Derailment
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Train wreck in Leavick, Colorado in 1897

A c. 1890s picture by "C. Petersen"
Fayette County, Texas [?] of a train derailment
A derailed freight train in
Farragut,
Tennessee (2002)

Detail of derailed express train in
Prague, Czech Republic (2007)
In
rail transport, a
derailment is a type of
train wreck that occurs when a rail vehicle such as a
train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially serious hazard.
A derailment of a train can be caused by a collision with another object, an operational error (such as excessive speed through a curve), the mechanical failure of tracks (such as broken rails), or the mechanical failure of the wheels, among other causes. In emergency situations, deliberate derailment with
derails or
catch points is sometimes used to prevent a more serious accident.
![[icon] [icon]](/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F1%2F1c%2FWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg%2F20px-Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg.png&hash=821d68dc0f8e9d2d6e7ea6a7bb49e7eb) | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2015) |
The first recorded train derailment in history is known as the
Hightstown rail accident in New Jersey that occurred on 8 November 1833. The train was traveling between Hightstown and Spotswood, New Jersey, and derailed after an axle broke on one of the carriages as a result of a journal box catching fire. The derailment resulted in one casualty and twenty-three injuries, and it was recorded that both New York railroad magnate
Cornelius Vanderbilt and former U.S president
John Quincy Adams were on the train as it took place, in which Adams wrote about the event in his journal.
[1]
During the 19th century derailments were commonplace, but progressively improved safety measures have resulted in a stable lower level of such incidents. A sampling of annual approximate numbers of derailments in the United States includes 3000 in 1980, 1000 in 1986, 500 in 2010, and 1000 in 2022.
[2][3][4]
Derailments in the United States
[5]

A derailed
British Rail Class 165 at
London Paddington station. The train moved over a set of
catch points which caused the derailment. After derailing, the rear of the train hit an
overhead line stanchion, severely damaging the driver's side of the front coach.
Derailments result from one or more of a number of distinct causes; these may be classified as:
- the primary mechanical failure of a track component (for example broken rails, gauge spread due to sleeper (tie) failure)
- the primary mechanical failure of a component of the running gear of a vehicle (for example axlebox failure, wheel breakage)
- a fault in the geometry of the track components or the running gear that results in a quasi-static failure in running (for example rail climbing due to excessive wear of wheels or rails, earthworks slip)
- a dynamic effect of the track-vehicle interaction (for example extreme Hunting oscillation, vertical bounce, track shift under a train, excessive speed)
- improper operation of points, or improper observance of signals protecting them (signal errors)
- as a secondary event following collision with other trains, road vehicles, or other obstructions (level crossing collisions, obstructions on the line)
- train handling (snatches due to sudden traction or braking forces, referred to as slack action in North America).