Versailles rail accident
1842 sketch of the derailment and fire
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| Date | May 8, 1842 |
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| Location | Meudon, Paris |
| Country | France |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Deaths | 52–200 |
| List of rail accidents (before 1880) | |
The Versailles rail accident occurred on May 8, 1842 in the cutting between Meudon and Bellevue stations on the railway between Versailles and Paris, France. Following King Louis Philippe I's celebrations at the Palace of Versailles, a train returning to Paris derailed at Meudon, after the leading locomotive broke an axle, and the carriages behind piled into it and caught fire. The first French railway accident and the deadliest in the world at the time, it caused between 52 and 200 deaths including that of the explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville and his wife Adèle Dumont D'Urville. The accident led to the abandonment in France of the practice of locking passengers in their carriages.
Metal fatigue was poorly understood at the time and the accident is linked to the beginnings of systematic research into the problem.
By the late afternoon of Sunday May 8, 1842, the public celebrations being held in honour of king Louis Philippe I in the Gardens of Versailles had finished and many people wished to return to Paris. At 5:30 pm a train left the rive gaucheVersailles railway station for Paris Montparnasse. Over 120 metres (390 ft) long and composed of 16 to 18 carriages hauled by two steam locomotives, the train was crowded, carrying 770 passengers. Travelling at 40 kilometres per hour (25 mph) between Bellevue and Meudon, one of the axles of the leading locomotive snapped and the vehicle derailed, scattering the contents of its fire-box. When the second locomotive and the carriages continued over the derailed locomotive, the carriages caught fire, trapping the passengers. The passengers were locked in their compartments as was the custom in continental Europe at the time.
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