Second CN oil train derails, catches fire in northern Ontario

Do oil trains derail more often per train mile than other trains, or does the spike in oil train derailments have more to do with increasing oil train traffic? Do ethanol trains, also a flammable liquid that could be sloshing, have about the same rate of accidents as oil trains? Have there been any conclusions published regarding the causes of any of these accidents?

Could the sudden rash of oil train derailments be environmentalists “making a statement”? Not accusing…just posing the question.

could the derailment be cuas of folte equpment and tank car frailer?

Maybe there’s some sabotage going on since it’s been only oil trains derailing lately.

I see several people commenting about oil loads sloshing around might cause troubles and then others saying grain , coal and other commodities don’t move. It appears you have never seen a train when harmonic rocking gets set up. There has been multiple dreailments caused by harmonic rock when cars of certain lenghts and at a certain speed will start rocking back and forth more and more until they just tip off the track. It was a lot worse before CWR came along but I have seen it happen on CWR and auto racks with the same rocking getting set up as they just kep rocking from side to side on what looked like smooth level CWR. .

If we were talking about PURE UNDILUTED Crude Oil we may not see as many of the fires we see with these wreck, if any. The crude coming out of the ground is a thick tarry substance that sticks to anything. However dilutants such as light oil are added for easier handling when it is loaded and unloaded, as well as being pumped thru a pipe line. If the Pure crude was loaded into cars equipped with steam coils that would only be used to unload the crude, I doubt if fires would have such potential. It would be pretty hard to ignite something with the same consistency as a piece of tar.