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Death toll rises in Quebec derailment
You would think experienced railroaders would never leave an unmanned train at the top of a hill and especially one overlooking a town. And need I say that extra precautions should have been taken when the entire train is hazmat loads. My heart goes out to Ed Burkhart as well as the people of Lac Megantic. Poor Ed, his ner-do-well railroad is probably just hanging by threads, this could not only finish it off but what a way for Ed to end his career. I’ve been dreading the first oil train derailment but I don’t think any of us could have foreseen this. It should be interesting to hear what Ed Hamburger of the AAR will have to say. All he ever says is how safe America’s FREIGHT railroads are. I’ve long since dismissed his utterances as brainless propaganda.
The rife, speculations and challenges and responses, further queries----was the catastrophe a non-existent chance or probability. Was possibility rampant, casualties, and fatalities a simple understandable result of unthinkable, (people whose imaginations aren’t Coastal) Results if a train is not attended on a mountain grade.
My brother, international banker, called and asked if I ever handled, driven, ran, operated trains like the one that obliterated, destroyed, Lac Megantic?
Yes!
\and…NO!
SPT drew from lessons ways to avoid mountain grade disasters
Richmond’s Chevron Refinery got crude oil trains from Utah in the 80’s. every other day…the Oil Cans,.
Same name…from north of Bakersfield to LA over Tehachapi a Tank-Train.
We, SP alumni, proudly present ourselves on the crest of mountains, we know about them.
The rife, speculations and challenges and responses, further queries----was the catastrophe a non-existent chance or probability. Was possibility rampant, casualties, and fatalities a simple understandable result of unthinkable, (people whose imaginations aren’t Coastal) Results if a train is not attended on a mountain grade.
My brother, international banker, called and asked if I ever handled, driven, ran, operated trains like the one that obliterated, destroyed, Lac Megantic?
Yes!
\and…NO!
SPT drew from lessons ways to avoid mountain grade disasters
Richmond’s Chevron Refinery got crude oil trains from Utah in the 80’s. every other day…the Oil Cans,.
Same name…from north of Bakersfield to LA over Tehachapi a Tank-Train.
We, SP alumni, proudly present ourselves on the crest of mountains, we know about them.
I agree with the other railroaders, and wonder why a basic rule wasn’t followed: " train must be secured with a sufficient number of handbrakes if left unattended. That’s GGOR rules and Basic Railroading 101. I work for Amtrak; if we don’t follow the rules we get an unpaid vacation. Please keep us informed of developments in this case. To all my RR brethren; BE SAFE.
If the lead locomotive was attached to the cars, and was shut down by the firefighters, then eithier it should have been restarted or a sufficient number of handbrakes should have been applied to keep the train from moving. It sounds like neither of these was done. If the locomotives were detached from the train, first a full service brake application should have been made, then a sufficient number of handbrakes applied and tested.
Everyone is guessing right now. No one that is posting here or on other message boards is on the scene, or has any knowledge of the incident other than hearsay. Any speculation is a waste of bandwidth.
Let the investigators proceed, and determine what happened.
I saw on the national news last night (I will keep the company anonymous), that they’re spinning it as how dangerous it is to ship this stuff by rail - giving the idea that pipelines are safer - but I would have liked to share with them the charts on pg. 6 of the August edition. :-/
I have run this type of train myself. There are many questions here to be answered, this will not be a simple task. Was this a one man crew? Had the train gone though town and then rolled backwards when the brakes released? Was the train parked on flat ground? What class of track/speed. One photo I saw online showed grass growing on both sides of the rail much like a mowed lawn indicating a low speed railroad. I too saw the FRED hanging in a photo but that was after some cars had been pulled off, pehaps the FRED was hung later. I look forward to seeing these questions anwered and hope Trains does a full in depth article.
J. M. Zweerts
One wonders if a lone crewman was required , and if so did he, walk the cars by himself at 1:00 am sitting hand brakes on a 3/4 mile train?
Also, this makes a good argument for never allowing one man crews. Heck, our local model railroad club even tacks on a caboose to model trains carrying imaginary hazmat. Might be a good example for the real railroads.
I too find the whereabouts of the locomotives very interesting.
There seems to be a lot of contradictions in the various accounts of this accident,along with double posting of some the comments dated yesterday(7/8) from at least 2 people.
Whomever is responsible for checking comment on News Wire stories appears to asleep at the switch as the same exact comments word for word get double posted or the posters were to quick on their clicks for submitting comments.
The article posted today says that a Track Worker with No Knowledge of how a Locomotive works was sent out after the fire in the Locomotive was extinguished and the engine shut down to check out the Locomotive.
I don’t about you, but that seems to me to be poor thinking on the dispatchers part and if I am reading that part the report it said the the worker went home after being dispatched and informed the dispatcher of the same or was it he left for home with out doing anything,I am not a railway worker,but you don’t send someone out to check out motive power that has had a fire in it who doesn’t know what he’s doing or anything about the workings and operation of a Locomotive,another engineer or hostler or Engine shop mechanic should have been sent out to check over that Locomotive and restart its engine and check that the brakes were working properly and set and that the Locomotive was securely locked for the night.
As for the theory of Eco-Terrorists or Pipeline proponents,somebody has been watching too many conspiracy movies,hell it could been the work of flunkeys(i.e a “Plumbers” Squad from the "Tea-aliban " who want the pipeline from Canada and are out to get President Obama by any means necessary,ri…ght?)
Though the idea of Green Peace or someone like them doing this sounds plausible(maybe the Mythbusters should check this out) I don’t think they are involved, for they would have to have had someone in the area ready to go at a moments notice and have to have been monitoring the Police and Fire Dept. Radio Channels in ord
After reading all the speculation in previous comments, I’ll just wait for FACTS.
After reading all the speculation in previous comments, I’ll just wait for FACTS.
Obviously a full investigation will be done. The thought that a prankster was at play raises grave concern as to available preventive safeguards. There will always be thoughtless persons. Why was the oil freight on dispatch that required it to be stopped in its movement, especially as a routine on a hill with track passing through a town? The hill made this an accident waiting to happen. The loss of life is horrible.
i’ve never been big on conspiracy theories, but the thought that an opponent of oil by rail could have easily figured out that this shortline didn’t practice “good velocity” and let a huge load of oil sit idle while an employee got some zzzzz’s offered an opportunity to generate huge negative publicity about rail safety.
in the west virginia issue of Trains just out, page 6 offered prime minister Harper attacking rail safety and pushing pipeline transit. it also notes that that refiners seemed to be choosing rail over pipeline and that refiners passed on a deadline to commit to the pipeline. in light of our own government putting one over on us by monitoring all of our communication, could it be that a prime minister plotted to drive home his position? crime scene indeed!
Where was the relief crew who could have averted this horrible tragedy?
sloppy railroading?
sloppy railroading?
No power, no air pressure, no brakes, runaway train. The engineer left the locomotive engine running to maintain air pressure on the brakes. In the safety business this is called a single point failure.
Setting the hand brake on the engines and the first few cars as part of the initial tying down the train would have prevented the runaway or at least greatly slowed it when the air brakes released.
Safety rules are written with red blood.