@andrewfeeney @kboyd @sidereal
Eschede train disaster
A mechanical failure on car 1 ended up with a derailed wheel striking a switch, causing car 3 to straddle two tracks, taking out a support column for a road bridge, which then collapsed onto the back part of car 5 and onto car 6, flattening it to 15cm. The remaining six cars and the rear power car then slammed into the obstruction at 200 km/hr.
@sabik @kboyd @sidereal Oh wow, so this actually happened once. I was trying to imagine the geometry in my head and whether or not it could occur. My conclusion was that you could have one wheel on a rail for each side and the rest of the weight of the car would be resting on either a wheel dragging through sleepers or part of the car or bogies resting on the tracks, so it would slow down quickly or start rolling or something, but wouldn't slide along very long.