Next Stop: Hell. The 2009 Viareggio Derailment Inferno.
By: Max S
Tags: Trains, Accident, Italy, Disaster, Fire

The train involved

Freight train 50325 was a fourteen-car tanker train carrying LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) from a refinery at Trecate (near Milan) to Gricignano (near Naples, further down the coast). Pulling the train was FS series E655 175, a six axle electric freight locomotive weighting 120 metric tons at 18.3m/60ft in length. The series 655 is the freight-version of the E656, which can pull heavier trains thanks to a different gearing. As a downside, those freight locomotives are limited to just 120kph/75mph.

E655 180, a locomotive identical to the one involved in the accident, photographed in 2014.

The tanker cars were owned by GATX-Austria, the Austrian subsidiary of the Chicago-based GATX Corporation, an equipment finance/leasing company. The forward car was in service with the PKP (Polish State Railways), while the other 13 were in service with the DB (German national railway). The train was a chartered service by SARPOM, an Italian Oil company. The exact type of the tanker cars involved in the accident is unknown. They were four-axle cars with a singular large tank holding the pressurized gas. The cars vary in length from 14.7m/48ft to 18m/59ft and hold around 85m³/3002 cubic feet of gas. Each tanker car features a distinct curved roof above the tank meant to shield the tank from sunlight and reduce interior temperature. The cars are also fitted with emergency release valves designed to release gas in a controlled manner in an emergency, avoiding an explosion.

A tanker car for pressurized gas identical to those involved in the accident photographed in 2018

The accident

On the 29th of June 2009 at 11:45pm freight train 50325 is cleared to pass through Viareggio station on its way down the western coast of Italy. The two drivers were relatively relaxed as their train entered the station on track 4 at approximately 90kph/56mph. As the train neared the beginning of the platform the crew on the locomotive suddenly felt a jolt, followed by the train automatically applying the brakes for an emergency stop. The second car’s forward axle had derailed, causing the car to scrape along the side of the platform. This tore it off the leading car, causing the jolt (from the sudden loss of weight) and the emergency stop to be initiated (as the pneumatic lines for the brakes were separated).

Damage to the platform and sleepers showing where the car derailed and hit the platform.

The derailed car climbed the platform on the right and fell over to its left, pulling 4 more cars along. As it fell over the tank on the car was pierced by an unknown piece of railway infrastructure, releasing the pressurized gas which immediately ignited. A fireball flared up, engulfing the locomotive for a moment before dying down. The locomotive came to a stop 200m/656ft past the station scorched and charred but intact, pulling along a single tanker car with the rear coupler torn off. Behind them flames spread across the station, fueled by the emergency release valves of the derailed forward tanker cars. As the gas was heavier than normal air it stayed close to the ground, spreading over a vast area covering the tracks and starting to flow into the surrounding streets as the area was illuminated in the orange glow of the fire. Some of the cars had run off the track into surrounding buildings, only the last six cars remained on the track.

A photo from the report showing the cut in the derailed tanker car. Had this not happened there would’ve been no fire.

Moments after the train had derailed the fire became so severe that the train cars’ valves were no longer able to release the gas fast enough, causing a massive explosion to erupt from the station, throwing ballast, pieces of train cars and railway infrastructure high into the air. By all means it looked like the quiet Italian city had become the doorway to hell. Several houses near the railway lines became engulfed in flames with some houses collapsed during the ensuing inferno, cars parked next to the tracks burned down and the station building got scorched. Witnesses report seeing people running down the street on fire before collapsing as new fires seemed to erupt all over the place, wherever the flames got a hold of new material before the gas was burned up. 11 people died in the immediate aftermath of the derailment, many more suffering often severe burns as the burning gas came through windows or under doors as the residents slept.