An Expert's Alarming Report as Sequel to the Kiaochao-Tsinan Line Accident The following article has been written by China's bridge expert, Dr. P. Chen, and should prove very interesting. especially to those of the engineering profession.
Owing to the misinformed interpretation of the real causes of the recent bridge accident on the Kiaochao-Tsinan Railway, it is deemed necessary to make public the details relative te the circumstances occurred. The Yunho bridge is situated between Nanlin and Huangchipo stations, and has eight 109 ft. spans. The depth of the water below is only about one foot. On February 16, the midnight freight train from Tsingtao to Fengtse, consisting of two cars of cofiton seed and seven empty cars, was pulled by two locomotives of the consolidation type, No, 510 and No. 517, which weigh about 130 tons ch. The mud-river spans failed with one driver killed and two firemen seriously wounded.
The drivers and firemen, being natives of Fengtse, were anxious to return home for the Chinese New Year. These men had been employed under the Japanese Administration and understood it to be all right to couple two engines as is stated in the it "Regulations of Operation." These heaviest engines, No, 50. to No. 51%, were first used last May and engine No, 517 was first put on the line in September, 1922. These engines, though officially allowed by the old regulations, probably never were coupled before in practice. After the accident, it was found that only two empty cars were loti on the bridge, the two locomotives, slightly distorted, were lying on the sanded of the shallow river, while the rest of the train was totally wrecked.
When the Chinese engineers first ne to this line, the Japanese engineers told them, in very emphatic way, that the bridges had a factor of safety two and half for the heaviest. existing locomotives of this line or FE, 35 loading. The bridges are stressed by new locomotives beyond elastic limit are only worth E. 13. The bridges are almost three times overloaded by the newly added locomotives.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.