Page 1 - Pictures of a Railway Accident

Situation description:



On the left you see a track diagram of the accident spot. At the points just above the centre of the graphic, two lines meet. At the time of the accident the semaphore distant signal for the left line was showing Vr 0: expect stop. The respective semaphore main signal showed stop. The right line runs upon a bridge, before that bridge, a colour light distant signal was showing Vr 2: expect slow. The colour light main signal just before the points showed Hp 2: slow.

Note that this is one of three spots the author is aware of, where both colour light and semaphore signals are operated from the same signal box, the other two are the signal boxes "Gf" and "Gn" in Giessen. (Thanks to Holger Kötting).

On the right track the Fairyline Freighter was approaching the bridge behind schedule, and on the left the Dwarfington Southbound, also being behind schedule, was apparently making speed to catch up.

The Dwarfington Southbound was pulled by a Push Loco and consisted of two open freight carriages, the Fairyline Freighter was one carriage hauled by a Duplo Electric Loco.

The Dwarfington Southbound then overran the main signal at danger. Why the Indusi did not cause an emergency braking that would have avoided the accident is revealed in the investigation results, which you find at the last page.

Proceed to the pictures