New developments in Canada rail accident

The Firefighters would have had no clue how to do THAT, in fact the poor Firefighters didn't really understand what would happen when they pushed the Emergency Fuel Cutoff button on the side of the unit's underframe.

The railroad employee that was reported to have "been on the scene", was a Maintenance of Way person, and also would not have been qualified to "work on the motive power" either.

Number and type of hand brakes set has been reported in several combinations.  In some of the early reports the hand brakes on the locomotives were reported to have been set and it wasn't clear if that was part of the 11, aka 5 loco's and 6 tank cars.  It was also reported that the train was supposed to be parked in the siding but there was already other equipment there (cars either set for delivery to the industrial park at Lac Megantic or ones to be picked up from same).

if the engines were leaking air that badly shouldn't that have caused the brakes on the individual tank cars to apply?  I thought that was how the system was supposed to be fail to safe?  Wouldn't a significant number of cars have to have defective air brakes for the train to become a run away in approximately 60 minutes?  Could someone actually release the brakes with the engines shutdown, either accidentally or deliberately?  The cabs weren't secured.

Still leaves the question of why shipper (Irving Oil) reclassified the product when they loaded it at the railhead?Perhaps for a lower freight rate?

Gunny

I can't imagine why an engineer would knowingly park a train and not apply the automatic brake!

I fully agree, but then again he didn't apply sufficient number of hand brakes, nor did he do a "release test" to see if the train would roll after he applied hand brakes.

One of the early stories said it was their standard practice to leave the brake pipe charged to avoid having to do a brake test the next morning with just one man. 

David,

What that means is that the air supply to the trainline between the engine and cars is not broken or that the train is kept on ground air.

Gunny:

Irving wasn't the shipper.  There were two oil companies involved in the loading and waybilling of the train.  Irving was the consignee and wouldn't have had any involvement in the preparation of the waybill or with the product description.  Ascertaining the correct hazmat product description is the responsiblity of the shipper.

With regard to why the shippers used an incorrect packing group, I am inclined to believe it was either carelessness or lack of knowledge.  Generally speaking, railroads use the product STCC number when developing a rate and I would imagine the STCC for PGII and PGIII petroleum products is substantially similar, at least insofar as the first 2-5 digits.

Curt

Curt,

       While Irving was not physically involved in billing or loading of product Canadian law makes them the shipper. The lawyers love deep pockets!

Gunny

By now the inspectors should know exactly how many hand brakes were set on the cars. Even if the cars were burnt, I would imagine that most of the hand brakes would still be applied that were applied.

The locomotives, old sd40s or older 4 axle power I think, may not have had an event recorder like todays newer power. That would have shown if the brakes were set, whether a release test was performed.  The hand brakes on the locomotives would still be set after they stopped even with worn down brakes shoes down at the bottom of the hill.

I am sure investigators have looked at all of these.

As far as the fire on the locomotive, I have a theory that the firefighters may have unknowingly hit the airbrake valve handle and released the train brakes. With all the gear that they wear, it is possible that they did not know it happened.  I does not matter if there was air brake presser in the trainline, the brakes on the cars should not have released on their own. Even if the air brake handle was reset in the application position quickly, only a few of the car brake valves might sense the reduction as the train line was not fully recharged.

In the end, above all, not enough hand brakes were applied to secure the train!

Dan 

Lots of miss-information in your statements.  You may want to purchase the latest (October 2013) issue of Trains Magazine.

I second HW's response!