Train of Thought Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mudslide

In the middle of the night a mudslide took place in the Liziyida gully which is a tributary of the larger Dadu River. It was not until the train exited the Nainaibao tunnel that they could see that the bridge was gone. Attempts to stop the train were fruitless and over 360 people were killed when their rail-cars fell off the missing bridge into the mudslide below or derailed while still inside the tunnel. Believing it to be bad luck, the Chinese did not rebuild the bridge nor the tunnel, but instead built new ones in the vicinity and implemented new safety procedures.

Answer: Quintinshill rail disaster

The Quintinshill rail disaster occurred in Dumfriesshire, Scotland and took the lives of 226 people, most of whom were soldiers in the 7th battalion of The Royal Scots. The soldiers were on their way to Liverpool to be sent to fight in Gallipoli. Damage was exacerbated by the fact that it took over four hours for fire and medical assistance to arrive. Because it was wartime old wooden boxcars had been pressed into use.

It is believed that more men died from the fire than from the impact. The crash occurred at a shift change between signalmen who neglected multiple safety procedures and were given prison sentences for the incident.

Answer: Germany

The Eschede train disaster took place in Lower Saxony in Germany. It was caused by the failure of one wheel that caused the train to derail at a rail switch. Over 100 people were killed when one of the cars, travelling at over 200 kmph (120 mph) was thrown into the piers of an overpass.

The impact was so hard that eight of cars occupied an area only slightly larger then the length of a single undamaged car. There was forewarning when the failed wheel came up through the floor of one car. The engineer refused to use the emergency brake until he came back and did a visual examination of the damage.

By the time he attempted to get back to the control panel it was too late, and the devastating derailment had already started.

Answer: Charles Dickens

The Staplehurst rail crash was caused by both bridge failure and and engineering design failure. Charles Dickens survived the wreck and was said to have taken heroic measures to help the injured and dying. The accident affected him profoundly and he wrote the ghost story "The Signal Man" shortly afterward.

He was visibly nervous to be anywhere near a train and would attempt to travel in any manner but a train. Eerily, he died five years to the day after the accident.

Answer: World War I

The Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment occurred on Dec. 12, 1917 during World War I. Of the 982 soldiers aboard the train over 700 were killed. This accident was caused by overloading the train. The brakes were not strong enough to slow the train while going downhill and were completely incapable of stopping the train once it had started.

The train derailed while going 60 mph (102 km/h) at a location where the train should have been going 25 mph (40 km/h). Immediately, fire broke out which was made worse by the ammunition being carried on the train. Safety issues were ignored because so many things had been requisitioned by France for the war.

Answer: The driver had a heart attack

The driver of this Tangara intercity train had a heart attack, which resulted in the derailment of this train and the deaths of 7 people. As so often, proper safety precautions, although available, were not being used. Two of the primary safeguards had been circumvented by the driver and when he became incapacitated, the train continued to speed up and the aptly named "deadmans brake" was unable to kick in and slow the train down.

At the time of the accident this train was going 73 mph (117km/h) at a location is should have been going 37 mph (60km/h).

The resulting derailment could have been much worse.

Answer: Richelieu River

This terrible rail accident occurred when the engineer of a train full of German and Polish immigrants failed to acknowledge a stop light and attempted to cross a swing bridge over the Richelieu River which had been opened to allow ships to pass. The train, which was on its way to Montreal, fell off the bridge into the river and resulted in the deaths of about 1/4 of the passengers.

The engine and 11 cars fell off the bridge on top of a passing river barge. This accident was blamed on human error by the engineer and conductor who failed to stop for the signals advising them that the bridge was open.

Answer: Liquid petroleum gas

This train disaster, which was caused by a leaky liquid petroleum gas line, took the lives of almost 600 people and severely injured another 800. Sadly, this count included many children who were on both trains involved. A cloud of flammable gas was ignited when two trains passed each other; the explosion has been estimated to have equaled 10 kilotons of TNT. One train was carrying children to the Black Sea for a vacation and the other train was on the return trip with another group of children. This is considered by many to be among the worst disasters to have occurred in 20th century Russia.

Answer: True

The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake was the direct cause of the Queen of the Sea rail disaster, which had at the time of its occurrence, the highest death count of any train disaster on the planet. The wreck occurred when the coastal passenger train was swept away by the giant tsunami that hit Sri Lanka.

The devastation in the area was so great that it took many hours of searching before this train could be found under the water. The loss of life in this rail disaster was over twice as high the worst previous disaster which had been the 1981 train wreck in Bihar, India, which killed 800 people.

Answer: True

On September 27, 1903 in the state of Virginia, the Old 97 mail train was going over 80 mph when it jumped the tracks and crashed into the ravine below. Nine people including the engineer were killed immediately. The train was going too fast but the engineer had been given orders to get the train to Monroe on time, despite the fact that the train had left the station late.

They were insistent that the mail be on time. The train company denied ordering their engineer to go as fast as the train would go but witnesses testified that they heard the order given.

This piece of folk music has been recorded by singers such as Johnny Cash and Flatt and Scruggs. Photos of this train wreck can be found online.