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Five confirmed dead, more missing in Quebec runaway wreck
Did the engine roll down the hill with the tank cars or did they seperate? Is there any indication of foul play at this point?
Ed might have wished he had not said “Well, we’ve blown it this time” without consulting his legal department…
What sort of mickey mouse operating rules does this company use? Where I work (and I am a locomotive engineer), ALL unattended rail vehicles must have hand-brakes firmly applied. Air brakes can release at any time.
It’s interesting that Ed Burkhardt is involved. When he was chairman of Tranz Rail in New Zealand, there was a lot of cost-cutting as he and his henchmen asset-stripped the company, and that cost-cutting included attempting to water-down safety rules. Fortunately, the workforce were unionised & united and stood up to him.
This sure looks like eco-terrorism to me.
Does anyone know whether the derailing train took out a gas line? I’m reminded of the runaway on Cajon Pass that derailed in San Bernardino in 1989.
(My understanding, which is probably incorrect, is that crude oil is not very flammable, but will burn icajon passf something else ignites it.)
I thought brakes went on when you dropped the pressure. What am I missing?
Where are the locomotives? Were they removed from the train before the runaway? The train was heading east. The locosshould have been ahead of the cars. Did the locos runaway ahead of the cars or with the cars? Were they under power? Did they separately derail between Nantes and Lac Megantic? Did they separate from the train and roll ahead of it through the derail location only to derail later? Did they eventually just lose momentum and stop? As was asked of Halsey at Leyte Gulf, “The World Wonders?”
In the News & Photos section of the August 2013 Trains magazine, the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is quoted as expressing safety and other reservations about the movement of oil from Canada by rail. The article in Trains attacked his viewpoint and said that such “alarms” will “echo emptily in Washington.” Not one of the better moments for someone’s crystal ball, I’d say.
As R.J. Davis suggested, we really need a good series of explanatory maps, a time line, and a fuller description of what ended up where, to understand this mess: an NTSB report. Still, this article and series of comments seems more complete than CNN, NY Times, and other national news organizations. Well done TRAINS MAG.
Sigh, we have trial by media from Florida and accident investigations from San Francisco and Canada by media. How could we have previously lived without this?
Ghastly…a report said there was virtually a crematorium where a crowded bar was next to ground zero…pleas for DNA of missing (some 40) people…Ghastly.
Turnover speed…when I hired out the myth was that authorized curve speed could be exceeded by 100 per cent. I never came anywhere testing that mythology.
That an engine was left running indicates that the independent (locomotive only) brake was part of the anchor and, yes, how many hand brakes were set?
In various places the definition of “a sufficient number to hold…” can be found, most have to do with percent of grade and tonnage…for example on SP Cajon an 8000 ton lumber train required 54 binders, and the independent, which at Santa Margarita an SD45 without resupply of leaking cylinder air on a 2 percent grade ran away. Tests showed with both automatic and independent applied but then cut-out, movement in 23 minutes, the independent applied and then cut-out: 13 minutes.
Had the train been left with the train (automatic) and engine brakes set, and no handbrakes set a knowledgeable wrecker/murderer/maniac could release the train brakes without access to the cab, and with the engine dead could eliminate the engine brake within minutes, also this with cab locked and the diesel running.
Leaving a train unattended with a town 7 miles down a hill… it is a tragic horrible catastrophe in waiting, inevitable, right Wily Coyote? No Humor!
Btway, it’s likely that 73 tank cars when coupled made a train with power about 4800 feet long, not 7000’.
Ghastly…a report said there was virtually a crematorium where a crowded bar was next to ground zero…pleas for DNA of missing (some 40) people…Ghastly.
Turnover speed…when I hired out the myth was that authorized curve speed could be exceeded by 100 per cent. I never came anywhere testing that mythology.
That an engine was left running indicates that the independent (locomotive only) brake was part of the anchor and, yes, how many hand brakes were set?
In various places the definition of “a sufficient number to hold…” can be found, most have to do with percent of grade and tonnage…for example on SP Cajon an 8000 ton lumber train required 54 binders, and the independent, which at Santa Margarita an SD45 without resupply of leaking cylinder air on a 2 percent grade ran away. Tests showed with both automatic and independent applied but then cut-out, movement in 23 minutes, the independent applied and then cut-out: 13 minutes.
Had the train been left with the train (automatic) and engine brakes set, and no handbrakes set a knowledgeable wrecker/murderer/maniac could release the train brakes without access to the cab, and with the engine dead could eliminate the engine brake within minutes, also this with cab locked and the diesel running.
Leaving a train unattended with a town 7 miles down a hill… it is a tragic horrible catastrophe in waiting, inevitable, right Wily Coyote? No Humor!
Btway, it’s likely that 73 tank cars when coupled made a train with power about 4800 feet long, not 7000’.
I though I read there were five locomotive on this train. Were they all shut down?
Sympathies to the deceased and their loved ones. And how does a train that is parked with its brakes on, lose its pressure and allow the brakes to release? Sabotage?
La Presse of Montreal claims today that the tank cars are of type DOT-111, which has been known to be unsafe since 1991, because the steel of the tanks is of insufficient thickness to withstand the shock of a derailment. The federal government has authorized an exception to the current standard of one-inch thickness. I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that the Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, resigned today.
It’s very difficult to understand what happened, based on the news reports, which are full of contradictory information. If the train was an eastbound, and it rolled eastward down the hill before derailing, where are the locomotives? I haven’t seen them in any photos. One report says they “became detached”. Where and when? And why did that crude oil, which is supposed to be difficult to ignite, burn so violently? The BBC insists that the cars were “pressurized” but I don’t think this is so.
I noticed in video of this terrible incident that one of the tank cars still on the rails appeared to have a rear-end device flashing. I assume that the cars broke away from the locomotive and rolled backwards down the grade. Again assuming, wouldn’t the car with the FRED have been leading on the runaway? How likely is it that cars behind the lead car would derail so catastrophically?
Something isn’t right here. A fire on the locomotive just before a runaway? Hmmmm… Regardless, this could cause major changes to the movement of crude oil by rail for the foreseeable future. It is also very bad news for Burkhardt. I hope he has good insurance.
Anybody else smell a rat of eco-terrorist proportions? Considering how the environ-mentalists have been trying for years to shut down coal and oil production, I would make them the #1 top of the list of suspects. Rounding up the usual suspects, which would be Greenpeace and friends, would be a good start. The idea here is to cause a very bad wreck and make it appear to be the railroad’s fault. And don’t be too surprised if the eco-terrorists point the finger at the pipeline companies. If this was a pipeline disaster, the eoc-terrorists would divert attention to the railroads. Now that eco-terrorists have managed to keep nuclear plants from being built and are getting coal power plants shut down thanks to the Obama mandates, they can put more resources into stopping oil. That is happened in Canada is even better for the eco-terrorists. It is an excuse to get the international socialists involved in protesting the evil private sector American run railroads operating in foreign countries.
One more thing. Don’t be too surprised if the deadbeat dinosaur media points the finger at railfans.