Posted by 6dasarkel on November 23, 2008 at 7:50pm
On December 12, 1917 a train left Turin, Itlay carrying 1000 WWI troops like the ones below. These troops were headed for Lyon, France on leave. Unfortunately 543 of these men didn't make it home after the train they were on derailed and went up in flames.
This wouldn't have happened if there hadn't been a shortage of locomotives. All of the men were scheduled to travel home on two trains. Only one locomotive was available but a decision was made to operate both trains together. All of the train cars were put together with just the one locomotive at the front. This came to a total of 18 coaches and four times the weight any locomotive of that time should have pulled. Only the first three train cars were equipped with breaks controlled by the engine. The rest of the cars had only hand brakes or no brakes at all.The driver of the train knew that this trip would be too risky and refused to drive. Not only the ability of stopping the train was impaired, but also the strength to pull all of the cars. Since this was a trip for army, the driver was threatened with military punishment and drove anyway.In order to reach Lyon, the train had to travel through the Alpine Mountains and the Mount Cern tunnel. This tunnel opened at the Modane station in France. One it left the tunnel, the train had to face many steep declines into the valley of the mountains.Just as the driver had predicted, the brakes used to slow down the coaches on the hill were not enough to keep control of the 18 passenger cars. The train gained speed as it went down the mountain and reached up to 75mph. The brakes became so hot that they glowed a bright white and started fires beneath the coaches. The train went four miles down the slope before a car derailed, the rest of the coaches piling-up on it.
This is a tragic accident that shouldn't have happened. It's a little sad to think those French soldiers were that close to seeing their families. I'm pretty sure something like this wouldn't happen today. At least not in the US. Hopefully the rail companies in France and Italy learned their lesson.-Sara
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