Torre del Bierzo rail disaster

Coordinates: 42°35′24″N 6°21′59″W / 42.59000°N 6.36639°W / 42.59000; -6.36639
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Torre del Bierzo rail disaster
Details
Date3 January 1944
13:20
RENFE
Incident typeCollision in tunnel
CauseBrake failure
Statistics
Trains3
Deaths78 (official)
100 (most recent estimate)

The Torre del Bierzo rail disaster occurred on 3 January 1944 near the village of Torre del Bierzo in the El Bierzo region of Spain's León province when three trains collided and caught fire inside a tunnel. Although the official death toll was 78, and at the time it was estimated to be 200–250, the most recent study has estimated it at no more than 100.[1]

Overview

At 20:30 the previous evening the

sleepers
on the line to slow the runaway train, but these efforts were to no avail and the train ran through with its whistle blowing and its brake shoes applied, heading for tunnel No. 20, located just beyond the station.

Meanwhile, a

shunting engine
and three carriages were travelling through the tunnel away from the station having been warned by the station master about the runaway mail train. The last two carriages were still in the tunnel when they were struck by the mail train, with the mail train's first six carriages beginning to burn, their wood construction being ignited by the train's gas lighting.

Unaware of the first collision, a coal train was approaching the tunnel from the opposite direction with 27 loaded wagons. As the crash had destroyed the signaling cables, the signals were set at clear when the coal train left tunnel No. 21. The unharmed driver of the shunting engine desperately tried to warn the oncoming coal train which managed to slow, but it still ploughed into the shunting locomotive's train, killing the shunting engine driver and four railwaymen on the coal train.

The fire burned for two days, delaying any rescue effort and making the identification of most of the victims impossible.

Strict censorship under the regime of

RENFE file on the disaster was lost. Many people travelled without tickets so it was difficult to estimate the true number of passengers aboard, but survivors state that the train was packed, many travelling to the Christmas fair in Bembibre. It was only many years later that the scale of the accident was revealed; the actual death toll remains disputed. A recent and very detailed book on the disaster amounts the death toll to no more than 100.[1]

Tunnel No. 20, the scene of the accident, was closed in 1985 due to geological problems.

A film about the accident entitled Tunnel number 20 won a

Goya Award
in 2002 for best short documentary film.

In 2019, the Spanish TV station RTVE produced a documentary called "El tren de los desaparecidos", with witnesses and relatives of the victims. The Guinness Book of Rail Facts and Feats, published in 1971 by John Marshall, claims it is the third worst railway disaster with 500-800 killed. Studies indicate that neither documentation nor estimates are correct, and historian Vicente Fernandez indicates 101 mortal victims and 116 wounded.[2] Also in the documentary, it is stated the train designated as RENFE 151-3101 located at the Catalonia Museum is actually the "Santa-Fe" Norte 5100 that was in the locomotive train wreck.[3]

Sources (in Spanish)

References

  1. ^ a b Fernandez Vazquez, Vicente (2019). La verdad sobre el accidente ferroviario de Torre del Bierzo (1944). INSTITUTO DE ESTUDIOS BERCIANOS.
  2. ^ Cronicas-El tren de los desaparecidos (in Spanish). 2019.
  3. ^ Booth, Bryant (2012). "European Outline 0 Gauge Trains: An Introduction to PAYÁ of Spain".

Bibliography

  • (In Spanish) Vicente Fernandez Vazquez: La verdad sobre el accidente ferroviario de Torre del Bierzo (1944), Ponferrada 2019,
    ISBN 978-84-15535-49-2

See also

42°35′24″N 6°21′59″W / 42.59000°N 6.36639°W / 42.59000; -6.36639

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