Crude oil derailment, fire

[lock4244]

This will likely have repercussions on the movement of oil by rail:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Train+carrying+crude+derails+explodes+Megantic/8625250/story.html

[Dave Schneider]

Wow. The initial reports are that this was an unattended runaway. It will be really interesting to see how this turns out. What a shame for the town of Lac Mégantic

Best wishes, Dave

[DKS]

Things are not good. At least 30 buildings have been flattened. One confirmed death, but as many as 60 are still missing, and a search cannot yet begin as the fire is still burning and crews have not been able to reach the center of town.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323899704578589460837041312.html

[Philip H]

It may be an unintended runaway, but the story linked initially talks only about the conductor. Where is the engineer?

[Dave Schneider]

Is  possible that they only have a one person crew? This is an Ed Burkhardt line, and when he ran the Wisconsin Central they tried very hard to reduce crew size. Not trying to slander Mr. Burkhardt, just wondering if anyone knows.

Terrible tragedy.

Best wishes, Dave

[GaryHinshaw]

The WSJ article that DKS links to says it ran away during a crew change outside of town.  So either it was not tied down properly or there was a brake malfunction (or both).  The engineer claims to have followed the usual procedures prior to disembarking the train.  Crew size does not seem to be an issue.

Tragic situation that it happened to derail right in the heart of a small town.  I have to believe that everyone on the MM&A is sick about it.

[trainforfun]

The accident occured around 1:00 am . Somebody took a video of the loco having an internal fire where the crew is changing in Nantes about 12 km. away @ 11:20 pm about 2 hours before .
The guy who shot the video with his cell phone said on tv there was quite a few people ( RR employees ) around the leading loco trying to extinguish it . Could that have done something to the brakes while parked ...
It is now known there was nobody on board when it derailed .
There is still a lot of people missing about 60 and 5 deads .



This is the press release from MMA :
http://www.mmarail.com/sections/news/files/MMA_7.6.2013_Press.Release.pdf

[nkalanaga]

Another Canadian report said that the train "detached from the locomotives".  If true, that sounds like vandalism, as a parked train shouldn't uncouple itself.  And if it was deliberate, there's no reason whoever did couldn't have released the handbrakes and/or bled off the air first.

[Specter3]

Is this guy right in how air brakes work on a train? I got my bus license and this is not how bus airbrakes work. You have working air pressure that allows you to roll and apply the brakes. But as soon as that pressure bleeds off if you have a line brake or both pumps go down you are stopping weather you want to or not.

http://www.treehugger.com/energy-disasters/what-caused-train-disaster-not-brake-failure.html

[Dave Schneider]

I believe that the article has the air brakes portion correct. There is some conjecture, and some political viewpoint offered, but it isn't exactly unfounded (but let's not go there, please). I would be surprised that a train could be left unattended without tying a fair number of cars down with the hand brakes. It is not clear whether this was the case, and/or whether that is the MMA operating rules....I'll let more qualified people answer that. What an awful tragedy.

Best wishes, Dave

[lock4244]

Very recently I witness as RR crew setting out of their train in a siding as part of an over-siding capacity meet. The Conductor walked the cut tying on handbrakes on a number of cars. I'm fairly certain it is still required by the rulebook to apply handbrakes to standing cars / trains, which is why so many cars have flat spots as one and two man switching crews will drag cars without releasing the handbrake to save time.

[central.vermont]

Haven't seen this link posted here yet. It's in French but you the pictures need no statements.

Jon


http://www.spiq.ca/v2/ailleurs/2013_07_06_Incendie_Lac-Megantic/index.html

[DKS]

Haven't seen this link posted here yet. It's in French but you the pictures need no statements.

Jon


http://www.spiq.ca/v2/ailleurs/2013_07_06_Incendie_Lac-Megantic/index.html

Um... not that I'm anxious to see graphic images of the carnage, but... there are no pics at that link.

[central.vermont]

Wow! Was just looking at these about 30 minutes ago too. Seems they have been removed?

[davefoxx]

Wow! Was just looking at these about 30 minutes ago too. Seems they have been removed?

A picture may be worth 1000 words, but, clearly, 1000 words is not necessarily worth a picture . . . especially in a foreign language.