1873 Pest rail accident

September 2026 1873 derailment in Pest, Austria-Hungary 1873 Pest rail accident Railway accident in Pest, 1873.jpg 280 Railway accident in Pest (Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt, 11 May 1873) 47.515981 19.094984 6 May 1873 c. 11 AM Zugló, outskirts of Pest Budapest Austria-Hungary Budapest-Szolnok railway line Hungarian Central Railway ib Hungarian Central Railway de Ungarische Central-Eisenbahn Derailment Human error 26 about 50 The 1873 Pest rail accident occurred on 6 May 1873 in Zugló, on the outskirts of Pest, Budapest, on the Budapest-Szolnok railway line built by the Hungarian Central Railway ib Hungarian Central Railway de Ungarische Central-Eisenbahn. A train carrying mostly Slovene railway workers was mistakenly diverted to a section of track under reconstruction, causing it to derail and its carriages to fall down the embankment. The event left 26 people dead and about 50 injured. It was one of the first major rail accidents in the history of rail transport in Hungary.Wágner Gábor Amikor a körútra gurult be a vonat – Budapest leghíresebb és legdöbbenetesebb közlekedési balesetei https://welovebudapest.com/toplista/budapest-leghiresebb-tomegkozlekedesi-balesetei-tortenelem/#Az_1873-as_vasuti_baleset We Love Budapest 2 September 2026 Budapest hu 31 August 2026 Accident thumb|left|Hermina Chapel ib Hermina Chapel hu Hermina-kápolna in Zugló and its neighborhood in 1895 Late on the morning of Tuesday, 6 May 1873, freight train no. 136 of the Hungarian State Railway, coming from Szeged to Budapest,Das Eisenbahnunglück in Pest Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt 8 May 1873 2 126 2 https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=iwe&datum=18730508&seite=2&zoom=48 2 September 2026 O. F. Berg und F. J. Singer Vienna deKranjski delavci unesrečeni Slovenski Narod 9 May 1873 6 106 4 https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=sin&datum=18730509&seite=4&zoom=48 2 September 2026 Ljubljana sl approached the Kőbánya station area, southeast of Pest. The train, powered by the Ménes steam locomotive,Jíagy vasúti szerencsétlenség Budapest mellett Vasárnapi Ujság 18 May 1873 20 236 hu Budapest https://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00030/01002/pdf/01002.pdf 2 September 2026 was carrying about 140 railway labourers from Carniola, mostly of Slovene origin, and also a few Italians. It also included some freight wagons, among them wagons loaded with sheep. On its approach, the train was not warned of the construction area, and local station staff routed it onto an unfinished dead-end track. At City Park (Városliget) near the Hermina Chapel ib Hermina Chapel hu Hermina-kápolna, about 1–2 km from the future Nyugati station,Csaba Domonkos The railway station that was cut in two https://pestbuda.hu/en/cikk/20221029_the_railway_station_that_was_cut_in_two PestBuda Látóhatár Kiadó Lap-és Könyvkiadó Kft. 2 September 2026 the train left the tracks and fell down the railway embankment. Falling from a height of about 10–20 meters, the locomotive dug deep into the ground below, taking six wagons with it.Kruté neštěsí Národní listy 8 May 1873 13 125 (supplement) 1 https://www.digitalniknihovna.cz/mzk/uuid/uuid:3f76d7b0-435f-11dd-b505-00145e5790ea 2 September 2026 Cruel disaster Julius Grégr Prague cs 1214-1240 The locomotive's boiler burst. Aftermath thumb|Illustration of the event by Alájos Gerhard (Vasárnapi Ujság, 18 May 1873) Volunteers reached the scene some time later. The first state official to arrive and investigate was the state judge Dr. Thaiss, and a vicar named Halak gave the last rites. About 40 sheep were also killed in the crash. The final toll of the event was 26 dead and about 50 injured. During the investigation, a station attendant named Biedermann was arrested at Kőbánya station on suspicion of not informing the driver. After his arrest, he attempted suicide several times but was prevented from doing so. The Kőbánya stationmaster, the chief construction manager of the reconstruction works, and two railway officials were also reportedly arrested. The scale of the accident attracted the attention of non-Hungarian periodicals across the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including the Czech Národní listy, the Austrian Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt and the Slovene Slovenski Narod. The liability of railway companies for damages was regulated by two railway regulation acts of 1874, the year after the accident, dealing with "liability for death or personal injury caused by railways".Csaba Domonkos Egy megrendítő történet a városegyesítés évéből https://pestbuda.hu/cikk/20230515_egy_megrendito_tortenet_a_varosegyesites_evebol PestBuda Látóhatár Kiadó Lap-és Könyvkiadó Kft. 2 September 2026 hu 15 May 2023 See also History of Budapest Budapest–Szolnok–Debrecen–Nyíregyháza–Záhony railway Citations Category:1873 in Hungary Category:Railway accidents in 1873 Category:Derailments in Hungary Category:19th century in Budapest Category:Zugló