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Passengers stranded for hours on freezing train
That rail line is a good place for installing a Catenary wire system to deliver electricity to the diesel-electric locomotives from a regional electrical power plant, during the harsh winter months.
Is this company the successor to the Quebec North Shore and Labrador? It would be big news if anything didn’t freeze up there.
In a climate that dangerous during winter, I’m shocked…shocked, to hear the conductor report water froze, toilets froze.
Wasn’t the crew educated and drilled on draining the systems in a like situation?
Were they occupied with a Head-end-power transmission , or was it a power generation failure?
Probably, installing an additional HEP system separated from the normal system: separate engine and generator, separate transmission cables and circuits, connections which would isolate the trains system from the car heaters and allow the heaters a feed from the additional system.
Say a winter car with engine generater fuel supply and control circuitry and access from its duplicated but separate “island” of say three cars, was it 282 souls on board, cozy… make the “lifeboat of passenger cars,” 4…or more?
Isolate the “lifeboat” from the train system, change the feed circuits to the car heating equipment to the “lifeboat” feeder and…
“lower the lifeboat.”
Would that work?
The crew did everything? How about watching the Red Green Show for ideas on how to warm up a cold room? What does Canada have plenty of? Trees. And what do trees produce? Wood. Collect the dead wood outside and light it. Instant heat source. If these people were worth being called Canadian, they would have had several chain saws on board along with enough fuel to run them for several weeks. Now where does the duct tape enter the picture? Take the sheet metal off the locomotives and use it to create duct work to direct the heat from the wood fire into the coaches. Use the duct tape to hold it together. Or better yet, require wood burning stoves to be installed in each coach for just such an emergency. Wood burning stoves can be made from old water heaters, ovens, freezers, and pretty much anything that has lots of sheet metal and is mostly enclosed. Just thought I would add that last part in case wood stoves have been deemed environmentally unsafe by the government.
I am sure there was a guy in Illinois that would have been happy to tell the crew what they were doing wrong if only there had been a way to get a hold of him.
I know diesel locos and normal HEP are usually reliable but these passenger trains have no back up in this environment? Scary to say the least.
I know diesel locos and normal HEP are usually reliable but these passenger trains have no back up in this environment? Scary to say the least.
yuk. not fun
Apparently they did everything except get on a cell phone and make a call for help - until several hours later.
I think that Mr. Jeffrey D James from Michigan has nailed it. I wonder how many conductors or other crew were on this train who could perform such herculean tasks in minus 22 degree temps as suggested by the “gentleman” from Illinois.
Mr. Thoms, as I understand it aqnd if memory serves, when IOC terminated mining operation in Scherfferville in the early 80’s the line was purchased by a Frist Nations Group as the railway was the only land access to the remote area of Quebec and Labrador.
Several mining company are now using the line to ship Direct Shipping Iron Ore. However as is is direct shipping iron ore (no upgrading required) ore shippments are during the spring summer and fall, non freezing months to avoide freezing the ore in the rail cars. Trains did a story on the line recently (2012 ?)
During the non ore shipping months passenger and fright (mixed trains) carry everything from nuts to soup and passengers two to three times a week.
Gentlemen, cell phone do not work and Sat phones are problematic at best. Summer diesel jells at cold temperatures I have seen 60 cm (24") of parifin on a 205 litre (45 imperial gallon or 55 american gallon) barrel of summer diesel.
The point to take to heart is that the crew got the train to a camp where the Elders and kids could warm up. Good on em! Elders are respected here!
Jeffry enjoys being contrary to ordinary as evidenced by his deliberately provocative nonsensical insertions into any dialog, which distracts from any subject at hand. I am surprised he has not been banned from making comments that are detracting or directly or in directly insulting to various parties.
Interesting?
Guse suggests watching the red… sorry…Guse used capitol letters…Red Green show
Ignored, missed, didn’t know of it, can’t believe it was important , what is this red green show?
Red over green told me to “proceed on a diverging route.”
The nonsense you can get here is priceless. I have to go now and throw some wood in the wood stove…
The Red Green Show is a Canadian comedy program on a rustic theme, now in reruns, with a large and enthusiastic following (still in reruns) on PBS in the US. (Surprised Mr. Guse is familiar with anything seen on PBS!)
Back to the topic, hindsight is 20-20, it’s easy to second-guess people’s actions when we weren’t in their shoes, etc. I’m just glad everyone got out of this deal relatively unscathed–and ungassed by carbon monoxide from wood fires in enclosed spaces!
Red Green was important enough to be the banquet speaker at the NMRA National Convention in Toronto a few years ago. I do miss his show!.
This cold weather story reminds me of the time my wife and I were stranded for almost 12 hours by a snow storm and rock slide near Whitebird Idaho many years ago. There were hundreds of us trapped on the highway and most of us were out of gasoline or nearly so. A single highway patrol officer was with us and saw that lots of folks were showing signs of hypothermia. Fortunately we were also adjacent to a highway construction project. The officer asked for volunteers and we helped him make a large bond fire from brand new highway guard rail posts. He lit the fire with a single gallon of gas carried in his trunk. This officer helped many people that day with his quick-thinking and commonsense actions.
Wow. Imagine the safety issues on board if rogue passengers had knowledge of there being on board chain saws amongst other emergency equipment? Everything will be fine Mr. Guse okayed it. 
Also, how does one simply “remove the sheet metal” from the locomotive to be formed into ducts to direct heat from readily available side of the right of way campfires? lmfao