Drawbridge incident update

October 2018

As far as the shunting incident on the 14th of January 1939 at around 12:00 is concerned: I haven’t found the accident report as yet, but read quite a number of newspaper reports on the subject. Unfortunately the text of these articles appeared to have been sourced mostly from one press-agency, as it was virtually the same text for all newspapers. There was quite a glut of other, probably more important news, like a German liner that accidentally hit and damaged the Dutch frigate Tromp somewhere near the Iberian peninsula. Moreover there were a surprising number of road traffic accidents and level crossing collisions at the same time.But this is what I could gather: It was a complete set of Holland Railway Company (HSM) wood-built compartment coaches, propelled/pushed from the direction of Zaandam station. This sort of train, usually hauled by a surprisingly small 2’B1’/4-4-1 tank engine, was typical for the probably cringingly slow services along the at the time single-track line from Zaandam to Hoorn and Enkhuizen. Why they were propelled as a main line shunt, from what track to which other track and whether the signalling actually allowed the shunt to happen I can’t say as yet, but if the shunt took place with permission then there cannot have been interlock between the drawbridge and the signalling; which for 1939 is a very strange thing to find out indeed. Also, who gave permission for the shunt to be performed? If that was the stationmaster at Zaandam, who, as in German orientated signalling systems like that of the HSM, was the person in charge of station-staff, signallers and in this case the bridge operator. How come he gave bridge operator Mr. Dolleman permission to open the bridge for the wood barge, as well as apparently giving the driver of the shunting train permission to start the shunt? And why did no one appear to spot the high over the landscape raking open bridge in this notoriously flat landscape? And why was there no shunter on the rear coach of the train, as boatman Mr. Geene noticed before he jumped off his vessel and reported during the inquest after the accident? Such long main-line shunts are by no means rare, incidentally, they can be seen on many networks, especially between sidings and a main terminus. Often the manoeuvre is controlled by the shunter standing at the front of the rear coach, who operates the train brake with a portable brake valve that he connects to the brake-pipe. I have included a picture of a coach at the Gara de Nord terminus in Bucharest in Romania. I heard about an incident with such a shunt hitting the bufferstops at Helsinki main station in Finland about a year ago and I saw trains being brought in at German stations and at Innsbrueck Hbf that way in the seventies. Nothing special, long history, but why was there no one on this set? Incidentally, the bogie/truck that can be seen on the cargo of wood on the barge rolled off and had to be retrieved from the bottom of the lock pit after it rolled off when the coach was lifted to be cleared the same day 5 hours later.