Versailles rail accident

File:A. Provost - Versailles - Railroad Disaster.jpg

By the late afternoon of Sunday 8 May 1842, the public celebrations being held in honour of king Louis Philippe I's saint's day in the Gardens of Versailles{{cite book |title=Histoire des chemins de fer en France |author=Louis Armand |page=42 |publisher=Presses Modernes |language = fr }} had finished and many people wished to return to Paris. At 5:30 pm a train left the Rive Gauche{{NoteTag|There are railway lines along both banks of the River Seine from Versailles into Paris. The Rive Gauche station is the one on the left (south) bank line.}} Versailles railway station for Paris Montparnasse.{{cite book |author=Charles Francis Adams |author-link=Charles Francis Adams, Jr. |title=Notes on Railroad Accidents |url=https://archive.org/details/notesonrailroada00adamuoft |year=1879 |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons }} Available online at catskillarchive.com [http://catskillarchive.com/rrextra/wkbkch06.Html The Versailles Accident]. Accessed 26 October 2012. Over {{convert|120|m|ft}} long and composed of 16 to 18 carriages hauled by two steam locomotives, the train was crowded, carrying 770 passengers.{{cite book |author=Patrice Boussel |title=Histoire de la vie française: Les révolutions, 1789–1871 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JbtnAAAAMAAJ |access-date=26 October 2012|year=1972|publisher=Éditions de "l'Illustration" |language= fr }} Travelling at {{convert|40|km/h}} between Bellevue and Meudon, one of the axles of the leading locomotive snapped and the vehicle derailed, scattering the contents of its fire-box. When the second locomotive and the carriages continued over the derailed locomotive, the carriages caught fire, trapping the passengers. The passengers were locked in their compartments as was the custom in continental Europe at the time.

The fire was so intense that the number of fatalities could not be determined, with estimates varying between 52 and 200,{{cite journal|title=L'opinion publique après le déraillement de Meudon en 1842| author=Pierre Mercier|journal=Paris et Ile-de-France – Mémoires (Tome 44)|year=1993|publisher=Fédération des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et Ile-de-France|language=fr}} and hundreds of people were seriously injured.{{cite book|author=Guy Fargette|title=Emile et Isaac Pereire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FyLXf-R6-sC&pg=PA69|access-date=26 October 2012|year=2001|publisher=Harmattan|isbn=978-2-7475-0737-0|page=69|language=fr}} Among the deaths was the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville and his family; his remains were identified by a sculptor from a cast he had made of the skull.{{rp|60}}

Some religious groups said the passengers had been punished for travelling on a Sunday.{{cite book|author1=M. Fuentes|author2=M. Elices|author3=A. Martín-Meizoso|author4=J.-M. Martínez-Esnaola|title=Fracture Mechanics: Applications and Challenges: Applications and Challenges|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SV6siFe8WT0C&pg=PA174|access-date=26 October 2012|date=13 September 2000|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-08-043699-9|pages=174–175}} A chapel named "Notre-Dame-des-Flammes" (English: Our Lady of the Flames) was built in Meudon in memory of the victims; this was listed as a Monument historique in 1938, but delisted in 1959 and demolished soon after.{{cite web | url=http://patrimoine-de-france.com/hauts-de-seine/meudon/chapelle-notre-dame-des-flammes-6.php | title=Chapelle Notre Dame des Flammes | work=patrimoine-de-france.com | access-date=26 October 2012 | language=fr}}

This was the worst rail disaster in the world at the time. The derailment led to the abandonment of the practice of locking passengers in their carriages in France.{{cite book|first=Iain|last=Gately|page=82|title=Rush Hour|isbn=9781781854068|date=6 November 2014|publisher=Head of Zeus }} The French government appointed a commission to investigate the derailment; this recommended testing axles to determine their service life and monitoring their usage so that they could be replaced after travelling a safe distance.{{sfn|Sendeckyj|2006|pp=480–481}}

Metal fatigue was poorly understood at the time and the derailment is linked to the beginnings of systematic research into the problem.{{sfn|Sendeckyj|2006|p=472}} Work by H. H. Edwards, William Rankine, William Fairbairn and others described the fatigue process and Rankine developed a solution for railway axles.{{sfn|Sendeckyj|2006|p=488}} Later, during 1856 to 1870, the work of August Wöhler would help to improve testing of axles, and so increase axle life.{{sfn|Sendeckyj|2006|pp=472–473}}

• Meudon Viaduct

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• George Sendeckiyj (2006). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=owuYRq4mz74C&pg=PA472 Early Railroad Accidents and the Origins of research on fatigue of metals]", Appendix A of {{cite book |author=Theodore Nicholas |title = High Cycle Fatigue: A Mechanics of Materials Perspective |year = 2006 |publisher = Elsevier |isbn = 978-0-08-044691-2 |ref = {{harvid|Sendeckyj|2006}} }}

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• {{cite book |first1=Peter R. |last1=Lewis |first2=Alistair |last2=Nisbet |title=Wheels to Disaster!: The Oxford train wreck of Christmas Eve, 1874 |publisher=Tempus |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7524-4512-0 }}
• {{cite book |author = Louis Eugène Robert |title = Histoire et description naturelle de la commune de Meudon |url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HPgDAAAAQAAJ |access-date=26 October 2012 |year=1843 |publisher =Paulin |language = fr |pages = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HPgDAAAAQAAJ/page/n121 110]–144 }}

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Category:Engineering failures

Category:Derailments in France

Category:Railway accidents in 1842

Category:1842 in France

Category:Transport in Hauts-de-Seine

Category:May 1842

Category:1840s in Paris