Weesp railway accident
In the railway accident of Weesp derailed at a Dammrutschung on 13 September 1918. Weesp in the Netherlands a train . 41 people were killed.
Starting position
The train 102 was en route from Amersfoort to Amsterdam . It consisted of a front part of the train that came from Zwolle and a rear part from Enschede . In Hilversum he had received a reinforcement car. The train carried a total of 11 carriages , pulled by a steam locomotive of the type HSM 520. Behind the Weesp station , the railway line that the train traveled crosses the Merwede Canal on a bridge. The driveway to the bridge leads over a dam . It had been raining heavily for days.
the accident
The rain meant that the structurally neglected embankment was heavily softened. Water from the also soggy dam of the Merwede Canal also pressed into the embankment. In addition, the subsoil contained layers of clay that prevented the surface water from seeping into the subsoil and draining off. All this had caused the water table in the embankment to rise above the level of the surrounding area. The vibration of the softened railway embankment by the train moving over it caused the embankment to give way under the train at 10:25 am for a length of 95 meters and slide to the side.
The locomotive of the train had reached at that moment the bridge. The train, sinking behind her, derailed her. They caught together with the Tender into the steel superstructure of the bridge and therefore fell not from. The following baggage car came to a stop at the bridgehead , the three following passenger cars slipped along with the embankment and wedged into one another. The wooden superstructures splintered. Another baggage car and a rail mail car from the end of the train also ended up in the rubble. Most people died here, while the following wagons derailed but remained on the track.
consequences
41 people died and 42 others were injured. Until the railway accident at Harmelen in 1962, this was the most serious railway accident in the Netherlands. Only travelers were the victims. All of the train crew survived unharmed.
The dispatcher in Weesp managed to stop a train in the opposite direction in time before he drove into the scene of the accident. The first rescue train reached the scene of the accident around 11:40 a.m. By then, local helpers had already given first aid . The injured were driven to the Amsterdam Muiderpoort train station in Amsterdam Muiderpoort train station and from there to the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis hospital . Two barges on the Merwede Canal were stopped and brought injured people to Amsterdam. The majority of the dead were also transported this way.
The line was put back into operation six days after the accident - initially at the scene of the accident at a maximum speed of 5 km / h. The complete repair of the embankment and the line lasted until December 2, 1918.
literature
- Op de Rails 1968/10, p. 223. ISSN 0030-3321
- RT Jongerius: Spoorwegongevallen in Nederland 1839-1993 . Haarlem, 1993. ISBN 90-6097-341-0 .
- Ludwig Stockert : Railway accidents (new episode) - Another contribution to railway operations theory . Berlin 1920, no.225.
Web links
- Onder de streep . In: Algemeen Handelsblad v. September 19, 1918, p. 5.
- Ook in 1918 trampoline at Weesp . In: Nieuwsblad van het Noorden v. June 19, 1953, p. 2.
- Spoorwegongeval Weesp 1918 . In: nicospilt.com (photos, timetable, newspaper clippings)
- Photos of the scene of the accident
Coordinates: 52 ° 19 '27.5 " N , 5 ° 1' 6.4" E