Lac Megantic, Canadian accident recreation

As per usual, the combination of errors was no doubt responsible for this disaster.  Had the engineer tightened hand brakes on more than seven cars, had the fire not broken out, had the firemen realized that shutting down the last remaining running engine would have cost a loss of air pressure, had the right people on the railroad been contacted, probably other "if's"had happened, there would have been no incident at all.  As it was, a terrible tragedy that must have affected literally thousands of people, wiped out a town, bankrupted a railroad and cost literally millions of dollars DID occur and courts will be deciding the issues for years.

Paul Fischer

I read the report on the accident.  It was terrifying reading all the things that should not have happened and how the regulators, whom the public trusts with their safety, admitted they were unable to preform their jobs from a lack of knowledge and lacked power to enforce regulations and still did nothing to change until someone higher up did an audit!!! 

But it was nice to repeatedly read how many of the 18 situations could not happen in the U.S. due to better systems being in place. 

Nathan

To me what it really boils down to is that had the engineer properly set the hand brakes then everything else wouldn't have mattered.  Instead, for reasons of either carelessness, laziness, or incompetence, he failed to do his job correctly, and so a disaster occurred.

Stuart

Stuart,

If I may, I agree with you and disagree with you.  While the engineer is the person ultimately responsible for his train rolling away, a lot of other people flubbed up to make the situation possible. 

Nathan

What other people? There are no "other people" responsible here, only the engineer.

It's really quite simple. If the engineer had PROPERLY secured his train, this would not have happened. You can analyze this all you want, in as many different ways you want to, but the improperly secured train was the ultimate root cause of this disaster.

One why wouldn't they have shut down the smoking loco that alone raises a lot of flags and seems like a nobrainer to me if you car was smoking you would shut it off.at least that's what I would have did along with dumping the air and setting the brakes. Isn't it required to set a handbrake for every 2-3 cars. We have had a lot of cars at work that there airbrakes don't hold and that's how we secure them other than chocks and we arnt on a grade.

Time for some facts: What are the rules on setting handbrakes? I know some railroads used to say "a sufficient amount" but I have to believe that is quantified now. It must also be different on a grade?

Thank you

Paul

I don't know the "written rules" but, every time that I was on a freight train that had to be "tied down", the Conductor proceeded rearward and set an appropriate number of hand brakes. Then, by radio the Conductor called the Engineer and had the Engineer release the brakes, both on the train AND on the locomotive consist. If the train did not move/roll, then enough hand brakes had been set. However, if the train DID start to move/roll, the Engineer quickly set the air again, and the Conductor proceeded to set even more hand brakes. This process was repeated until the train was indeed "tied down".

This process was NOT done by the Engineer of that train in Canada!

EXACTLY.

This is the ROOT CAUSE of this accident. The locomotive's independent brake was never released to confirm that the hand brakes alone would hold the train. When the engine with the fire was shut down, the independent brake air slowly leaked off, thus causing the independent brake to slowly release. At some point during that slow release, the train started to roll.

I made that EXACT point on some other forums, and you would have thought I called Mother Theresa a bad name.  There were a LOT of people, mostly, but not ALL railroad employees that were bound and determined to shift the blame elsewhere. Yes, there was a LONG chain of things that should NOT have happened, but if the engineer did HIS job that night, none of the other things would have mattered.  

Arguing any of the other points is like saying Abraham Lincoln would have lived to old age if only John Wilkes Booth's mother didn't get pregnant.  The fact is, the security detail didn't do their job that night at Ford's Theatre. The engineer was the final line of defense and he didn't do his job.  And, he was a a 30 some odd year railroad employee who should have known better than trying to use the locomtive brakes to help hold the train, no matter WHAT normal operating prcedure was.