December 12, 1917: A French troop train carrying at least 1,000 soldiers on their way home for leave from the Italian front in World War I derails in the French Alps. For the rest of the 20th Century, it was the worst rail disaster in human history.
After passing through the Mont Cenis Tunnel, the train reached Modane station, where two additional cars were coupled to the train before the journey onward to Chambéry. From there, they were to disperse to join their families throughout France for 15 days of leave, covering the year-end holidays. The train stopped at Modane for 1 hour to allow other trains to pass. Most of the officers left the train during this stop, to take the Modane-Paris express.
The train consisted of 19 coaches of Italian construction: one baggage van at each end, 15 cars with bogies, and two fixed-axle coaches added at Modane. By official count, it was carrying 982 enlisted men of the 46th and 47th divisions. The cars were of wooden construction with metal chassis.
The train was overloaded for operation on the steep 3.3 percent grade between Modane and Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, with too many cars relative to the braking power of the single locomotive. Such a train normally would have had two engines. However, the second assigned locomotive had been requisitioned for a munitions train by the officer in charge of dispatching. The driver objected to taking the heavy load with a single engine, but was overruled by the transport officer.
The train departed from Modane station at 11:15 PM, and descended into the valley. The driver began the downhill descent as slowly as possible, at 6 miles per hour on the first incline. But, from Freney onwards, a short distance from Modane, the train began accelerating to an eventual uncontrollable speed of 84 MPH, as measured by the locomotive's speed indicator. The driver applied the brakes to no effect, owing to the heavy load, and quickly lost control of the train. Lacking sufficient braking power for the downgrade, the train derailed.
The wooden coaches smashed into one another, and promptly caught fire, caused by the overheated brakes and lit candles which had been brought aboard due to faulty electric lighting. The fire was also fed by grenades and other explosives, carried without authorization by the soldiers returning home. The fire did not burn out until the evening of the following day. The derailment occurred at a point where the railway line passed through a narrow gap in the mountain terrain, leaving little room for heat from the fire to escape.
Only 183 men who had been on the train reported for roll-call on the next morning. More than 100 others either died in hospitals in the region, or while being transported to them, during the next 15 days. The stated number of fatalities varies between sources, ranging from at least 675 to about 800.
The accident remained a classified military secret for 90 years. At the time, to prevent harm to national morale, the French military enforced silence on the French press, which reported little or nothing about the accident because it implicated French officers. The daily Le Figaro devoted only 21 lines to the accident on December 17, 4 days after the accident.
It was the deadliest rail disaster in human history, until December 26, 2004, when the Indian Ocean tsunami caused a wreck on the island of Sri Lanka that killed more.
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December 12, 1917 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Boys Town was founded by Father Edward J. Flanagan. I have a separate entry for that event.
Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And the National Hockey League started its 1st season 7 days later. So there were no scores on this historic day.
