List of wind-related railway accidents

Short description: none

High winds can blow railway trains off tracks and cause accidents.[1]

## Contents

* 1 Dangers of high winds
* 2 Preventative measures
* 3 By country
* 3.1 Australia
* 3.2 Austria
* 3.3 China
* 3.4 Denmark
* 3.5 Germany
* 3.6 India
* 3.7 Ireland
* 3.8 Japan
* 3.9 New Zealand
* 3.10 Norway
* 3.11 South Africa
* 3.12 United Kingdom
* 3.13 United States
* 4 Factors
* 5 See also
* 6 References

## Dangers of high winds

High winds can cause problems in a number of ways:

* blow trains off the tracks
* blow trains or wagons along the tracks and cause collisions
* cause cargo to blow off trains which can damage objects outside the railway or which other trains can collide with
* cause pantographs and overhead wiring to tangle
* cause trees and other objects to fall onto the railway.

## Preventative measures

Risks from high winds can be reduced by:

* wind fences akin to snow sheds
* lower profile of carriages
* lowered centre of gravity of vehicles[2]
* reduction in train speed or cancellation, at high winds
* a wider rail gauge
* improve overhead wiring with:
* regulated tension rather than fixed terminations
* shorter catenary spans
* solid conductors

## By country

### Australia

* 1928 – 47 wagons blown along line at Tocumwal[3]
* 1931 – Kandos – wind blows level crossing gates closed in front of motor-cyclist [4]
* 1943 – Hobart, Tasmania; Concern that wind will blow over doubledeck trams on 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge if top deck enclosed.[5]
* 2010 – Marla, South Australia; Small tornado blows over train.[6]

### Austria

* 1910 – Trieste (now in Italy) – train blown down embankment.[7]

### China

* Lanxin High-Speed Railway#Wind shed risk
* February 28, 2007 – Wind blows 10 passenger rail cars off the track near Turpan, China.

### Denmark

* Great Belt Bridge rail accident. On 2 January 2019 a DSB express passenger train is hit by a semi-trailer from a passing cargo train on the western bridge of the Great Belt Fixed Link during Storm Alfrida, killing eight people and injuring 16.[8]

### Germany

* Rügen narrow-gauge railway, 20 October 1936: derailment of a train, five injured[9][10]

### India

* One reason for choosing broad gauge in India for greater stability in high winds.

### Ireland

* On the night of 30 January 1925, strong winds derailed carriages of a train crossing the Owencarrow Viaduct of the 914 mm (3 ft) gauge Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway.

### Japan

* Inaho
* Amarube Viaduct
* 1895 Gale blows train into sea [11]

### New Zealand

* Rimutaka Incline railway accident

### Norway

* Makrellbekken (station)#Wind related accident – blowing snow disoriented a tractor driver who collided with a train

### South Africa

* Wind tangles overhead wiring in Cape Town, 2012.[12]

### United Kingdom

* Tay Bridge disaster 1879
* Chelford rail accident 1894 – during shunting
* De-wirements on the East Coast Main Line
* Leven Viaduct, Cumbria 27 February 1903
* Cheddington 2008 – two containers blown off train – design of "spigots" criticised.[13]
* Moston 2015 – out of gauge train hits platform, throwing stones onto other track.[14]
* Scout Green 2015 – empty 30-foot ISA container blown off train [15]

### United States

* On April 24, 1883, 2 cars of a passenger train were blown from the narrow-gauge Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad tracks near Como, Colorado, with only minor injuries.[16]
* Around 6:15 pm, May 6, 1876, a passenger train traveling south on the Illinois Central Railroad at about 23 miles per hour was derailed during a storm just south of Neoga, Illinois. Numerous minor injuries were reported.[17]
* Around 7 am, Feb. 23, 1884, 2 cars were blown off the narrow-gauge tracks of the Colorado Central Railroad near Georgetown, Colorado.[18]
* Around 2 pm, February 4, 1885, the wind overturned an entire 3-car Colorado Central Railroad train just east of Georgetown, Colorado. The express train had slowed to 8 miles per hour because of the wind. 18 out of 20 passengers were injured.[19][20]
* At 3:30 pm, April 1, 1892, a narrow-gauge passenger train of the Burlington and Northwestern Railway was blown off the tracks while running at full speed 1 mile east of Butler, a station between Fremont, Iowa and Hedrick, Iowa.;[21][22][23] 4 were seriously injured, a dozen more suffered minor injuries.[24] Note that the location places this on the Burlington and Western Railway tracks.
* On September 2, 1911, tram services in Charleston, South Carolina, were suspended due to winds.[25]
* On June 28, 1986, a derecho derailed 18 piggyback cars on the Kate Shelley High Bridge over the Des Moines River in Iowa.[26]
* On June 29, 1998, the Corn Belt Derecho blew several double stack and piggyback cars off the Iowa Interstate Railroad bridge across the Iowa River.[27]
* A 2008 tornado in Northern Illinois derailed a Union Pacific train.[28] Dramatic footage of the event was captured by a camera mounted on the train.[29]
* On April 27, 2015, a severe storm knocked several double stack cars off the track as a train crossed the Huey P. Long Bridge, New Orleans, Louisiana, with no injuries. The accident was captured by a WGNO News Team dashcam.[30]
* On March 13, 2019, mid-day winds of around 80 mph derailed the rear 26 cars of a double stack train on the Union Pacific high steel trestle over the Canadian River south of Logan, New Mexico.[31]

One reason for choosing broad gauge (17% wider than standard gauge) for BART was the greater stability in high winds and perhaps earthquakes.[32][33][34]

## Factors

* Lightweight trains
* Narrow gauge
* Aspects of the terrain [35]
* Tunnels [36]

## See also

* Snowshed

## References

1. ↑ C. Proppe, C. Wetzel (2007). "Overturning Probability of Railway Vehicles under Wind Gust Loads". Iutam Symposium on Dynamics and Control of Nonlinear Systems with Uncertainty. IUTAM Book Series (Springer) 2: 23–32. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-6332-9_3. ISBN 978-1-4020-6331-2. https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000011270/783759.
2. ↑ Kieper, Klaus; Preuß, Reiner; Rehbein, Elfriede (1982). "Bahnen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern" (in de). Schmalspurbahn-Archiv (2nd ed.). Berlin: Transpress. p. 116.
3. ↑ "SEVERE WINDSTORM.". The Argus (Melbourne: National Library of Australia): p. 8. 8 October 1928. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3961544. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
4. ↑ "LEVEL CROSSING ACCIDENT.". The Sydney Morning Herald (National Library of Australia): p. 10. 27 August 1931. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16816678. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
5. ↑ "Double-Deck Trams.". The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia): p. 4. 1 June 1943. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25936409. Retrieved 24 April 2012.
6. ↑ "Tornado derails outback freight train". http://www.railpage.com.au/news-8530.htm.
7. ↑ "FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.". Northern Star (New South Wales, Australia) 34: p. 3. 4 April 1910. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article72241525. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
8. ↑ "Six dead in train crash on Denmark's Great Belt Fixed Link" (in English). The Local DK. 2 January 2019. https://www.thelocal.dk/20190102/six-dead-in-train-crash-on-denmarks-great-belt-fixed-link. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
9. ↑ "GALE DERAILS TRAIN.". The Sydney Morning Herald (National Library of Australia): p. 16. 21 October 1936. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article29536000. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
10. ↑ "TRAIN DERAILED.". The Examiner (Launceston, Tas.: National Library of Australia): p. 8 Edition: DAILY. 21 October 1936. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52105580. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
11. ↑ "RAILWAY ACCIDENT.". Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tas.: National Library of Australia): p. 3. 31 July 1895. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article79986462. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
12. ↑ "WIND STALLS CAPE TRAINS | Railways Africa". Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011048/http://www.railwaysafrica.com/blog/2012/12/wind-stalls-cape-trains/. Retrieved 2012-12-12. Wind stalls Cape trains
13. ↑ The Railway Magazine April 2015, p12
14. ↑ The Railway Magazine April 2015, p12
15. ↑ The Railway Magazine April 2015, p12
16. ↑ Blown from the Track, Railroad Gazette, April 4, 1883; pages 285-286. Reprinted from the Apr. 25 'Denver Tribune'.
17. ↑ Thrown off the Track, Chicago Daily Tribune, May 8, 1876, page 5. (Retrieved via Library of Congress Chronicling American archive).
18. ↑ Two Cars Blown Off the Track, New York Times, Feb. 24, 1884.
19. ↑ Train Wreck at Georgetown, February 4th, 1885, Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 9 (Winter, 2017); page 6. (reprinted from the Denver Tribune Republican, Feb. 5, 1885.)
20. ↑ Derailed in a Hurricane at Georgetown, Feb. 4, 1885, photo in the Ted Kierscey Collection, retrieved Feb 2021.
21. ↑ Exhibit No. 5. Casualties, 1891-'92, Annual Report of the Postmaster General of the United States for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1892, GPO, 1892; page 845. Gives time and location.
22. ↑ Train Blown Over, St. Paul daily globe (Saint Paul, Minn.), 02 April 1892; page 1. Historic American Newspaper collection, Library of Congress.
23. ↑ Swept by Fearful Winds, The Abbeville press and banner (Abbeville, S.C.), 20 April 1892; page 2. Historic American Newspaper collection, Library of Congress.
24. ↑ "NEWS BY MAIL.". The Brisbane Courier (National Library of Australia): p. 7. 24 May 1892. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3542330. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
25. ↑ "AMERICAN WIND STORM.". The Northern Times (Carnarvon, WA: National Library of Australia): p. 5. 2 September 1911. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74889432. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
26. ↑ July 28-29 1986 Derecho "The Supercell Transition Derecho", part of the NOAA About Derechos web site, retrieved Aug. 2020.
27. ↑ Archive photos: June 1998 derecho hits the Iowa City area, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, retrieved Aug. 2020.
28. ↑ "Twisters hit Illinois and Wisconsin | ABC7 Chicago | abc7chicago.com - ABC7 Chicago". http://abc7chicago.com/archive/5875829/.
29. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: TRAIN Vs. TORNADO - BEST PART!!!!!. YouTube.
30. ↑ Carlie Kollath Wells (April 27, 2015). "Train cars blown off tracks on Huey P. Long Bridge, FOX 8 reports". The Times-Picayune. http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2015/04/train_blown_off_track_elmwood.html.
31. ↑ Kyle Cheromcha, Bomb Cyclone Winds Blow Freight Train Off Railroad Bridge in New Mexico, The Drive, March 14, 2019
32. ↑ "The deep-lodged problems with the BART system". 13 August 2009. http://www.wirewd.com/wh/blog/bart_sucks/.
33. ↑ "Crossing the Bay Again — but Not Necessarily with BART". 6 January 2010. http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010/01/06/crossing-the-bay-again-but-not-necessarily-with-bart/.
34. ↑ http://homepage.mac.com/s_sloan/twar/ISSUE66/BODY.HTM
35. ↑ "BECCA Wiki : Rail vehicle overturning". Archived from the original on 22 February 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110222163523/http://wiki.climatechangeadaptation.org.au/tiki-index.php?page=Rail+vehicle+overturning. Retrieved 2010-11-08.
36. ↑ http://www.yunlong.com.au/pdf/Liu-CFD.pdf

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