SASKATOON, Saskatchewan — Canadian Pacific says one of its trains derailed about 6:15 a.m. in Saskatchewan. Media in Western Canada are reporting that the derailed and caught fire, with multiple outlets posting images of large flames illuminat…
I think it’s more just incredibly bad luck and circumstance (in the case of the duplicate incidents on CP). Will be interested to see if it is ‘more’.
I did note the clever use of ‘heavy telephoto’ in a couple of the media ‘track shots’, perhaps to ‘subliminally’ suggest poor track line, surface, or maintenance…
It seems like that the cars derailed on a switch, which seems to be part of a WYE. Also it looks like the derailment was not close to the engines, so the heritage unit should be safe.
Is that Gatineau as in Quebec, Longest Bar in the Gatineau?
Forgive me for violating honorary Canadian status – but are the Gatineau and the Toronto area actually the closest points of response for TSB personnel (other than Winnipeg of course)?
Besides Winnipeg, I believe the nearest TSB field office is located in Calgary, and the investigators there are currently handling a number of other rail investigations, including the runaways at Field and Luscar.
Being across the river from Ottawa, the TSB’s headquarters is located in Gatineau. The bigwigs must be coming out to see this incident for themselves.
Transport Canada has issued new speed limits for trains carrying large amounts of dangerous goods. They are now restricted to 25 mph on all lines. And 20 mph in urban areas (these zones were previously 35 mph).
The wye is the junction with CP’s spur into the Lanigan potash mine.
The locomotive (ES44AC 9362) and cars shown in some pictures are the tail end of the train. From available information it appears that the lead locomotive consist did not derail either, and the crew was able to escape the derailment site with them. The remote appears to then have been used to pull most of the undamaged cars away from the fire.
Kudos to whomever was crazy enough to walk that close to the fire to close the angle cock and pull the pin.
While the following is pure speculation, this type of derailment is characteristic of a track defect. For some reason the locomotives often seem to make it through bad spots, only for the cars behind them to fall off.