Avalanche accident near Wassen

Gotthard line near Wassen
54.4 Belt fasteners 738  m above sea level M. 55.6 Häggeribach tunnel (92 m) 57.5           Muhrentunnel (53 m) 55.8-57.3       Pfaffensprungtunnel (spiral tunnel, 1476 m) 59.2 Mill tunnel (88 m) 64.3-65.3           Leggistein tunnel (spiral tunnel, 1090 m) 64.1           Beam hole tunnel (40 m) 65.4 / 63.6 / 59.3 Upper / Middle / Lower Meienreuss Bridge (54/122/60 m) 65.5                     Maienkreuz tunnel (78 m) 59.4-59.7 Kirchberg Tunnel (384 m) 62.95         4th avalanche (around 3:30 p.m.) 66.2 / 62.9           Upper / Middle Entigtal Gallery (102 / then 50 m) 62.88         3rd avalanche (approx. 3:05 p.m.) 62.8           Water 928  m above sea level M. 66.5                     Kellerbach Bridge (61 m) 66.5                     Rohrbach Bridge (61 m) 62.0-62.2       Rohrbach tunnel (230 m) 61.9 / 60.7 Upper / Lower Wattinger Bridge (45/40 m, over Reuss ) 60.7-61.2  Wattingentunnel (spiral tunnel 1084 m) 67.0-68.6            Naxberg tunnel (1570 m) 70.2                     Göschenerreuss bridge (53 m) 70.5                     Göschenen 1106  m above sea level M.
Middle Entigtal gallery after the avalanches on February 15, 1888

Middle Entigtal gallery: cross section at km 62.91

Breakthrough point of the 4th avalanche at km 62.95: cross section

Snow removal train at the upper Entigtal gallery, consisting of a snow plow , pushed by a D 4/4 with attached covered freight wagons as material and personnel wagons .

The avalanche accident near Wassen occurred on February 15, 1888 near Wassen in the canton of Uri in Switzerland . Six employees of the Gotthard Railway Company (GB) who were employed in the middle Entigtal gallery were buried. Five railway workers could only be recovered dead.

Starting position

After extensive snowfall, on February 15, 1888 at 11 a.m., a dust avalanche broke out from Diederberg on the right side of the valley . It swept over the protective forest below the breakpoint and pushed in several windows in the village of Wassen on the opposite side of the valley . The lower railway line at Wassen, which was about 1.5 meters high covered with snow and fir branches, was exposed again in a short time, so that railway operations could be resumed after a short time.

Two basic avalanches that started at 9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on the left side of the valley in the Entigtal had no impact on rail operations. Shortly after 3 p.m., an avalanche of dust broke out in the Entigtal valley and reached the southern mouth of the middle Entigtal gallery - deflected by the air from the north wind towards the south - where the railway line was covered about two meters high in the southern preliminary cut. The air pressure generated by the avalanche brought snow into the gallery and covered the track. Six railway workers who were busy cleaning the tracks and switches in the Wassen station then went to the gallery to clean the track of snow.

the accident

While the railway workers were still busy in the gallery, another, much larger avalanche of dust broke out around 3:30 p.m. and fell at the north portal of the gallery. The enormous air pressure penetrating the gallery from the north threw the workers to the ground and showered them with avalanche snow. The subsequent large masses of snow not only covered the approximately 100-meter-long, northern pre-cut of the gallery at a height of 5 to 10 meters, but were also pressed into the protective gallery that was 50 meters long at the time.

Rescue and Evacuation

The rescue of those buried was immediately initiated. Because of the snowfall with north winds that continued until the morning of February 16, the avalanche danger remained tense, so that the snow removal work could only be tackled from the south. The work was limited to the excavation of those buried. A worker near the south end of the gallery was rescued unharmed. The other buried people could only be rescued dead.

At daybreak, a snow plow was used to clear the lower line, which was partially covered with more than a meter of snow, as far as the Wassen station and the interrupted telegraph connection was restored. From the Wassen and Göschenen stations , a train each consisting of two to three open freight cars transported 2800 cubic meters of snow and dropped it at the nearest larger bridges into the Reuss and Meienreuss . A boulder of over a cubic meter in size lying in a layer of snow 8 meters high had to be blown up before it was removed.

On the afternoon of February 17th, the train service could be resumed. Among the travelers who were involuntarily held back in Lucerne and Göschenen were the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Baden , who traveled on to Sanremo on the night express train on the same day .

consequences

The middle Entigtal gallery was extended on both sides to protect the railway from dust avalanches. It has been 185 meters long since then.

literature

• The avalanche falls near Wassen on the Gotthard Railway in February 1888. (PDF 3.4 MB) Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Volume 11 (1888), Issue 8, pp. 50–53 , accessed on July 18, 2014 . 

Coordinates: 46 ° 42 ′ 29.3 "  N , 8 ° 36 ′ 35.3"  E ; CH1903:  six hundred and eighty-nine thousand five hundred and fifty-six  /  one hundred seventy-three thousand six hundred fifty-nine