Escaped freight train from Wiesau

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The escaped freight train from Wiesau was a railway disruption , in which on August 22, 2019, a freight train almost unbraked in the train station in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate passed a signal indicating a "stop" and rolled over a distance of almost 70 km on the subsequent downward gradient without it came to an accident .

Starting position

The train was assembled from 19 carriages at Cheb station in the Czech Republic , had wood loaded and weighed 1900 tons . Was biased a diesel locomotive type Vossloh G 1700-2 BB . The train journey was carried out by the railway company K-Rail . The locomotive turned out to be defective when approaching the German / Czech border.

After the train switched to the German railway network at Schirnding , it operated under the number DGS 45392. Due to the defect in the locomotive, the train stopped at Schirnding station . Here he received as biasing a diesel locomotive of the type Siemens ER20 , the G 1700 remained in front of the train and ran behind the leading locomotive with. The main air line, via which the compressed air can be discharged from the locomotive, with which the brakes of the following vehicles apply, was not connected when the additional locomotive was pre-tensioned. The prescribed brake test was not carried out or was carried out incorrectly, as the following malfunction would otherwise have been revealed here.

Either the leading locomotive filled the air brake system with the required pressure via the main air reservoir line or the compressed air pump of the G 1700, so that the brakes on the freight wagons were released and the train could continue. Both drivers were on the front, working locomotive. As far as Pechbrunn (already on the Weiden – Oberkotzau railway line ) the journey was uphill and without any problems. Behind Pechbrunn ( km 41.4 - at a height of 556 m) the route changes to a gradient that continues until after Schwandorf (height 359 m).

breakdown

According to the timetable , the train should stop at Wiesau / Oberpfalz station. However, the brakes could no longer be operated from the leading locomotive and the train ran over a signal indicating "stop" at around 4:45 p.m. The driver reported the brake failure to the dispatcher in Wiesau, who notified his colleagues along the route and triggered the alarm.

All dispatchers along the route then cleared the continuous main track and adjusted the route of the escaped freight train to it. This prevented the train from derailing in a deflecting switch . The level crossings affected were secured by the federal police and emergency management of DB Netz AG , because at the speed the train reached, it was not ensured that between the automatic triggering of the warning for the crossing road traffic and the time at which the train reached a level crossing , there was enough time to clear it.

The train reached a top speed of 102 km / h. It finally came to a halt at around 6:00 p.m. between the Nabburg and Schwarzenfeld (Oberpf) stations , at about 54.2 km of the Regensburg – Weiden railway line . The train had traveled about 66 km since the braking problem occurred in Wiesau / Upper Palatinate.

consequences

Since there was neither personal injury nor property damage, the Federal Bureau of Railway Accident Investigation decided not to investigate the incident and released the train at 18:37. The train was then brought to Irrenlohe station at 6:42 p.m. at a maximum speed of 5 km / h , where it arrived at 8:25 p.m., put on a siding and examined there by the railway companies involved. The federal police investigated dangerous interference in rail traffic . The two locomotive drivers were dismissed by K-Train without notice.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Since the Federal Agency for Railway Accident Investigation decided not to conduct an investigation, a number of individual issues relating to the incident have remained unresolved.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h The unbraked freight train in the Upper Palatinate and the German accident investigation . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 1/2020, p. 50.
  2. ↑ a b Freight train rolls almost 100 kilometers through Bavaria without braking . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 10/2019, p. 540.
  3. ↑ a b Andreas Glas: Why a freight train drove almost unbraked through the Upper Palatinate , Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 28, 2019.
  4. ^ The unbraked freight train in the Upper Palatinate and the German accident investigation . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 1/2020, p. 52.

Coordinates: 49 ° 39 ′ 51.5 ″  N , 12 ° 9 ′ 6.6 ″  E