1953 Col des Nuages derailment

The Col des Nuages derailment was a train derailment that occurred in eastern French Indochina, in modern-day Vietnam, on 24 June 1953, during the First Indochina War. Railway officials announced the day after that "about 100 or more" were killed when a passenger train plunged 50 feet through a sabotaged viaduct.^[1][2]

Two locomotives and 18 cars crashed down in a ravine at the Col des Nuages (Pass of the Clouds, known now as the Hai Van Pass), a mountain pass on the route between the ancient Vietnamese capital of Huế and the port of Tourane (Đà Nẵng). The pass had frequently been the scene of attacks by the Communist-directed Viet Minh rebels.

Officials said that a strong explosive charge detonated just as the train arrived at the viaduct, tumbling a 25-foot span into the ravine.

See also

• Railway accidents in Vietnam

References

1. ^ Playground News (1953), p.8.
2. ^ Haine (1993), p.142, 168.

• Fort Walton Beach, Florida, "Indochina Rail Crash Kills 100". Playground News, Thursday 25 June 1953, Volume 8, Number 22.
• Railroad wrecks. Edgar A. Haine. Associated University Presses, 1993. ISBN 0845348442.
• Britannica book of the year. Franklin Henry Hooper, Walter Yust eds. Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc., 1954.