Tay Bridge disaster

The railway accident on the Firth of Tay Bridge was caused by the collapse of the Firth of Tay Bridge under an express train from Edinburgh to Dundee on December 28, 1879.

Starting position

The first Firth of Tay Bridge was one of about three thousand meters long railway bridge over the Firth of Tay, which the engineer Thomas Bouch had constructed.

The single-track bridge formed a block section of the railway line. Was allowed to drive on the bridge, only the train whose engine driver was in possession of "token", a rod, he had to give back to driving on the bridge. Since there was only one such bar, it was ensured so that was always just a train on the bridge.

A fast train ( " mail ") of the North British Railway left at 16:15 clock the Edinburgh Waverley station to Dundee. He led six cars that were pulled by a 2-B- Express Locomotive with a Tender. At the block location south of the bridge the engineer took the "token". The block guards telegraphed his colleague on the north side at 19:14 clock the train passes took place. For the 19:20 arrival was provided in Dundee.

On the Firth of Tay ruled that evening a storm, which reached around 19 clock its peak. The gale force was estimated at 10 to 11 on the Beaufort scale.

Circumstances of the accident

The express train from Edinburgh sailed the central part of the Firth of Tay Bridge against 19:17 clock, when it gave way and fell with the train in the Firth of Tay. The bridge had collapsed under the weight of the train, the wind load of the hurricane and in these circumstances, high dynamic forces of the train. But Ultimate cause was the defective construction of the bridge.

The railroad workers and eyewitness John Watt, who was at that time in the block location on the southern end of the bridge, followed the light of the train and watched as it fell. He said to the employees of the block post: "Either have fallen off the carrier or the train ." The block guards found out that all eight telegraph lines were interrupted to block location on the north side. Since all lines were integrated into the body of the bridge, which was a proof that the bridge was interrupted.

Also on the north side of the bridge of the accident was observed: " It was like a comet-like outburst of wild sparks from the locomotive thrown into the darkness. In a long trail of fire jet was to see to its extinction at the bottom of the stormy sea. Then there was complete darkness. "The station manager of Dundee and the chief of the local Lokomotiv service ran in the dark along the bridge to explore the cause. The storm was so strong that they were progressing in parts only on all fours. After about a kilometer, they were left with nothing. The entire middle section of the bridge over a length of almost 1000 m was overthrown him, including the train be traveled in the Firth of Tay.

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Direct consequences

There were no survivors. 72 passengers and three train staff, who were traveling in the train, were killed, including the son of the designer of the bridge. The exact number of victims could be detected only indirectly through the number of tickets sold. Only 46 bodies were recovered, the others were flushed into the North Sea. The police could later identify 60 victims on the basis of the missing person's reports, so that ultimately sold 12 tickets could not be assigned. Therefore, the exact number of victims is still controversial. Only two days after the storm had subsided, parts of the train could be located in the muddy waters of the Firth of Tay. The locomotive was later salvaged crashed out of the fjord, repaired and was in use until 1919. She received the nickname "The Diver" ( " The Diver ").

Commission of Inquiry

Henry C. Rothery (Commissioner for accidents at sea ), Colonel William Yolland ( Chief Inspector of the UK railways) and the engineer William Henry Barlow (Chairman of the British engineering association and expert on bridge ) formed the official commission of inquiry, which began in the British Parliament. They closed their investigation in June 1880 from two different reports. The statement signed by Yolland and Barlow spoke out against a personal debt of Thomas Bouch. Rothery was against the view that Thomas Bouch was judicially called to account. Both reports came but to the unanimous conclusion that had led a number of design flaws, ignorance and sloppiness during construction and then lack of maintenance to the collapse of the bridge. There were management failures of the North British Railway. Thus was already known before the collapse that had been loosened during Zugüberfahrten components of the bridge and were overthrown in February 1877 during a heavy storm two each 200 -ton carrier of the bridge into the river.

As a result of the accident was the construction of the Firth of Forth Bridge, which was also designed by Thomas Bouch, stopped. Sir Thomas Bouch fell ill in the sequence of events and died on October 30, 1880, just ten months after the accident. He did not live to the already initiated civil proceedings.

The causes of the spectacular major accident were in the following time once again the subject of discussion and re- examination.

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