Talk:Montparnasse derailment

Fines for derailment?

In this article, it says "The driver was fined 50 francs and one of the guards 25 francs." In the Gare Montparnasse page, it's stated that "A conductor was given a 25-franc fine and the engine driver a 50-franc fine." Anyone know which, if either, are correct? ataricom (talk) 18:46, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

The source is given in this article ("Paris 1895". danger-ahead. Retrieved 24 October 2012.) and no source is given on Gare Montparnasse, or the French wikipedia article, fr:Accident ferroviaire de la gare Montparnasse. Edgepedia (talk) 20:04, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Both appear to be correct, as the term "conductor" is being used for "guard", like an old-fashioned bus conductor. Hyperman 42 (talk) 16:09, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

In popular culture

I've removed the following "in popular culutre" type references from the section on the Gare Montparnasse article. Some of them may be worth including here, but likely not all of them (certainly we don't need to references to Thomas and Friends). Thryduulf (talk) 14:46, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

The screenshot was used as a replica in the Thomas and Friends episode "A Better View for Gordon" when Gordon's breaks failed.

At the end of the film Silver Streak the train crashes into the station in a similar way. The train crash and the picture featured in the 2007 children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick and in its film adaptation, Hugo, where it was in one of Hugo's nightmares. The picture of the accident is used as the cover page in the book An Introduction to Error Analysis by John Taylor. The story of the 1895 accident was referenced in the television series Thomas and Friends in "A Better View For Gordon". The event is depicted in the comic book The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. The accident was also featured on the front cover of American hard rock band Mr. Big's 1991 album, Lean into It, and on the cover of Dutch anarcho-punk band The Ex's 1991 album Scrabbling at the Lock.

Cause of the accident

The original wording of this article implied that the driver failed to apply the brake, but most sources state this as a Westinghouse brake failure. The approach speed does not seem excessive. However, the Westinghouse air brake relies on the air pump continuously working and keeping the air line pressure high enough to allow rapid braking. If the pump stopped working, and the driver didn't notice this or the fall in air pressure, the brake would be much less effective when applied. It seems quite likely that this happened here. Similar incidents happened over the years, for example at Guildford when an electric train's air brake pump stopped working and the train couldn't be slowed down enough descending an incline and collided with another in the station, killing the driver. When working properly, compressed air brakes stop trains much quicker than vacuum brakes or handbrakes. Hyperman 42 (talk) 16:17, 5 February 2022 (UTC)

References