Wayland Railway Accident
In the Wayland railway accident on August 30, 1943 , a long-distance train and a freight train collided in Wayland , New York , USA . 27 people died.
Starting position
The accident occurred on a route on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). The Lackawanna Limited long-distance train was en route from New York City via Buffalo to Chicago that afternoon . In Wayland, a freight train pulled by a steam locomotive had been waiting an hour for its onward journey to New York. At DL&W there was a regulation that every movement of the freight train 10 minutes before or after the scheduled arrival time of an express train could only be carried out with a written order .
the accident
The locomotive driver of the freight train was verbally asked to pull his train forward a little towards the exit point of the station. He misunderstood the order and thought it was the long-awaited shutdown order. He ran over the exit switch and set off with his train on the track. This triggered a warning that was also sent to the engine driver of Lackawanna Limited , who was traveling at almost 130 km / h. He immediately triggered an emergency brake , but the train could no longer stop in front of the collision point. He was still traveling about 80 km / h when the head-on collision occurred. Several passenger cars were destroyed.
consequences
27 people died and 114 were injured. Some of the accident victims were scalded by the steam and water escaping from the damaged locomotive of the freight train.
See also
literature
- Paul Giometti: The Wreck of the Lackawanna Limited at Wayland, New York on August 30, 1943 . Ed .: The Painted Hills Genealogy Society.
- NN: 23 The one in Collision on Lackawanna; Limited Derailed . In: The New York Times, August 31, 1943.
- Peter WB Semmens: Disasters on the rails. A worldwide documentation. Transpress, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-344-71030-3 .