Railway accident in Wädenswil

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the railway accident in Wädenswil, the first four cars were partially pushed into one another upon impact.

When railway accident Wädenswil ran over on February 22, 1948 Station Wädenswil a ski train of excessive speed after a faulty operation locomotive by the train driver to buffer . 22 people died.

Starting position

A “ski train” from Sattel to Zurich main station ran as a special train for skiers in the late afternoon. The scheduled departure from Sattel was scheduled for 4:49 p.m. The prescribed brake test was carried out before departure and did not reveal any abnormalities. The locomotive was the Ce 6/8 II with the road number 14269. This was followed by nine two- and three-axle passenger cars of the older SBB design. The locomotive was manned twice by an SBB locomotive driver and the operations manager of the Swiss Southeast Railway (SOB) as a companion for the SOB section of the line.

The train traveled via Rothenthurm and Biberbrugg . Before Wädenswil, the route Einsiedeln-Wädenswil on a strong gradient of up to 50 ‰. This makes it one of the steepest standard gauge adhesion routes in Europe. In the last section of the route there was a speed limit of 35 km / h. In the station Wädenswil stood for driveways from the direction of Einsiedeln only the passage of tracks 1 and 2 are available, as well as a railway siding , which had a dual function: it served both as a siding a fruit and wine-growing cooperative, the other as a protection switch for runaway cars from the Steilstrecke from Einsiedeln. Its switch could only be set in the direction of the drive-through tracks if a corresponding track was free.

the accident

When the engine driver wanted to brake the train on the slope behind Saturdayern , he initially intended to use the engine brake . Instead of setting the gearshift to “brake”, however, he accidentally set it to “drive”, which meant that whenever he thought he was braking, he actually gave the traction motors additional thrust. In the course of further events, neither he nor the head of the SOB noticed this misalignment. Rather, they assumed a brake failure. As the train accelerated more and more instead of braking, the engine driver switched on the air brake . But their power was not enough to counter the effect of the engines of the powerful freight locomotive too much. The train was approaching the Wädenswil station at far excessive speed. The passage through the Burghalden train station already took place against signals showing "Halt". The train driver signaled to the dispatcher there with a hand signal that an emergency was pending and continuously drew attention to the emergency situation with whistling signals. The head of operations at the SOB has meanwhile switched to the first car in order to also apply the handbrake there , after having already done so on both cabs of the locomotive.

The Ce 6/8 II locomotive smashed part of the administration and operations building of the fruit and wine cooperative. She was recovered from the rubble of the collapsed building four days after the accident and taken away.

At Wädenswil station, through tracks 1 and 2, which could be used from the direction of Einsiedeln, were already occupied by two other, heavily occupied trains. The safety switch was therefore in the direction of the siding. When the emergency report from Burghalden reached the dispatcher in Wädenswil, he had no choice but to risk the sports train crossing the buffer stop. Under the circumstances, this was the alternative that led to the expectation of the least possible damage.

The train hit the buffer stop at around 60 km / h, smashed half of the administrative and operational building of the fruit and wine cooperative behind it and came to a halt there. The first and third car slid over the second.

consequences

22 people, 21 according to other sources, died and at least 32 were seriously injured. A total of 131 people are said to have been injured. The head of the SOB was also killed. He was crushed between the locomotive and the first car. The locomotive driver survived, mainly because he was protected by the long front end of the Ce 6/8 , the genus was also nicknamed " Crocodile ".

The administration and operations building of the fruit and wine cooperative, which was badly damaged at the time, is now the Seeresidenz condominium .

swell

Primary sources
literature
  • Karl Oftinger: Legal opinion on civil liability for the consequences of the railway accident in Wädenswil on February 22, 1948 . 1948.
  • Ascanio Schneider u. Armin Masé: Disasters on the rails. Railway accidents, their causes and consequences . Zurich 1968, pp. 122–127.
Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of the city of Wädenswil ; Archival documents.
  2. ↑ Schneider / Masé, p. 126; SBB Historic ( Memento of the original dated November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / eisenbahninfos.jimdo.com
  3. ↑ Schneider / Masé, p. 126 speak of 40 injured.
  4. ↑ Archive documents speak of 32 injured.
  5. ^ NN: From the fruit and wine cooperative .

Coordinates: 47 ° 13 '39.8 "  N , 8 ° 40' 34.1"  E ; CH1903:  693719  /  231494