photo: Wikimedia Commons / Public domain/Train catastrophe, 1895, France
In 1895, a passenger train in Paris lost control, crashed through a station, and ended up hanging over the square. Thanks to the quick reaction of the brakeman, a much larger tragedy was averted. The sole victim was the wife of a newsstand owner, who was buried under falling debris.
It was October 22, 1895, when train No. 721, led by a locomotive, arrived on one of the tracks at Montparnasse station in France. The train was pulling one postal and three baggage cars, along with ten passenger coaches carrying 131 passengers, including Albert Christophe, the head of the powerful bank Crédit Foncier, along with his family. Having fallen behind schedule at Versailles, the engineer, Guillaume-Marie Pellerin, decided to speed up before stopping at Montparnasse to make up for lost time.
Read more
Beacon and Siemens Mobility have signed a major framework agreement for the delivery of Vectron multi-system locomotives, with an initial contract…
From this moment, a chain of unfortunate events began to unfold. The train’s Westinghouse brakes were not in good condition, so the train did not slow down as expected. The engineer alerted the conductor, but unfortunately, the conductor was busy filling out paperwork and did not react in time. The last person to receive the warning was the brakeman at the back of the train, who managed to pull the handbrake just in time, miraculously preventing a greater disaster by partially slowing the train.
In the seconds before the crash, the train crew in the front managed to jump to the platform. Thanks to the brakeman’s actions, the train had slowed to around 30 km/h but still did not stop. It continued along the track, which was slightly elevated, ending several meters above street level. The impact smashed through windows, and the train burst through the station wall, bringing down electric wires and stopping all the station’s clocks at 4:00 PM, according to 100+1.
"A passenger train was pulled by a locomotive that seemed to disregard the efforts of its engineer, speeding through the end of the station, smashing through the buffers at the end of the track, piercing the building’s façade, and almost falling entirely from the second floor onto Rennes Square in the middle of Paris. Fortunately, the locomotive only pulled its tender down in the fall," wrote the Le Génie Civil fortnightly at the time.
Read more
The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and the Jacques Delors Institute hosted a high-level debate at the European Parliament,…
The noise startled horses harnessed to a tram on the street below, and they bolted, possibly preventing any injuries among the tram passengers. The train remained partly on the tracks, while the locomotive and tender hung over the station’s ledge, embedded in the street below. The sole fatality was Mrs. Aiguillard, the wife of a newsstand owner, who had gone to buy evening newspapers. A piece of the wall fell on her, leaving behind two orphans, who were later financially supported by the railway company.
Surprisingly, after the brutal stop, passengers exited the train with only minor injuries, thanks in part to lying on the floor when the train failed to stop as expected. Journalists at the time reported speeds of around 50-60 km/h, but later investigations showed the train was traveling at about 30 km/h. At the higher speed, the train would have flown much further out of the station.
The engineer, Guillaume-Marie Pellerin, was fined 50 francs for speeding to make up for lost time, which led to braking too late and possibly too sharply, contributing to the brake failure. He returned to service as soon as possible, with 19 years of experience in the field. Conductor Albert Mariette was fined 25 francs for not paying attention and failing to prevent the disaster. Ultimately, the faulty air brakes were blamed for the incident. The tragedy could have been far worse. If the brakeman hadn’t slowed the train, the locomotive might have pulled down more of the 250-ton train.
Read more
Alstom and Flox have received EUR 291 million in funding from Vinnova to conduct field tests of a groundbreaking AI system that prevents collisions…
Source: 100+1