Six cars carrying petroleum products derailed on trestle, over the Bow river, it is still in flood stage, flowing too fast for containment booms on the river, seems part of trestle collapsed dropping one car 3 feet (1 metre) This is main line CPR track west, this is a very dangerous and difficult derailment, they haven’t confirmed the exact contents of the tank cars, so far there seems to be no leakage. Thurs. June 27, 2013
Incorrect, this bridge is at the south(TT East) throat of the Alyth Yard. This is the Brooks Sub. to Medicine Hat.
At this point the bridge hasn’t collapsed, Pumping hoses have been connected to some of the cars and pumping should start soon. Once the weight on the bridge has been lightened, they will see where to go from there.
Bruce
One of the concrete piers on the three track bridge at the east throat of Alyth Yard seems to have been undermined by the rampaging Bow River, and settled or tipped. A fourth track, the “Ogden Lead” is parallel to the original bridge and seems to have survived. Pictures I have seen showed the water was over the rails at the height of the flood, so it has dropped a long way since the weekend. CBC, CTV and Global all have coverage, especially the Calgary stations.
For those unfamiliar with Calgary, the big through truss bridge that you may see in the pictures belongs to CN. It is now used to interchange with CPR but was built by the Grand Trunk Pacific to reach the city centre.
John
Here are the current links to coverage of the incident. as of 4:00 PM MDT. I will post updated links after the suppertime news shows.
CTV Calgary:
http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/crews-use-tricky-maneuvers-to-stabilize-train-1.1343750
Global Calgary:
CBC News:
Bruce
Well, it still is the main line of the CPR in Calgary, it is at the south end of Alyth yard, follow this track west into downtown Calgary and points west (Banff/Vancouver) follow it south (east) it will take you to Ogden shops and points east(Medicine Hat/Moose Jaw/ Montreal) If the “Canadian” was still running you would pass over this trestle coming from Moose Jaw on your way West to Banff.
Unless the C.P.R. has a new Main Line going through Alberta.
The media outlets have been updating the links I have already posted above. The link to the Global Calgary site is very interesting as it has an unedited version of a press conference give by Canadian Pacific officials.
Bruce
Readers out east will be getting up in a few hours, so according to the 11:00 News here, as of 10:45 PM, ALL of the tank car loads have been emptied without ANY leakage into the river. Kudos to everyone involved in pulling that off. It is expected the cars themselves should be removed by midday our time tomorrow. Also, it was revealed that the bridge was 101 years old.
I will post more links when the opportunity permits.
Bruce
To correct your directions: In Canada when referring to geographical directions the proper terms are:
DOWN East, OUT West, UP North, DOWN South.
I tott it were ‘back east’, bye. In dees here paaarts, we calls it ‘baaack east’…or ‘down home’.
[;)]
Don’t forget “over-hyaar” and “down the road apiece”.
Here in the middle, those all apply. However, if you are on either coast - (I am going to play the straight person here, so go easy…) how do they refer to themselves?
For 30 years from 1939-1969 the words "Now it’s time for the DOWN EAST music of Don Messer and the Islanders " were heard from coast to coast in Canada.
I still can’t believe they managed to get this situation fixed without injury, loss of life, or loss of product. Here are the links to the final stories filed this morning.
CTV Calgary:
http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/cars-cleared-from-damaged-bridge-1.1345359
Global Calgary:
CBC News:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2013/06/28/calgary-flood-train-derailment-friday.html
When I said out east, I was thinking of folks like Henry6 and PDNjr. on the US east coast. In Canada of course, we have 1½ more times down east of that yet. Atlantic and Newfoundland Time Zones.
As for Don Messer, you can’t tell me little kids weren’t listening to his show with their parents and not have it affect their careers as musicians when they grew up. Like The R
I just got a look at today’s Calgary Sun newspaper and I am going to have to cite them for “Abuse of Pun”:
Troubled Waters for CPR
and
Mayor Rails Against . . .
[:)]
Bruce
Bruce, the last time I drove along the Bow was from Banff to Calgary just before Palm Sunday four years ago (we went to church in Calgary the next day). It was a nice, placid river, as I remember. We were making a loop around from Jasper and back, staying in the former railroad hotels in Banff, Calgary, and Edmonton. I am well aware of what a sudden influx of water can do to such a watercourse. As I recall, during the hurricane season in1964, a mild bayou (hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it) stopped the northbound Panama Limted above McComb. I am not certain, but the train probably went back to McComb, and unless the crew were carried to Canton, there was no one to bring the next morning’s Pannyma down to McComb. I did not learn when the water went down to less than four inches above the rail.
I wish I had been home the second day after the flooding so I could have seen what foreign cars were on the northbound train that day–all of the cars that were regularly on the train, even foreign-owned cars, were painted in the IC colors (there was at least one car, from the E-L, which was on the train regularly).
It was only revealed today, as a result of comments made by the Transportation Critic of the Official Opposition party in Parliament (Federal Government), that CP has been ordered by Transport Canada to place all bridges in the Calgary area under a permanent 10 mph slow order until further notice. Presumably until the report is issued on the bridge collapse.
It would have been nice if CP had said something first, given their new found obsession with Train Speeds and Yard Dwell Times. This will impact trains leaving in all four directions. There is only one bridge each on the north and south lines out of the city, but as to the east and west lines, can you say bottleneck?
Also today the South Line of the Calgary LRT was finally reopened for business. This line carries 110,000 passengers a day. If you wander over to calgary.ctvnews.ca you will find a video with some amazing photos of how much damage they had to recover from, in such a short time.
One final thought, I am beginning to become more concerned about the regulations regarding disclosure of information to shareholders than I am about the regulations regarding actual operations. After watching the recovery from that bridge collapse it is very clear CP still has ground level unionized employees who know what the h*** they are doing.
Bruce
The CPR’s partially collapsed Bonnybrook bridge, damaged by flooding. The shots were taken from public property from a bike pathway, on June 30th.
See more…
http://www.bigdoer.com/9900/urban-adventures/collapsed-bonnybrook-train-bridge/
Very interesting situation on the Railway Performance Measures web site. Whether it is due to the fact the CP Head Office was inaccessible for several days due to the flooding in downtown, or the bridge collapse has so totally snarled the mainline, CP did not release any Yard Dwell Times for the week ended July 5.
Train Speed looks like it has bounced back, but that could also be due to the fact CP handled approximately 1,400 cars less than the week before. One of the largest week to week changes in either direction I have seen since I first started following this site, after seeing PDNjr’s recommendation.
http://www.railroadpm.org/home/RPM/Performance%20Reports/CP.aspx
Bruce