Railroad Forums
Moderator: MEC407
Jack Donaghy wrote:I'm already not liking some of these people, reminds me of being on the bus
Bangor Daily News wrote:Several tanker cars of petroleum products exploded after a train derailed in the middle of a small town in the Canadian province of Quebec early on Saturday in a blast that destroyed many buildings and sent flames hundreds of feet into the air.Read more at: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/07/06/n ... in-quebec/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Police in Lac-Megantic, a lakeside town of about 6,000 people, said they have been unable to determine if there were any casualties. Fire officials said around 30 buildings in the town center were destroyed, some by the initial blast and others by the subsequent fire.
. . .
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said four pressurized tanker cars blew up after the train, which had 73 cars in all, came off the rails shortly after 1 a.m. Fire officials said they feared more of the tanker cars were at risk of exploding.
. . .
Several Maine fire departments were sent to help Canadian crews deal with the blaze.
. . .
Police said some cars had spilled their contents into the river that runs through the town.
MEC407 wrote:I'm hearing rumors that this was one of MMA's "one-man crew" trains. Does anyone know if that's true?A report I read said local FD was proceeding with caution as it was believed the car that blew was pressurized and that there may be more pressurized cars. This would make me think it was LP and not crude., but the huge cut of tanks, mixed with the reported oil on the river would imply it was infact crude. Maybe it was a mix?
Also, is it known yet whether the cars that exploded were indeed carrying crude oil, or were they perhaps carrying some other type of fuel?
mbhoward wrote:Sorry to say its bad enough to make the UK papersI think we have to wait until the report comes out on this one !
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lodes.html
Some horrible pictures of the explosion and resulting fire. My thoughts and prayers to the town and crew.
KSmitty wrote:A report I read said local FD was proceeding with caution as it was believed the car that blew was pressurized and that there may be more pressurized cars. This would make me think it was LP and not crude., but the huge cut of tanks, mixed with the reported oil on the river would imply it was infact crude. Maybe it was a mix?Agreed: the multiple reports of pressurized cars, along with the dramatic explosions, made me wonder if it was something other than crude... but it does seem completely possible that we're actually looking at multiple types of fuel being hauled in the same train.
There's a good chance it was a 1 man crew. Aren't most of their road jobs St Luc-Brownville 1 man crews? Reports read elsewhere suggest it had an RCO caboose tucked in on the headend.
Joe McGonigle, Chicago-based vice president at Montreal Maine & Atlantic, said the train had been stopped outside of town for a crew change, and that there was no crew on the train at the time that it somehow started to roll. The train's engineer had inspected the train at just before midnight and all was secure. However, sometime after that, the train started to move, eventually traveling 6.8 miles, and part of it derailed and several cars exploded, he said.
"The train was released, we don't know how," he said. All safety measures were in place, and the train was "secure," he said.
Montréal Gazette wrote: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.Read more at: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Tra ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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."
