The wreck at the station Ob

Prior circumstances

On December 6, the locomotive depot of the Inskaya Tomsk railway at 9 am was replaced by a locomotive brigade consisting of young engineer Nikolai Skulkin, assistant Mikhail Egorov and fireman Vladimir Naumov. They had to work on that day on the FD20-1707 steam locomotive (“Felix Dzerzhinsky”, built in 1937 , the total weight is 237 tons). Then, at the Inskaya station (then 30 km from Novosibirsk ), the locomotive was attached to a train loaded with Kuzbass coal, after which the train was led to Chulymskaya station (about 130 km). Upon arrival at the station, the Chulym brigade received instructions from the station duty officer to prepare the locomotive for the return flight as soon as possible to ensure delivery of empty cargo train to the Kuzbass, as there were no other free locomotives at the station. The engine was completely filled with water and coal, and its furnace was cleaned of slags, which took considerable time. Then the brigade attached the FD20-1707 to the train consisting of empty freight wagons and went back towards Novosibirsk . By that time, evening had already come, and the team actually worked without rest.

Due to the large number of trains in the area, this freight train traveled relatively slowly. Behind him followed by the international courier train number 6 . He traveled from Negoreloye Station, on the border with Poland , through Minsk , Moscow and Omsk to Manchuria Station, which was located in China . Among his passengers were several diplomats who were traveling from Europe to China and Japan. His passenger cars were branded, with four and double compartments. From Barabinsk, a passenger train was driven by a locomotive IS20-612 (“Joseph Stalin”) under the direction of experienced driver Nikolai Zinoviev from the Novosibirsk locomotive depot . For the passage of the courier at the station Chick freight train was put on the side track, and after the train No. 6 following the train sent behind him.

Wreck

By that time, an export train had already been sent from the Inskaya station to the Krivoshchekovo station (now Novosibirsk-Zapadny ). He followed to the Ob station (27.5 km from Inskaya and 14 km from Novosibirsk), at which the locomotive was retired from the head to the tail, and then the train was moving in the opposite direction, but already to the Krivoshchekovo station. The interchange of the locomotive was delayed this time, so the station duty officer was forced to shut off the traffic light to maneuver with the export train. For this reason, the express train stopped at the entrance traffic light with a prohibitory indication. In the meantime, the train driven by the engineer Skulkin, having set off after the courier, had already overcome the short climb going after the station Chik and left for the descent leading to the Ob station. Local time was 3 am, and the locomotive crew of a freight train had been working continuously for 18 hours. When the squad left for the descent, its course was already maintained due to gravity, so the tired crew lost its vigilance and fell asleep. In a few minutes, virtually no one managed a freight train at a speed of about 50 km / h crashed into the tail of the express. The carriages with wooden lining and light steel frame broke under a heavy steam locomotive, and some were thrown onto the adjacent first track, where the oncoming train crashed into them. The fire from the stoves working because of the frost spread to the cladding boards, which caused a fire. Another empty train, who was driving after it, managed to stop in front of the red signal.

Debris Analysis

In the courier train, almost all passenger cars were destroyed, only the engine and the baggage car following it survived. The survivors froze in the cold, the temperature was about −40 ° C. The first to the aid came cadets from a flying school that was nearby. To eliminate the consequences of the crash, fire and ambulance trains were sent, as well as rehabilitation trains from Novosibirsk, Inskaya and Chulymskaya. Also, people from the nearest stations and the management of the road were sent to help. The extinguishing of the fire was greatly complicated, as the water froze in the sleeves due to the severe frost. The wounded were placed in a military barrack located nearby, and some were taken away to the city hospitals by car.

The crash actually paralyzed traffic on the Trans-Siberian Railway. During the investigation of the catastrophe of the international courier train No. 6, 45 people were arrested, including the Skulkin locomotive brigade, switchmen , train dispatcher , duty officer at Ob station , head of locomotive department of the Insk department of the Tomsk railway, duty officer at the Novosibirsk branch. Later, an operational meeting was held in Novosibirsk to investigate the circumstances of the disaster. As a result, 20 people were put on trial, and the engineer Skulkin and assistant Yegorov were threatened with the death penalty for sleeping at work. For the analysis of the situation from Moscow, a commission was sent, which, under Stalin’s personal instructions , was headed by Nikolay Sinegubov , Vice-Director-General of Communications of the 2 nd rank and Deputy Minister, in the future chief auditor for traffic safety. Another commission was sent to the station Chulymskaya, which then was the border between two roads: Omsk and Tomsk, in order to clarify the delays in the movement. In the same place, in Chulym, Sinegubov held the first meeting with the commanding staff of both roads, after which he left for Novosibirsk. In the city, the deputy minister first visited Skulkin’s driver’s house, where he saw terrible poverty: the house was cold to such an extent that the water in the drinking barrel froze, the engineer's wife lay with tuberculosis , and the barely warm stove had two children 4 and 6 years old ash. Coming out of the house, Sinegubov immediately ordered the release of the entire locomotive brigade.

The crash in Ob was not decisive, but it was one of those that showed the inefficiency of the then existing organization of labor in rail transport. Wrecks at that time were not uncommon, there were very frequent passages of red signals due to fatigue of locomotive brigades. As a result, the duration of working shifts was significantly reduced to 12, and in some cases to 8 hours, while simultaneously increasing the salaries of railway workers by 20% . At a number of stations, additional substitution points were introduced (for example, at the Novosibirsk-Chulymskaya point, there was a station at Duplenskaya station) equipped with showers, which were eliminated with the transfer of directions to electric locomotive traction. The locomotive brigades were also rehabilitated, which crashed due to being at work for more than 12 hours. In addition to improving working conditions, the introduction of safety systems, including hitchhiking, ALS , as well as a locomotive speed meter with the recording of basic train parameters began. Sometimes, a wreck in Ob is associated with the appearance of order No. 2164 “On the unfavorable traffic safety situation and on measures to strengthen discipline in railway transport,” although in fact this order was issued on June 25, 1951 (canceled by Resolution No. 678 of September 25, 1971 ) .

Earlier in March of the same year, a similar crash occurred on the Circum-Baikal Railway in the Irkutsk Region , when, due to the fatigue of the locomotive brigade, a prohibitive signal was allowed to pass by a freight train and collided with the tail of a passenger train that went ahead.

• Railway accidents in the USSR

• The collapse of the passenger train to the station. Ob ZSZHD December 7, 1946 (Neopr.) . The date of circulation is September 15, 2012. Archived October 31, 2012.
• The Forgotten Catastrophe // Lokotrans. - 2011. - № 10 (180) .