We have all seen freight cars parked on a slight grade with the brakes set. Is it easy for a vandal to release the brakes just to watch 'em roll?
This from the BLET website.
YAKIMA, Wash. - Officials in Yakima are investigating what caused four railroad cars to derail and crash into a warehouse Sunday afternoon. Washington State Patrol troopers say the train’s brakes had been released, but they had not located any operator of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train
If they know what they are doing, yes, it is not all that hard to let off the brakes and bleed off the air…
Which is why, when a warehouse or industry/business is located at the bottom of a grade, the sidings often(but not always) have derails at the lower end…better to have the cars on the ground that in your building the “wrong” way.
Yes it is very easy to release them if the are set as hand brakes. If they are set with air, they would have to be individualy bled, which is also easy, but takes more time. But if they are on a grade, they would probably have hand brakes set.
Grades only mean we set more - Standing cars will always have a certain number of brakes set per every so many cars in the cut. It’s in the rules.