Huge Explosion After Train Crash North Dakota

Was this today??

Yep.  (12/30/13)

Oh yeah it was today...BNSF trains

Omg, terrible.

Wow looks pretty bad. At least it looks to be in a remote area ..

In a photograph on Yahoo! about the story, a large percentage of the freight train is intact.

Andrew

I saw the story today--- accidents like this will only become more frequent. Conflicting accounts-- some say grain cars derailed first, others say tank cars were first. story mentioned that 60% of the Bakken shale crude is now shipped by rail, and that by end of 2014, the expected percentage will be more than 90%. Will be interesting to find out how well maintained the trackage in that area was. 

More bullets for the enemy.  

My son is working as an Engineer on loan to Minot and he called me about this earlier.  He did not know of any injuries, thankfully, and I hope that none occurred.

This report says it happened just outside of town of Casselton. Authorities strongly recommended Casselton which has about 2400 residents plus residents up to 5 miles away should evacuate. Temperatures are below zero. This is a bad situation.

Reuters posted new photographs showing that there are one to three tank cars filled with oil are burning.

The burning crude oil is producing a large amount of hazardous smoke.

Andrew

Several years ago while traveling from Seattle to Wash. DC on Amtrak, the eastern section of track in ND  approaching the MN border was by far the harshest ride of the entire trip which in itself was full of rough sections.  Since Casselton is in that vicinity, I'll be curious if that may play any part in the derailment. 

Wikipedia is already showing this update.  Quite detailed for an early report and more thorough than several news segments.  

2013 train derailment[edit]

On the afternoon of December 30, 2013, a westbound BNSF train carrying grain derailed just west of Casselton.^[7] The derailed cars struck a number of crude oil cars from another train heading east on adjoining tracks, igniting a chain of large explosions which were heard and felt several miles away.^[8] The resulting fireball created a massive cloud of black smoke, which prompted authorities to issue a voluntary evacuation of the city and surrounding area as a precaution. Although the incident occurred in proximity to a populated area, luckily no casualties were reported; however, it renewed safety concerns regarding the transportation of crude oil by rail, especially after the Lac-Mégantic derailment in Canada earlier in 2013 which killed 47 people. ^[9]

From CBS News.

From NBC News.

From Fox News.

From ABC News.

Well there goes my Warren Buffet dividend for the year!! (Yeah, Like I am rich enough to afford a Warren Buffett share (Buffets company owns BNSF lock stock and oil barrel))

If this event occurred in downtown Casselton, it could have rivaled what occurred at Lac Megantic, Quebec. You take your blessings where you find them.

I was very nearly up there myself.  I had Saturday & Sunday off, and also Tuesday & Wednesday.  If I had thought to take Monday off as well I certainly would have been up in that area chasing trains.  The oil trains go by me about once every two hours where I live.  Many of the photos I've posted here are of oil trains.  I had no idea they were that dangerous.

Kent in SD

Oil, just sitting in its container, is not dangerous.

Its what happens to it after it leaves its container that can make it dangerous.

Just like any other hazmat. The stuff is safe when its confined to its container.

Remember that this product is not just "oil". The type of crude oil that is being extracted from the North Dakota fields is HIGHLY explosive, and this is now about the third "event" involving burning/exploding "Bakin crude oil".

There have been a number of published reports about how dangerous that stuff really is, and the varying types of rail rank cars that have been used to carry it.

good thing it was not propane or chlorine... nasty stuff. Nice to see it was in a non populated area as well.

Accidents happen - property can be replaced, but not people.

Temps have been see-sawing between 30 below and 30 above lately.  When I was out on Saturday the temp dropped from 36 to 4 in just three hours.  I know this is hard on CWR, and steel becomes brittle when it gets below zero.  If the rails are getting pounded by heavy traffic, eventually something will give, somewhere.

Kent in SD

Since this is a highly volatile crude oil are the tank cars being used of adequate design strength to prevent easy rupture during a derailment? Would this  tank rupture have happened with propane cars?

More on the weather.

http://www.weather.com/travel/...her-worries-20131231

Redman440 ALL OF NORTH DAKOTA IS A REMOTE AREA..... I thought Michigan was cold and snowy but when we visit my sister in law in ND I see how remote the area really is.

Here is an interesting fact sheet from the AAR regarding tank cars:

Holy macheral!  That was some fireball! 

George

Bill, Your comments about the ride on the eastern part of ND Rail peaked my intrest. People familiar with the eastern part of ND know how bad the spring time floods are. The Red river flows North INTO CANADA Toward Winnipeg. This area is soooo flat that when the BIG FLOODS happen the wather travels for miles and miles outside the normal river bed. I am not sure if there is any connection between the rough ride and the flooding but there is a "y" AT the West end of the old Great Northern RR yards in Grand Forks. One leg of the "Y" does drop south towards the Fargo area but I don't know if this is the trackage the oil tankers were on or not. But I do know this area of trackage sees water and well beyond it to the west. Over time I am sure the water does not help the road beds over time. Again I don't know if this was the trCK THIS ACCIDENT HAPPENED ON OR IF IT WAS ANOTHER LINE JUST A LITTLE FURTHER WEST. I know the accident occured about 70-80 miles south of Grand Forks and just west of Fargo.

That is something...wow. 

Different grades of crude have not only different properties, but different flashpoints.  I have recieved many crude assay's with flashpoints down to and well below 0 degrees C.  That does not mean it will light off on it's own, but that at that temp the vapor off it can be ignitedby any spark or ignition source, such as caused by the derailment.  We have a bit of a challenge dealing with crude flashpoints in setting crude fueled diesel engines in other parts of the world.  As always, though, it is best not to speculate on this stuff as we certainly do not know the facts.

Gee, what do you think would happen if some Yo Yo blew up an active pipe line some where, now that would be a big timefire.....

More ammo for the pipeline lobby.

I was curious about why the oil would have exploded like that, but it makes sense that different types of crude have different volatility. I usually think of home heating oil or car motor oil, that isn't particularly prone to blowing up, as opposed to gasoline where gas vapor is obviously explosive and dangerous....

I would guess that there were sparks from the metal on metal contact of the cars, and that ignited fumes that cause it to blow..I just hope no one was hurt and no one gets sick from the fumes. Going to be a mess to clean up, for sure, but oil and cars and rails can be replaced, people can't

You are talking temps of -20 to -30.  Steel contracts as it cools.  I would surmise that a joint cracked at the bolt holes, rather than some failure of the rail itself.  This would allow separation of the rails.  The joints of the ribbon rail were held together with 3 bolts on each side of the joint, but I have seen failure at this point in extreme cold weather. 

I know it's late, just came back from a party, but when trains crash, there is going to be a lot of sparks, with tons of steel against tons of other steel, I am sure.  Here is a video of a train that crashed because of a tornado.  Whether or not bad rail( or what ever) caused it, I think this a good video.

That happened here in northern Illinois on one of the former C&NW lines several years ago. It didn't have anything to do with the condition of the rail or roadbed; it was just due to the winds of the storm (it was EF4-EF5) combined with the momentum and mass of the train. The train had the cab camera running in the rear-facing unit, which was unusual. The sight of that tank car heading for the locomotive would give any trainman a few gray hairs.

i DON;T THINK SO. Pipe lines have their issues as well. A Canadian owned pipeline in my area had a spill directly into a river that draines into Lake Michigan. The last two years have been spent trying to clean up this spill. The oil has made it's way throught about 40 miles of the river. A lot of issues remain , so the pipe line is not the total answer. Accidents do happen.

Is the Bakken crude mix more explosive than the crude fond in the Eagle Ford play in South Texas?