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Trains News Wire EXCLUSIVE: NTSB forum: most crude-by-rail accidents occurred in 14 months
At Nantes, QU, the single engineer/conductor has had a practice of failing to apply sufficient numbers of hand brakes to the cars for quite an extended period of time. If the criminal investigator had asked the other crew members who picked up those trains, (under oath) they would learn that this was a common failure day after day, month after month. They would learn that one crew called the headquarter office and said: “I don’t want to name, names or dates but someone is not applying hand brakes to these trains at Nantes, I just found a oil train with only one hand brake applied.” The call was ignored at the office and since there was no Trainmaster in Canada for 300 miles of railroad, the crews were unsupervised. There was the failure of management. Where was the Asst. Superintendent of this Canadian portion? A Trainmaster based in USA was on vacation and job was not filled by a replacement officer.
FACT : The engine motor shut down was account the trackman pushing the off button per the request of the fire department. That again is the railroad management responsibility that the trackman should have understood why that one unit in the engine consist was left running to supply air brakes and if he could not start a replacement unit should have let the fire burn. The fire could burn all night and cause no damage as only a one cylinder feed line was burning. They could have pinched the line. The railroad should have obtained management to get to Nantes. Engine hand brakes only apply one brake shoe against the wheels. The fire department saw the trackman as a railroad representative in error.
FACT: Mr. Harding heard about the engine fire while at the hotel and he called his office and offered to return to the train and was informed to stay and get his rest. Another failure of management was if they did not have a qualified man on the scene to inform the fire department that they would get someone there, and wait. The trackman who pushed the off button on the locomotive said he “assu
Not applying enough handbrakes could be indicative of a culture of shortcuts. Nothing about a one person crew necessarily requires shortcuts or not putting on adequate handbrakes. I am unfortunately familiar with other instances of inadequate handbrakes and all occurred on a multi-person crew.
Good reporting Mr. Cook.
Mr. Cook, that was a very knowledgeable and insightful post (wish all posts were like that) and I agree with your thoughts. Would you mind revealing what your relationship is with the railroad; you sound as if you have a background in training and safety? I have faced the same challenges in military aviation; trying to prevent the next “sure to happen accident” before it does. I have found that for many of the decision makers, it is not real until it happens, and their thought process triggers to the side of, “It hasn’t happened yet, so why waste limited dollars on a non-problem?”
Why doesnt railroad trains act as a truck? Where no air is an automatic braking situation?