Munchenstein rail disaster
Encyclopedia
The Munchenstein rail disaster on 14 June 1891 was historically the worst railway accident ever to affect Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

A crowded passenger train fell through a girder bridge
Girder bridge
A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...

, killing over seventy people and injuring many more. The accident occurred on the railway line between Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

 and Delémont
Delémont
Delémont is the capital of the Swiss canton of Jura. The city has approximately 11,000 inhabitants as of 2007.-Geography:Delémont lies southwest of Basel, about halfway between Basel and Bienne...

, near the Brückgut
Bruckgut (Münchenstein)
The Bruckgut estate lies at the foot of the hill, below the village centre of Münchenstein, in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland.The Bruckgut farming estate is listed as a heritage site of national significance.-Geographical location:...

just below the village centre of Munchenstein
Münchenstein
Münchenstein is a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland.-Historical records:Münchenstein is first mentioned in 1196 as Kekingen. In 1270 it was mentioned as Geckingen and in 1279 as Munchenstein.* 1259: The hamlet and the mill, between "Neue...

, as the train was traversing the bridge across the river Birs
Birs
The Birs is a 73-km long river in Switzerland that flows through the Jura region and ends as a tributary to the Rhine between Basel and Birsfelden.- Picture gallery :...

.

Bridge

The single-track bridge had been built in 1874-75 by Gustave Eiffel
Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was a French structural engineer from the École Centrale Paris, an architect, an entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...

 (1832-1923), who went on to build the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...

 in 1889. The contract was given to the young architect's office by the Jurabahn (later Jura–Simplon Railway
Jura–Simplon Railway
The Jura–Simplon Railway , was a former Swiss rail company, formed in 1890 and absorbed into the Swiss Federal Railways in 1903.-History:...

), a private Railway company. Eiffel's engineering company had already acquired the necessary experience, having previously planned and built numerous railway bridges and viaducts in France such as that at Rouzat and Bouble in the Massif Centrale, and the Garabit viaduct
Garabit viaduct
The Garabit Viaduct is a railway arch bridge spanning the Truyère river near Ruynes-en-Margeride , Cantal, France, in the mountainous Massif Central region. The bridge was constructed between 1880 and 1884 by Gustave Eiffel, with structural engineering by Maurice Koechlin, and was opened in 1885...

 in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

The bridge was composed of wrought iron lattice girders, with an overall length of 42 metres. It crossed the river some five metres above water level at an angle of 51°, and it was completed and put into use in 1875. There were no reasons for complaint, even after serious local floods on the river Birs in 1881, but it was repaired and modified thereafter. One of the abutments was destroyed, leaving the bridge resting on just three points rather than pier. As one corner sank under its own weight, serious cracks were produced. The affected parts were replaced, and further strengthening was done in 1890 after the introduction of heavier locomotives.

Disaster

On 14 June 1891 at 14:15 a train left the main Basel railway station for Delémont. Owing to the large number of passengers two supplementary passenger carriages and an additional engine had been added to the train at the last moment. In the findings of the examination report it was estimated that the number of travellers aboard was between 530 and 550.

The disaster occurred as the passenger train, which had been travelling at full speed, applied its brakes before and whilst crossing over the bridge, immediately before entering the Münchenstein railway station. Eye witnesses said that the bridge appeared to break in the centre as the front wheels of the locomotive reached the further abutment. The train did not derail at any time during the collapse.

The front part of the train, the two engines, the two additional passenger carriages, a postal carriage, an express carriage and two further passenger carriages, fell into the river. The first two passenger carriages sank in the floods of the river, as the following wagons pushed them forwards. A further passenger carriage hung diagonally from the abutment facing downwards towards the river. The final five passenger wagons remained upon the tracks, virtually undamaged.

As the first carriages fell into the river, the air brake system pipes were severed and the brakes in the rear wagons were therefore instantly applied, keeping these wagons standing on the tracks. Most of the passengers in the rear part of the train were uninjured.

The disaster claimed the lives of 73 and seriously injured 171 people.

Inquiry

The subsequent inquiry focused on the state of the bridge, the quality of the ironwork and the design. A new institute "Empa
Empa
The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology or Empa is an interdisciplinary Swiss research and service institution for applied materials sciences and technology...

" (Building materials test institute) started work in 1880. In its first years of activity, "Empa" was involved in wide-ranging quality testing of building and structural materials for the Swiss National Exhibition of 1883. Intensive research work by the co-founder and first director, Prof. Ludwig von Tetmajer, gave rise to the first publications on the testing and standardisation of building materials and metals. Tetmajer was also commissioned to investigate the cause of the collapse of the Münchenstein railway bridge: his investigation of the collapse (which was responsible for what was at that time the worst railway disaster to have occurred in Europe) revealed that Euler's formula for buckling
Buckling
In science, buckling is a mathematical instability, leading to a failure mode.Theoretically, buckling is caused by a bifurcation in the solution to the equations of static equilibrium...

, which had hitherto been used to calculate design loads in such structures, needed to be corrected for slender bars.
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