The Cellar - July 8, 2013 -- Aftermath of Lac-Mégantic Train Derailment

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- - July 8, 2013 -- Aftermath of Lac-Mégantic Train Derailment (http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=29194)

Often called rolling pipelines, trains just loaded with crude tankers.

I read that there were two engines. When last did you see a single engine freight train?? Not to mention rolling pipelines with one engine! The last rolling pipeline I saw had 5 engines on the front, seven engines in the center and 3 pushers on the rear. 13 engines total! So I'd bet there were at least two on this one.

I read that one engine had a traction motor fire (the 500hp motors that run each axle). The fire department AND the train personal determined, due to the nature of the blaze, that it was a fuel leak exacerbated by the engine still running and thereby providing fuel pressure. It was jointly determined by both parties that the affected engine should be shut down but that the 2nd engine needed to be left ON to provide air.

The fire and fire trucks were noted by an observant farmer who's land was adjacent to the event. After the fire was extinguished the fire engines departed. Sometime later (~30minutes) he witnessed the entire train roll by - uniquely without lights. Approximately 10 minutes later he witnessed brilliant flashes accompanied by large blasts from the direction of Lac-Megantic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigV (Post 869858)

it was a train of all tank cars, as I understand. I reckon they became detached when the train derailed going around a curve too fast.

No.

Quote:

Sometime shortly after, the unattended train began to roll away, toward Lac-Megantic -- investigators are still looking for the cause. The crude oil cars, rolling downhill, broke free of the locomotives and picked up speed, derailing at a curve in the center of Lac-Megantic,...

Edward Burkhardt, president and CEO of the railway's parent company,
Rail World Inc., is throwing the engineer under the train...

Fox News

Quote:

The head of the U.S. railway company whose runaway oil train
crashed into a Quebec town blamed the engineer Wednesday
for failing to set the brakes properly before the train hurtled down
a seven-mile (11-kilometer) incline, ...

He said the engineer has been suspended without pay and was under police supervision.

Wednesday's a cool name.

Chuckles.

This Top Manager seems very quick to put the blame on other people. We all know what % chance it is that this will be directly traceable to him. I bet he's got an MBA. No, no, his is an MBA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sundae (Post 869918)

Wednesday's a cool name.

So is Sundae and Tuesday. But I've never met a Thursday.

Ever read Jasper Fforde?
His heroine is Thursday Next.

I recommend most highly.

When I was 17 I rode my bike from Maine to Quebec with a friend. We rode right through Lac Megantic. That was the summer of 1977.

That's all I got on this, except when I was in college there was a propane truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a bridge abutment. Huge fireball incinerated everything nearby. It was on 287 near White Plains, NY. My daily morning commute.

I couldn't find any photos, but it looked a lot like the Lac Megantic photos.

I didn't realize when I first heard the news reports about this how close it is to Maine. Wasn't until a few days later when I looked it up on Google Earth that I saw it's only 10 miles from Maine.

I wonder if the train hadn't derailed in that spot, if the tracks would have led them into Maine.

*heads off to Google Earth again*