A carriage loaded with iron ore derailed at Podvoloshnaya-Pervouralsk railway haul (local division of Sverdlovsk Railway) on August 26, 2006. In order to eliminate the consequences of the accident, all operations on the even rail had to be closed for 4 hours and 17 minutes. The odd rail operated as usual. The recovery operations caused a twenty-one-hour delay of eighteen freight trains and an almost seven-and a half-hour delay of seven passenger trains. To find out the causes of the accident, the expert team had to use special tools to examine the technical condition of the carriages, the engine, and the railway; they also looked into the way the train was operated and the way the brakes were managed. The expert committee, compiled of technicians from Russian Railway and Sverdlovsk Railway, came to the conclusion that the engine operators made no mistakes, and the accident had been caused by a wheelset axle that broke due to production defects. Part of the axle will have to undergo metallographic investigation in Microacoustica Ltd. and Russian Railway Transport Research Institute.

The carriage was made by Altai carriage-building works in July 2006. It belongs to InPromLeasing Leasing Company Ltd. The accident resulted in Sverdlovsk Railway taking extra safety and contingency-prevention steps. The company’s experts have already found defects in five more Altai-made carriages, reports their spokesperson.