December 12 -
Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne derailment, on the
Culoz–Modane railway in the
FrenchAlps, a grossly overloaded troop train jumps the tracks near the entrance of the station at
Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, after running away down a steep gradient from the entrance to the
Fréjus Rail Tunnel due to inadequate brake power. At least 543 are killed, hundreds more are injured by the official count; the actual count is assumed to be considerably higher. Until 1981 this was the worst train wreck in history.[11]
^Chambers, T.F. (November 1968). "The Golden Jubilee of the Trans Australian Railway". Australian Railway History: 267–75.
^Burke, David (1991). Road through the Wilderness: the story of the transcontinental railway, the first great work of Australia’s federation. Kensington: New South Wales University Press.
ISBN0-86840-140-4.
^Ferneyhough, Frank (1975). The History of Railways in Britain. Reading: Osprey.
ISBN0-85045-060-8.