One carriage remained under rubble last night crushed beneath the giant slabs of concrete from the bridge that collapsed in Wednesday's crash.
No survivors were found yesterday and rescue workers had already given up hope by lunchtime of finding anyone else alive.
The people of Eschede gathered last night in their local church of St John to remember people they never met and to grieve for those whose names they did not know.
Relatives of the dead and injured started arriving in the area yesterday but many victims remain to be identified.
The rescue operation has been a model of its kind - calm, swift and efficient and the mood in Eschede yesterday was gentle and subdued.
Local people spoke softly, never exaggerating their place in the tragedy but full of quiet respect for its terrible impact on others.
Mr Joachim Gries was back at the scene of the crash yesterday after a couple of hours of unsettled sleep. He was one of the first on the scene on Wednesday rushing from his house nearby when he heard a loud thump.
"There was a great cloud of dust over the scene and it took a minute or two to make out the pieces of luggage and clothing lying around. I heard cries and moans and went to help a woman I saw lying there. The man beside her was completely still and next to him was a child," he said.
Along with the other volunteers who helped in the rescue effort, Mr Gries can avail himself of counselling provided by 50 pastors who arrived in Eschede yesterday.
The catastrophe has gripped the German public in an unexpected way and viewing figures for Wednesday's evening's news reports were higher than for coverage of the death of Princess Diana.
Many Germans felt suddenly close to the unfortunate strangers on the train and found themselves grieving for them.
The anonymity of the victims and the mystery surrounding the cause of the crash may even have helped people to make the tragedy their own and to imagine the dead as people like themselves, their friends and their children.
For Mr Gries the most enduring memory of the entire tragedy was his struggle to keep the injured alive as he bore them from the wreckage and off the grassy bank beside the track.
"I just kept talking to them. You don't want someone to die in your arms. So I just said anything I could think of. All they ever said was: I want to get out of here, I want to get out," he said.
The broken carriages lay strewn across the track yesterday, some torn open as if they were made of cardboard, others overturned to show a tangle of wheels and cables.
The blue plush seats and personal entertainment consoles that were such an important part of the appeal of the Inter City Express were poking out of shattered windows.
Most of the personal effects of the passengers, which included children's rucksacks and toys, had already been removed by yesterday afternoon.
Most of yesterday's rescue efforts focused on freeing the last two carriages trapped under rubble.
Early reports that they were carrying two parties of schoolchildren appear to be unfounded but the carriages, one of which was a dining car, bore most of the impact of the crash and were crushed to 15 per cent of their original size.
Mr Jorg Haslinger, who was heading the rescue work of the German Federal Border guards, said it would be difficult to identify the people crushed inside.
"We have very highly skilled forensic experts from the Federal Criminal Office working closely with pathologists. But it may be weeks or even months before we can identify everyone," Mr Haslinger said.
The Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, visited the scene yesterday to offer his sympathy to the victims and their families.
His rival in September's federal election, Mr Gerhard Schroder, came too. Mr Schroder is the Social Democrat prime minister of Lower Saxony, the state in which Eschede is situated.
He said the catastrophe had united the country in grief for the victims and gratitude for the remarkable efforts of the emergency services and the Germans felt closer to one another than they had for many years.