Drawbridge Incident Location

October 2018

I discovered that the two-track version of this bridge across the Papenpadsluis, where the coach was pushed into the lockpit on to the barge, was situated at the location where these days the double track semi-split level junction between the Zaandam-Uitgeest lines and the Zaandam-Hoorn & Enkhuizen lines is situated: the semi-split bit has to do with the fact that the Zaandam-Hoorn line still has a one direction only Automatic Half Barrier crossing across the straight and very busy 70 km/h-45 mph dual-carriageway that parallels the main line there. Whilst reading up I discovered that Netherlands Railways -for eminently sensible reasons as it turned out- always wanted a normal split level junction with a double track viaduct across that road, but that the local municipality opposed it for unclear reasons with probably a whiff of NIMBYism from nearby residents. The situation that developed, whereby trains from Amsterdam via Zaandam to Hoorn and Enkhuizen negotiated the level crossing but trains from Enkhuizen to Zaandam went across a single-track viaduct, succumbed to the accident gremlin occasionally spooking this place: On 24-12-1993 a propelled NS DD-AR double deck push-pull set from Amsterdam to Enkhuizen had left Zaandam at 21:01 and negotiated the right-hand curve in which the AHB is situated three minutes later. A 55-year old car-driver, on his way in the direction of Zaandam whilst being well over the alcohol limit, decided to overtake the substantial line of cars waiting for the crossing of which the barriers had been down for 27 seconds already and then zig-zagged at speed past those barriers . Following this manouevre he hit the 4-tonne rear bogie/truck of the leading double-deck driving trailer/remote control car at 55 km/h-35 mph and derailed this vehicle, whereby his car was thrown back about 30 metres into the direction from which he came. He had to be sawed and levered out of the wreck, badly injured, to be convicted to serve 18 months in prison and lose his driver’s licence for 5 years. The train, however, derailing at speed in a sharp right-curve, fared badly. The entire set plus locomotive 1768 was derailed, the driving trailer hitting a pier of the viaduct in the opposite track and being damaged severely. Clearing the wreckage took two days and was finished on the 26th of December, the cost about 7 million of the then Dutch guilders. The train driver was one of the 31 injured, ten of whom suffered life-changing injuries. One person died.Somewhat unfortunately the same heated discussions about the safety of push-pull operations and the stability of double-deck rail vehicles developed that flared up every time since push-pull operations and travel with double-deck (imperial) vehicles developed in France way back around 1870. Sad, people who scream doom and misery loud enough to be of interest for the media but do not appear to have any relevant knowledge. Even in this case the double deck coaches stayed largely upright, none ended up on their sides and stability was not an issue. During the high-speed derailment of a pushed set at Polmont in Scotland on the 30th of July 1984 the single-deck coaches also did not end up on their sides. This level crossing at Zaandam, incidentally, is for a number of reasons now rated as among the most dangerous in the rail network in The Netherlands.