Date was 18/1/77
Train Number 108, 06:09 ex Mount Victoria. Locomotive 4620 with 8 cars.
The locomotive derailed on a curve, 46m after leaving the rails it
struck trestles supporting the Bold Street overbridge, demilishing eight
steel staunchions (which made up the aforementioned trestle), and
finished on it's side 67m east of the bridge. Carriage one was split
over when it struck an overhead staunchion, which had been sheared off
by the loco. Eight passengers in this carriage were killed, 34 injured
of the total 73 passengers. Carriage 2 continued relatively unscathed
under the bridge, no fatalities. Carriages 3 and 4 stopped under the
bridge, which collapsed between 10-20 seconds after impact. 44 of the
77 passengers in car 3 died, 31 of the 64 passengers in carriage 4
died. A total of 83 lives were lost, and 213 injured.
An inquiry found:
This bridge had been struck (without problems) by a goods train in
August 1967, and a coal wagon in 1975. Loco 4620 had 2 pervious
accidents - during a runaway on 15 July 1965 it reached up to 153km/h
through the Blue Mountains.
Justice James Staunton, Chief Judge of the NSW District Court headed the
judicial inquiry, and found the accident was caused by the "very
unsatisfactory condition of the permanent way on the up western line".
There were various other systems which were not complied with (in
particular, the frequency with which train guages should have been
measured), and that staff were poorly trained.
In short, the track was out of gauge, poorly fastened and aligned, so
the loco fell inside the rails, and hence derailed. Subsequenly, the
source shows the NSW goverment announced a $200 million program to
upgrade track throughout the state (did this happen?).
The source is "Australian Railway Disasters", by Kenn Pearce, although
most Australian rail books produced after 1977 have some mention of the
crash. This book also has stores from some survivors.
Regards,
Craig.
-- Craig Haber albatross@harnessnet.com.au Manufacturing Systems Engineer (almost) Web Page Designer, Harness Racing, Railways, and Essendon Football Club fanatic http://www.harnessnet.com.au/