Silberhausen railway accident

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the railway accident in Silberhausen on December 16, 1920, a train of the Silberhausen – Hüpstedt Kleinbahn got out of control, ran over the buffer stop at the Silberhausen terminus and fell from the embankment . 17 people died.

Starting position

The Silberhausen – Hüpstedt small railway was mainly used to transport potash salt from a mine in Hüpstedt . In Silberhausen it had a connection to the Gotha – Leinefelde railway line . It had a gradient of 7 km towards Silberhausen, the incline of which was up to 20 ‰.

Train No. 5 of the Obereichsfelder Kleinbahn from Hüpstedt to Silberhausen, starting at 5:10 p.m., was a mixed train . That day he drove a mixed baggage car and seated car , another 3rd class passenger car , both of which ran behind the C -coupled tank locomotive . The train ended - contrary to the regulations - 19 fully loaded freight cars with potash. The train did not have a continuous brake line, but was to be braked by five brakes .

the accident

As soon as they were approaching Beberstedt , the locomotive crew noticed that the cable that the engine driver could use to instruct the brakemen to brake was not working. Why the brakes didn't intervene on their own has never been clarified. The engine driver let off the alarm whistle and gestured to those waiting on the platform in Beberstedt as the train passed through the stop . The local travel agent alerted the Silberhausen dispatcher by phone . He had the points set in such a way that the train was directed to the approximately 1 km long pull-out track of the station and closed all barriers for paths that crossed the train's route. The train entered the station at around 17:37 at around 70 km / h, whereby the wheels of the locomotive blocked, meaning that the weight of the potash wagons pushed it in front of them. This reduced the speed of the train on the pull-out track to around 50 km / h. Locomotive and train staff as well as some passengers jumped off before the train reached the end of the track and fell more than 20 meters into the depth, the locomotive first, then the passenger cars and everything buried the potash cars on top.

consequences

Seventeen travelers who stayed on the train died, and nine more - mostly those who jumped off - were injured.

This was one of the most serious accidents on small trains in Germany. The circumstances of the brake failure were never resolved. There were considerable contradictions between the accident report of the Kleinbahn and eyewitness reports, but these were not clarified.

literature

  • Hans Joachim Ritzau: Railway disasters in Germany. Splinters of German history . Vol. 1: Landsberg-Pürgen 1979, p. 109 f.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ So: Ritzau: Eisenbahn-Katastrophen , p. 110; Schmalzl: Kleinbahnzug , reports 14 to 19 deaths.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ritzau: Eisenbahn-Katastrophen , p. 109.
  2. ↑ Schmalzl: Kleinbahnzug .
  3. ^ Ritzau: Eisenbahn-Katastrophen , p. 109.
  4. ↑ Schmalzl: Kleinbahnzug .
  5. ↑ Schmalzl: Kleinbahnzug .
  6. ^ Ritzau: Eisenbahn-Katastrophen , p. 109.
  7. ↑ Schmalzl: Kleinbahnzug .
  8. ↑ Schmalzl: Kleinbahnzug .


Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 51 ″  N , 10 ° 21 ′ 9.3 ″  E