Runaway Train derails in Canada

[GTsail]

Sadly, this oil-tanker train derailment in Canada seems like quite a disaster:

Canadian Train crash

Canadian Train derailment

I gather that a 72-car and 5-engine train traveled downhill for about 7 miles and then derailed in the town of Lac-Megantic Quebec.

The train owners are saying that brake failure of some sort is the likely cause.

The latest news story that I've seen is saying that the train's sole engineer shut down four of the train's engines for the night and then went to sleep as per standard procedure.

At some later point, the 5th engine seems to have been shut down, by persons unknown. So once the 5th engine got shut down, the brakes would start to lose pressure, and eventually the brakes failed, so the train began to roll downhill until it derailed, causing the huge fire when some of the oil-tanker cars ruptured and caught fire.

Very sad, and what a mess for those who live in Lac-Megantic
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[Morethanwound]

When i was young i lived in victoriaville, 30min from lac megantic. I saw video of the fire, it was huge, seems to be a forest fire. 80 person are missing i think, a few are dead. And all of this because of a train.

 

[playnthru]

Yes I've been following this for past few days. Very sad stuff indeed. Thought and prayers to all.

 

[Mikeybc]

Seems odd they'd park a train or part of it where it could roll down a hill instead of on a flat section of track. Are the parking brakes not deactivated by applying air pressure like on a truck ? I'm train dumb

 

[Badger-X-]

It's pretty terrible. My girlfriend lost her cousin. Some families have lost several members. The death toll, unfortunately, is higher than they are reporting too. I think there were something like 40 people missing. The whole middle of town was decimated. And, yeah, I'm having a hard time with the idea that all that oil was parked on a hill, too.

 

[GTsail]

According to this CBSnews story:Canadian train derailment

The train caught fire for some unknown reason during the night, after the train's sole engineer parked the train for the night and left.

The local Nantes fire department responded and extinguished the fire, and then left the train parked on the tracks.

So the train's engineer was not the last person to touch the train.

Perhaps the engine that the train's engineer left running when he went to sleep was turned off when the fire department was putting out the fire, which meant that the brakes would fail a few hours later.

Awful looking pictures of what's left of the town of Lac-Megantic

GTsail

 

[Badger-X-]

They are now saying there was possible foul play...

Here's a before & after pic:

 

[Keef]

They are now saying there was possible foul play...

Sounds about right to me but it's worth an investigation. The reason an engineer wouldn't use brakes on each car is because he doesn't have to - trains don't randomly uncouple. It's possible something could have broken or it wasn't coupled right in the first place.

 

[GTsail]

It's pretty terrible. My girlfriend lost her cousin.

I'm sorry to hear about your girlfriend's cousin.

And, yeah, I'm having a hard time with the idea that all that oil was parked on a hill, too.

I've heard one news source say that the track grade in Nantes, where the train was left overnight, was 1.2%

This isn't very steep, but I guess its enough if a train is left with no brakes.

According to another news report, the train was left overnight on a section of track in Nantes that is regularly used for overnight stops, so the track-grade was well known by the train's engineers and the train-line (Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway).

Respectfully,
GTsail

 

[playnthru]

There has been a lot of activity at the US/Canadian border. Terrorist have been targeting the railways there, so who know's at this point.

I recall the derailment plot around the Boston bombings time. That was foiled by RCMP I believe. And some good folks in the community.👍👍

 

[GTsail]

According to this MSN news story: Runaway Train the train's 5th engine, the one that was left running when the train's sole engineer left the train for the night to get some sleep, was turned off by the Nantes Fire Department while they were putting out the fire during the night.

According to the Nantes Fire Department, after they extinguished the fire, they told the train-line's dispatcher (Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway) what they had done.

According to another eyewitness, a short while later, the train started to roll down the tracks.

What a mess!
GTsail