R.J. DeBerg said:
Maybe in your country Hans. Just for you all info I was a Track Safety Specialist for 31 years in the FRA. Per your request Nick. Later RJD
You know I know Buddy, A little funnin is fun 
R.J. DeBerg said:
Maybe in your country Hans. Just for you all info I was a Track Safety Specialist for 31 years in the FRA. Per your request Nick. Later RJD
The Lac-Mégantic incident brought a lot of interesting facts to the fore. Relating to regulations both North and South of the border.
In my view - in a nutshell - there seems to be a “gentle” approach to matters. And then we get statements like this:
The rail company didn’t anticipate “a problem like this occurring at all,” said Harrison, who said it would have been “jeopardizing commerce” to hold back trains until divers could get in.
E.Hunter Harrison, CEO CP Railway in regards to the Calgary bridge collapse.
My bolding and italics!
To me statements like that speak volumes, just as the wishy-washy statements from the regulators do. Nothing to do with the busy bodies of the press, they just report - finally - what warranted reporting long ago.
As always strictly my opinion!
So Hans what is the point. Its more human error than equip failure. It appears your folks have different opinion same as ours. Later RJD
Quoting today’s (January 3) LA Times: "The grain train derailed while it was crossing over a switch at 28 mph. Sumwalt (that’s the NTSB guy) said investigators had found a broken axle from the grain train, though they were trying to determine whether it caused the accident.
A single car from the grain train ended up on the eastbound tracks and was struck by the oil train traveling at about 42 mph. The two locomotives pulling the oil train were destoyed."
Elsewhere in this story or perhaps in another one, I noticed that the person running the locomotive was called the conductor? Don’t we call them engineers anymore? 'Cause in the old days, conductors were the guys who basically gave engineers and the rest of the cab crew, ulcers.
Once again it appears some of the wanna be’s don’t know much about trains. Conductor
is in charge of train engineer included. Sure would be great for sun burned guys to know what there talking about before they speak.
R.J. DeBerg said:
So Hans what is the point. Its more human error than equip failure. It appears your folks have different opinion same as ours. Later RJD
Human error. That’s precisely what I pointed out in the first place. In the Lac-Mégantic case someone at Irving oil presented a PP outlining what needs to happen i.e. product tests at trans-shipping points in the oil fields. One month before the L-M incident. Human error is not following up immediately. Then we have the case of MM&A the CEO of Rail World - Edward A. Burkhardt - turns down a proposal for crew training because of cost. 47 people had to die because of “Too much money”? Human error or greed … or both!
Calgary bridge collapses, it was sheer “luck” that there wasn’t a major spill in the center of a city that was already coping with emergency conditions. "jeopardizing commerce” obviously trumps evrything else. Lack of judgement, human error, whatever you want to call it. These are not accidents.
Now that they had a major incident in ND they will check the volatility of the product being shipped? 6 months after the PP at Irving? Do all these guys work in a vacuum or is the vacuum in their heads? How do they get away with it?
Strictly my opinion, as always!
Was on the first train over the line after the accident.
It was night and was on the wrong side to see anything so slept throuth the accident scene but speed was very restricted in the area.
Having grain and burning oil is not a great mix. Glad no one was hurt in the accident.
The word from our local train crew was that the engineer on the oil train had a warning just before the collision and he and the conductor got out fast before the explosion that did not happen for some time after the accident.
Stan
The problem is that they add a chemical to the crude oil which makes it more flammable now. This something that now need to be looked at.
Now how can a train be crossing over and then derail ahead of an on coming train. In that case then we had a signal malfunction or in RR language false proceed. signal. Doubt if that was the case and as Nick says a lot of want abee RR or better know FRNs.
BTW it is not a lack of crew training it’s a lack of rules by the RR and not enforcing them. The engineer failed to do his job period. Had they had additional rules in place to also add derails to the track at the entering switch this also would have prevented the train from making it to town.
Later RJD
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/oil-and-propane-train-derails-in-canada-1389203285-slideshow/
Yet another…other crude oil wreck. This time in Wapske, New Brunswick. Sorry for the lousy yahoo link, hopefully a better detailed story will come soon.
For what it’s worth, they made certain to mention this was Canadian crude vs North Dakota oil in one of the photo captions.