Man arrested for tampering with high-speed rails in Germany

[krus_aragon]

From https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51992070 :

A man in Germany has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly loosening bolts on a high-speed railway track.

The stretch of track affected was just before a bridge outside Frankfurt.

A train driver noticed "something unusual" while crossing the bridge early on Friday. Several trains had already passed over the section before the issue was discovered.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn described the incident as "sabotage".

The 51-year-old man was arrested on Saturday.

In a statement, prosecutors said the man is "strongly suspected of having removed bolts on 80 metres (260 feet) of the rail on a bridge between Cologne and Frankfurt".

His motive remains unclear however police said on Friday they could not rule out "a possible attack attempt".

According to German news site Der Spiegel, the rails were five centimetres further apart than usual. This could have caused trains to derail and even send them plunging off the bridge.

Police said it was lucky no harm had come to any trains or passengers.

Quite the oddity...

 

[The_Train]

Sadly it just shows the lengths some people will go to cause harm to others. It's a scary world that we have to live in now!

Out of interest, I imagine bolts holding railways together are not of a standard type and would take some effort and maybe even specialist equipment to loosen. Is that not the case?

 

[30907]

Sadly it just shows the lengths some people will go to cause harm to others. It's a scary world that we have to live in now!

Out of interest, I imagine bolts holding railways together are not of a standard type and would take some effort and maybe even specialist equipment to loosen. Is that not the case?

German reports suggest specialist tools were found in his car. Power tools?
Even so, it must have taken a fair time - but the HSL is closed at night....
I wouldn't expect the bolts themselves to be exceptionally unusual, but happy to be told otherwise.

 

[krus_aragon]

German reports suggest specialist tools were found in his car. Power tools?

Or perhaps a big breaker-bar (and suitable socket)? It's amazing what you can open with a long enough lever.

 

[Catracho]

It's a scary world that we have to live in now!

It has always been a scary world. If you paid attention to it. And it actually used to be much, much worse in "the good old days". People just didn't notice. Or have forgotten. Nowadays you hear about stuff more often and much faster, giving the impression of things getting worse. Well, they aren't. They either got better or have always been sh****.

 

[AlexNL]

Via-via I found a photo of the sabotaged section of track on the Cologne - Frankfurt high speed line:



As you can see on the left track, the rails are held in place by clips which are as big as the concrete support below. These clips are held in place by big bolts, which need heavy machinery to install.

(And no, Alex0628 is not me.)

 

[BRX]

Do they mean 5cm or do they mean 5mm? I'd have thought 5cm would be inevitable derailment.

 

[John Webb]

Do they mean 5cm or do they mean 5mm? I'd have thought 5cm would be inevitable derailment.

Judging by the photo in post #6 it is indeed 5cm! My guess is the rail was moved outward by successive trains until the train driver who reported it either felt or saw something was wrong. I notice too that there appears to be an access point nearby from the steps on the right.

 

[MarkyT]

Judging by the photo in post #6 it is indeed 5cm! My guess is the rail was moved outward by successive trains until the train driver who reported it either felt or saw something was wrong. I notice too that there appears to be an access point nearby from the steps on the right.

A wheel disc is usually around 5.5 inches deep (about 135mm) with over 3 inches of tread available comfortably outside the flange. Opening up of the rail gauge by 50mm is one inch on each side or up to two inches total movement, so unlikely for a train to drop between the rails, but no doubt the ride would get steadily worse as the gauge widened and with the axles moving more side to side, the force would tend to push the loose rail ever outwards although I assume it could get no further than the upstanding concrete mouldings on the right of the slab track shown in the photo.

 

[Ploughman]

I believe 1481mm is the absolute Network Rail limit before an immediate closure of the line.
With normal gauge of 1432 - 1435mm

 

[Bald Rick]

And that’s one reason why we don’t have that sort of track fastening in use in our country (with a few exceptions).

 

[MarcVD]

What do you mean by that ? That UK uses rail fastenings that are less easy to sabotage because the tools needed are not widely available ? What kind of fastenings exactly ? Pandrol clips ?

 

[Bald Rick]

What do you mean by that ? That UK uses rail fastenings that are less easy to sabotage because the tools needed are not widely available ?

Exactly that.

 

[Ploughman]

How many miles of Pandrol clips are there in the ground now?
All you need is a hammer.

They might not be on the HS routes but ECML etc has a goodly amount.

 

[Bald Rick]

How many miles of Pandrol clips are there in the ground now?
All you need is a hammer.

They might not be on the HS routes but ECML etc has a goodly amount.

Well I wasn’t going to say what you needed.

However try getting a fastclip out with a hammer and you’ll hurt yourself!