Kettle crack in Meiningen
The boiler crash in Meiningen was a boiler explosion in which eleven people were killed and a steam locomotive was destroyed on May 4, 1951 in the Reichsbahn repair shop (Raw) Meiningen , making it one of the most serious accidents of this kind.
Starting position
The steam locomotive 95 6679 , built in 1921, originally came from the Halberstadt-Blankenburg Railway (HBE) and was named ELCH there . At the Deutsche Reichsbahn it was classified in the class 95.66. The boiler was designed for an operating pressure of 14 atm .
The locomotive was brought to the Meiningen raw material on March 15, 1951 because it was due for an intermediate inspection L2 after it had been overhauled in 1949.
After the work was completed, a test drive took place on April 30th, then the fire was extinguished again and the locomotive was parked for May Day . It was then planned to carry out the final inspection of the locomotive and then to transfer it to Berlin . To do this, the locomotive was heated up again in stand 3 of the heating house . During the final acceptance, the employee dispatched from Berlin found that the boiler pressure gauge was not working. He then refused the acceptance.
the accident
The responsible master then instructed specialists of the Raw Meiningen, a valve adjuster and fittings workshop to fix the problem. However, since the pressure gauge was not a standard device, additional specialists had to be called in. There was only one mobile test manometer in the Raw, but it was being used elsewhere. With this the boiler pressure could have been monitored in the meantime. Then it was time for lunch. The locomotive's boiler continued to be heated due to insufficient coordination. Without that being able to be checked - the manometer wasn't working - the boiler pressure rose to 20 atü.
The weakest part of a Stephenson tubular kettle is the rear kettle made up of a standing kettle and a fire box . For structural reasons, it deviates from the cylinder shape, which is favorable for a pressure vessel. That is why the standing kettle is connected to the fire box with non-threaded stud bolts . As a result of the overload, the stud bolts were removed and the standing boiler and fire box walls were torn open. The associated pressure loss led to the sudden re-evaporation of the boiler water. As a result , the boiler exploded at 1.30 p.m., the long and rear boilers were torn from the frame and the smoke chamber and thrown around 100 meters through the roof. The kettle flew over the Raw's company kindergarten , hit Ernststrasse and was thrown into the green space in front of the state hospital .
consequences
Eleven people died, including a passer-by on the adjacent street, five others were seriously injured and six were slightly injured. 23 children lost their fathers. The heating house was largely destroyed. The property damage amounted to 360,000 marks .
The Thuringian Minister for Economics and Labor, Herbert Strampfer , rushed to the scene of the accident and said help, as did the Transport Minister of the GDR, Hans Reingruber , at the funeral service. Since this aid started very slowly, the employees of the Raw and Meiningen citizens resorted to self-help and opened a donation account to which around 50,000 marks were paid by the end of 1952, with which the families of the killed were supported. The state apparatus and party mistrusted this self-help, which they interpreted as a criticism of the political structures, and prohibited it.
The state apparatus and party saw the cause of the accident in a lack of political awareness or even sabotage . Objectively, it was more likely a combination of lack of material and negligence. The criminal proceedings before the district court in Meiningen , which took place about nine months later , only partially clarified the situation; the state apparatus and the party tended to attempt a show trial . Some of the defendants received sentences of up to eight years, which were later reduced or suspended, while others were acquitted.
literature
- NN: Meiningen - a legend in transition . In: EisenbahnGeschichte 63 (2014), pp. 28–37 (30). [With photo of the destroyed locomotive]
Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 53.2 " N , 10 ° 25 ′ 11" E