars on the express train were damaged. Some of them had pushed one another. The rubble began to burn, including that of the rail mail car. The transported securities and part of the mail were also burned. A blocking period was imposed on the destroyed securities, after which they were reissued. Aid trains from Hamburg, Kiel and Bremen were used for the rescue work.

literature

  • Rainer Pöttker: Night express train races against cattle wagons . In: Achimer Kreisblatt dated December 30, 2016.
  • Bernhard Püschel: Historical railway disasters. A chronicle of accidents from 1840 to 1926 . Freiburg 1977. ISBN 3-88255-838-5

Remarks

  1. ↑ On the same night the luxury train L53, the Vienna-Ostend-Express , ran into a freight train near Kalscheuren because the engine driver ran over a signal indicating “stop” because of the fog. However, the consequences of the accident were less (Püschel, p. 76).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Püschel, p. 75.
  2. ↑ Püschel, p. 75.
  3. ^ Pöttker: Night express train .
  4. ^ Pöttker: Night express train ; Püschel, p. 75.
  5. ↑ Püschel, p. 76.
  6. ^ Pöttker: Night express train ; Püschel, p. 75.
  7. ^ Pöttker: Night express train .
  8. ^ Pöttker: Night express train .

Coordinates: 53 ° 5 '48.2 "  N , 9 ° 7' 50.9"  E