Intro

Railways are arguably one of the safest and environmentally friendly modes of transport. High speed rail for me personally trumps flying in terms of comfort, view and ease of use although take that term with a pinch of salt for UK railways. However nothing is perfect and as we’ve seen on the channel before disastrous events can happen. For the most part I’ve covered UK and US rail disasters but today’s subject shows any country is vulnerable. Today I am looking at one of Germany’s worst rail accidents. My name is John and welcome to plainly difficult. Background.

Background

Our story starts not in Germany but in japan. 1959 would be the genesis of modern high speed rail. Japan had a narrow gauge interconnected rail network, due to the terrain lines were intertwined with the hills and valleys. Although making for beautiful scenery, journeys were hardly swift. As a part of economic development for the country a new more direct form of rail transport was devised and it would run on the larger standard gauge. The same we have here in the UK. Right back to 1959. The Shinkansen project known internationally as the bullet train, had begun starting off the world's first dedicated high speed rail service, Starting passenger running on the 1st of October 1964. It became an immediate success making the island of Honshu feel smaller than ever. The almost overnight triumph of the high speed rail didn’t go unnoticed outside of Japan. One of the countries who saw the concept as an ideal addition to their rail network was that of France. This would result in the 1970s with the tgv. At a similar time across the border Germany was also planning a high speed network. Beginning in 1968 the Deutsche Bundesbahn began planning the initial concept which would develop into trial runs in 1985. The trail set called the intercity experimental set the world speed record for a train in 1988 at a whopping 253mph or 406.9kmph. Clearly the concept worked as such the first generation of high speed rail trains were ordered from a consortium of manufacturers, with the first deliveries taking place in 1989. This new class of train was named the ice1.

ICE 1

Ice 1 a modern train. So Germany’s first iteration of their standard high speed train was called the ice 1. Formations of ice 1 trains consist of 2 power cars one at each end and either 9 or 12 intermediate cars. The intermediate cars are for passengers and are made up of first and second class accommodation in addition to a buffet car. Each power car had a tractive possibility of 200 kn or 44,962 lbf with a power output of 4,800 kW (6,437 hp). There were some power cars with a lower output of 3,800 kW (5,096 hp) ( which had more conventional IGBT power converters. Upon beginning of revenue service the ice1 set could reach a speed of 250 km/h (155.3 mph) and a few years later in 1995 this was increased to 280 km/h (174.0 mph). At the time in the early 90s the ice 1 was seen as one of the most advanced trains in the world, boasting 10 computers per power car. This allowed the driver to monitor and interrogate many of the power and control systems aboard the train. Faults can be reported automatically via radio to the depot for future maintenance. In total 120 power cars were produced. Now the video passenger cars were constructed of an aluminum silicon alloy. Now although modern, aerodynamic and fast the new trains weren’t without issues. One of the more obvious at least to passengers was an odd ability of the buffet car that allowed glasses to shuffle around the tables. A little disconcerting for your cold drink no doubt, and it hinted at a greater issue than a few spilt beverages.

Wheels Wheels Wheels

Wheels wheels wheels. When the ice 1 first entered service it was equipped with monoblock wheels. Essentially the wheel is cast as one piece which is hardened, monoblocs are beneficial, they are light for a train wheel, cost effective and robust. That is in comparison to the traditional wheel and tyre design. Yes you heard me right trains can have tyres, but it’s not what you think, bear with me this does have relevance. You see, train wheels used to be very expensive but due to the friction between wheel and rail are susceptible to wear, because of this life expectancy could be extended by making the contact surface replaceable. This was another piece of metal mounted to the wheels perimeter and is known as the tyre. Traditionally this was mounted via heating up the tyre pressing it onto the wheel then allowing it to cool thus securing it as the metal contracts. Wheel and tyre setups had been gradually phased out in preference for monoblock wheels, although wear was still an issue wheels were much cheaper to cast which in combination with regular inspections and reprofiling with lathes offered an overall cheaper option. So the ice1 had monoblock wheels and as predicted they wore down over their service life and gained flats this is where the wheel gains flat spots. It’s that whooshing or thumping sound you can sometimes hear on a train as it moves along. Nothing out of the ordinary but due to the higher speeds the worm down conditions would create a resonance and vibration. Which was the reason for cups and glasses walking around the table tops when the train was at cruising speed. So how to fix this problem well the suspension could help somewhat, but engineers looked at an alternative wheel. They looked to the trains cousin the tram, tramways across the world still use the tyre on wheel design but with a soupy twist. Due to the tight corners trams are expected to endure they are equipped with a wheel profile that isn’t ideal for higher speeds, to combat the overall rough ride they have design called resilient wheels. They also helped with track wear, something all too common on the short sections between stops generally experienced with trams, where acceleration and deceleration are some of the biggest causes of track wear. You really want the track to last as long as possible especially if you have to dig up a road to get to it. I’m using footage of the Croydon tram because it is one of those networks that use this wheel design. These have a rubber dampening ring between the main wheel and the tyre, so the steel tyre still is the point of contact with the rail. The version employed on the ice1 had 20-millimetre-thick (0.79 in) rubber damper with a relatively thin metal tyre. The new wheels did the job in dampening the vibrations, and were brought into service pretty quickly, but we will talk about that in a bit. However during 1997 hannovers transport operator üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG, began to report issues with their trams' resilient wheels. Fatigue cracks were discovered rather worryingly, especially when the network's average speed is roughly 10 mph. Deitschbhan was informed of the fatigue cracks, but replied that they had not seen any issues with the ice 1 sets. So the trains were now vibration free, the new wheels proved to be quite effective, nothing to worry about until there was.

Disaster

The disaster It is 10:30 in the morning of the 3rd June 1998, and a 12 car and 2 power car ice 1 set are departing Hanover. The train is rather aptly named for this channel the “Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen”. The train is working the Munich to Hamburg route; it had stopped that morning at Augsburg, Nürnberg, Würzburg, Fulda, Kassel, Göttingen, and Hanover before its 1030 departure for its final leg to Hamburg. At roughly 6 Km 3.7miles from eschede one of the train's wheels on the third axle on the 1st car, failed. The steel tyre separated from the wheel and was flung up into the floor of the passenger saloon. A passenger saw the floor be penetrated by the tyre, with the carriage now severely vibrating he took his wife and child to the 3rd car to inform the train manager. Upon reaching the train manager the passenger explained what he had seen, rather than stopping the train via the emergency alarm the manager insisted on personally inspecting the issue. This was inline with company rules but to me sounds insane, the train by now was vibrating and swaying. I’m the time it took for the manager to make their way to the 1st carriage; the train had traveled roughly 2 miles, 3km. This was along some plain track but points were coming up. Before the manager could inspect the damage the train thundered over two sets of points, the damaged part of the wheel and the embedded tyre ripped into the check rail part of the points. The carriage was lifted off the track and one of the derailed wheels hit the lever for the points. This caused the set of points to move out position which then switched the second bogie of the 3rd carriage onto another track that ran parallel. The 3rd coach now with each set of wheels on a different track was twisted, as a result it was thrown into a pylon of a bridge which spanned the railway. Coach 4 left the track and hit the embankment near the bridge killing 3 railway workers instantly. By the time coach 5 had got to the bridge it had begun to collapse, pummeling the carriage with nearly 300 metric tons of material. The remaining coaches jackknifed into the collapsed bridge in a zigzag pattern. The front power car coasted to a stop nearly 3km or 2 miles past the eschede station. The train had finally come to a rest, a little over 30 minutes after it had departed Hannover. The enormous crash elicited a sound like nothing else, needless to say this drew many local residents to the disaster site. Local emergency workers declared an emergency at 1102 elevating it to major emergency";l just 5 minutes later. Over 1000 workers assisted in treating the wounded, when it came to casualties there was a clear divide between who survived and who didn’t, pretty much if you were past this point it wouldn’t have been a good day. Some carriages had crashed into the bridge at speeds up to120 mph 200km. This resulted in 8 of the carriages being roughly the same length of just 1, yea it was that bad. By the afternoon 88 had been given emergency treatment, 27 of which had been airlifted. Access to some of the wounded was hindered by the pressure resistant windows which required cutting tools to remove. In total 101 people were killed, 88 severely injured and another 100 or so having minor injuries. It would take many days for the victims to be recovered, any intact bodies were autopsied, and the less than whole remains of many others hindered identified. By the 8th of June recovery crews started removing the train from the site of the accident to Aachen University. Now with Germany’s second worst rail the cause had to be found and spoiler alert it had something to do with those new wheels.

Investigation

The investigation. The Fraunhofer Institute in Germany was tasked with finding the cause of the derailment, and after conducting interviews with witnesses and examining the accident site, they began to zero in on the failure point. Initially a collision with a road vehicle was suspected due to the wreckage of a car on the track, but it would later be discovered to have likely been parked on the bridge, the Mk3 VW Golf was linked to a railway worker one of those on the track who had been a victim. Inspection of the leading power car saw no impact damage either, ruling out some kind of deliberate attack on the train. Inspection of the track on the approach to the bridge and the points, found scratches chunks taken out of the concrete sleepers, around 3 miles 6km south from the crash site. This hinted at some kind of debris hitting the ground. Metal was found embedded in car 1 and this looked suspiciously like a wheel tyre. Eventually investigators managed to piece together the cause of the derailment. It was discovered that train inspections a day before had noted the failed wheel to have a flat spot. In weeks leading up to the disaster 8 reports of flat spots had been logged on the trains digital log book, but db had deemed them not serious enough to warrant replacement. Inspections on wheels had only been done using handheld lamps in the depot, as the more complex computerized inspection setups gave too many false positive warnings. Investigators soon discovered that the new wheels, although used on trams, haven't actually been tested at high speeds, instead having engineers rely on theoretical and mathematical predictions of wear patterns. At the time Germany did not have sufficient test facilities to properly work on high speed rail wheels. They found key issues in the use of the tyred wheels. The tyres were flattened into an oval shape each time the wheel rotated which in regular service was as many as 500,000 times per day each rotation caused fatigue of the thin steel tyre. When compared to the monoblock wheel design, cracks could form on both sides of the tyre. As the tyre became thinner due to wear the wear was exaggerated, resulting in cracking. The investigation would lead to criminal proceedings against key members in Deutsche Bahn. Pretty soon after the disaster DB paid out 30,000 Deutsche Marks (about 19,000 United States dollars to each of the victims families as an initial form of compensation but needless to say this figure would increase. All wheels of the tyre design were changed back to monobloc and point work near potential obstructions were better risk assessed. In 2002 two Deutsche Bahn officials and one engineer were charged with manslaughter, and would result in a 53 day trial. The trial ended in April 2003 with a plea bargain and a 10,000 euro fine each. The train manager did have to defend his actions of not stopping the train upon the report of damage to the train but as DB’s policy was to check before stopping the train he was absolved of any blame. Sadly stopping the train there and then could have averted disaster. So i'm going to rate this video as bad day at the office, and an 8 on the legacy scale.