Ghost train explodes, devastates Quebec town

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This happened last nnight, and how and why it happened seems to be one big mystery at this point. So far, it's resulted in 2000+ evacuated, and dozens if not a hundred missing and feared dead.

What's known is that a train loaded with oil derailed and exploded in the middle of the downtown area.

You can see CBC's reporting on it here (not quoting in full, since it'S a fairly long article) :
1 dead, many missing after Quebec train blasts - Montreal - CBC News

There were early reports (as seen in that article) that the train was automated, which would raise plenty of questions. But the latest information paint a different picture that raise even more questions :

Train carrying crude oil rolls away then derails, explodes in Lac Mégantic

MONTREAL - The train that careened into the centre of town in Lac Mégantic early Saturday morning was unmanned when it derailed and exploded in a huge ball of flame, says a spokesperson for the company that owned the locomotive.

Joseph R. McGonigle confirmed to The Gazette early Saturday afternoon that shortly before midnight, the train's conductor stopped in nearby Nantes, locked the brakes and checked to ensure that the rail cars carrying thousands of litres of crude oil were all securely attached.

He then checked into a nearby Lac Mégantic hotel for the night. Another conductor was reportedly expected to take over driving the train within a few hours.

"Sometime after (the first conductor left), the train got loose," said McGonigle, who is vice president of marketing for The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. "It travelled under its own inertia to the centre of the town."

The locomotive portion of the 73-car train actually detached half a mile outside of the small town, he added, but the cars carrying the oil kept right on rolling. McGonigle said there are security mechanisms in place to prevent anyone from tampering with the train, and the proper checks were done by the conductor before he left the vehicle. No one except him or another employee of the company should have been able to set it in motion.

"That's what confuses us. How did this happen?" McGonigle said. "There are many fail-safe modes. How this happened is just beyond us."

 

[97SaturnSL1]

it seems that the engineer either didnt apply the brake signifcantly or there may have been a Mechanical or electronic failure. A transmission in a car COnsists of Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, and Low. when put in Park the gear from the power sourse is up against a Pawl that will not move therefore not allowing the car to move unless the drive gear or pawl is broken. the gear selection in locomotives are Drive, Reverse, and Neutral. the trains "park" consists of being in N and with the brakes fully applyed so if the brakes were not fully applied then the train could move depending on the slope and the inertia of the load. it is comparable to parking a car with a manual transmission. also with a fully loaded train gaing speed unmanned, the power brakes would not work because they need power like in a car. it would take a fully loaded train way over a mile to full stop at speeds of around 40MPH with all service and emergency brakes with the power on. Also that most tracks in City limits have low speed limits such as 25 to 35MPH max where the tracks are close to heavy civilan area and any twists or bends in the track are engineered for safe travel at those speeds. i remember something similar happening in Oshawa where two unhooked railcars rolled down a very slight incline at the GM plant there. due to the speed the cars picked up on mainly straight track, they jumped the track and demolished 300 cars and trucks. im thinking this quebec crash was a mechanical or electronic glitch more than operator error

 

[Big Lutz]

Damn, one has to wonder if hauling explosive material is even safe on trains anymore. I mean in North America we have so many aging train lines crisscrossing nations and going through major cities, its a wonder that this does not happen more often! I hate to say anything good could come from this but maybe this will cause our Governments to take a harder look at our rail roads and consider if they are up to standards for hauling explosive material. I am curious if anyone suspects foul play with this? I mean it could have come unhooked by itself, but on the other hand some one could have unlocked it when no one was around and let it roll away.

 

[97SaturnSL1]

I am curious if anyone suspects foul play with this? I mean it could have come unhooked by itself, but on the other hand some one could have unlocked it when no one was around and let it roll away.

I heard that there was a fire on the train prior to rollaway and by turning off the power to the train the power brakes would be disabled like on a car. I really doubt fowl play is a key here because trains today are very complex in terms of anti-tampering. a single Average diesel locomotive weighs about 260,000 lbs. most trains have 2 or more locomotives and the other rail cars with all of them with the additional weight of the loads. so its not like anyone could get a truck and try to tow the train to get it to roll away. i know certain citys have laws that forbade certian types of Hazardous materials or require certain speed limits for trains with dangerous loads. when the train jumped the tracks it was going 63mph. way over a safe spped for hazardous loads. they did recover the black box so that should tell if the Auto train stop was working or activated. most track in the US has speed limits of 60MPH unless a type of load, curve/track engineering, junction,railyard, municpality, or railblock requires otherwise which can range from less than 10MPH to 40MPH

 

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Damn, one has to wonder if hauling explosive material is even safe on trains anymore. I mean in North America we have so many aging train lines crisscrossing nations and going through major cities, its a wonder that this does not happen more often! I hate to say anything good could come from this but maybe this will cause our Governments to take a harder look at our rail roads and consider if they are up to standards for hauling explosive material. I am curious if anyone suspects foul play with this? I mean it could have come unhooked by itself, but on the other hand some one could have unlocked it when no one was around and let it roll away.

Per the latest on CNN (I'd quote Fox, but last I heard they're pretendign this didn't happen because it wasn't in AMURKHA), Police now believe they have evidence of criminal conduct.

Of course that COULD be as simple as criminal neglect.

Whiel the corporation is spreading the story about the firemen shutting down the engine and disabling the brakes as a result, railway specialists are calling bullshit on that - a stopped locomotive is supposed to rely on the handbrakes, not the railbrakes, and to run a specific test to ensure that enough of the handbrakes are turned on.

 

[DerMißingno]

Damn, one has to wonder if hauling explosive material is even safe on trains anymore. I mean in North America we have so many aging train lines crisscrossing nations and going through major cities, its a wonder that this does not happen more often! I hate to say anything good could come from this but maybe this will cause our Governments to take a harder look at our rail roads and consider if they are up to standards for hauling explosive material. I am curious if anyone suspects foul play with this? I mean it could have come unhooked by itself, but on the other hand some one could have unlocked it when no one was around and let it roll away.

Is there really any safer way though? Tractor trailers get in accidents all the time on the road. Train accidents like this, while disastrous, are very rare.

 

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Pipelines appears to be safer according to some reports. They still have their issues, but they're far lower.

Of course, the only way to safely handle oil transportation is to limit it by cutting our oil addition as much as we can, but that's not happening anytime soon.

 

[Big Lutz]

Pipelines appears to be safer according to some reports. They still have their issues, but they're far lower.

Of course, the only way to safely handle oil transportation is to limit it by cutting our oil addition as much as we can, but that's not happening anytime soon.

Pipelines are probably safer to the general populous but are open to sabotage as we see in the Middle East, you are right the best thing we can do is get off oil as fast as we can. It's just... I have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that we have so much security at airports, but you have what amounts to a massive bomb sitting in the middle of a city with little to no security. Is it just me?

 

[DerMißingno]

Pipelines are safer, but you can't realistically have a pipeline going to every place that needs oil, eventually you're going to have to transport it by hand.

It will be great when we finally move away from oil, but that probably won't happen until we've used it all.