C5/2007R Derailment of a freight train locomotive in Talviainen, Finland, on 15 July 2007

On Sunday 15 July 2007 at 6.11 p.m., one of the two locomotives of a freight train was derailed after passing a curved turnout in Talviainen station. The derailed locomotive incurred some damage.

The derailment occurred because the track was bent out of shape and therefore hindered passage.

Contributing to this was the fact that rail construction in the depot had involved deficiencies in planning and implementation. At no point during the construction project had the special features of the rail’s unusual geometry been taken into account. The geometry had been called into question during planning, but the matter had not been addressed when new plans were formulated. During planning, no observations had been made that there was insufficient space to even out the cant in the turnout.

In order to prevent similar occurrences in the future, the Accident Investigation Board recommends that planning guidelines be formulated for curved turnouts and that demanding construction projects include the measurement of rail geometries with loads before commissioning, in order to ensure that limit values are met.

C5/2007R Report (pdf, 1.45 Mt)

•Recommendation S248

•Recommendation S249