How about setting the hand brakes as required when left stopped.
Indeed ... hard to believe the handbrakes on the engines were engaged when they traveled so far including a stretch uphill.
I am up Canada way, but a long way from Lac Megantic. There is a wealth of graphic information in this post. I should have quit while ahead on FR regarding this awful tragedy. Still, I will offer what I have gleaned from being glued to Canadian television.
We are informed that there are stringent regulations when an engineer leaves his locomotive and freight. Hand set brakes must be applied according to the length etc of his freight. We are told by some railroad men, that in order to save time and money, sometimes an engineer will leave the engine on to power the brakes. He then does not set the hand brakes.
The railroad executive now says the engineer told him that he had set eleven hand brakes. In the next breath, the executive threw the engineer under the bus. He claimed the engineer did not do this.
You will probably know this and excuse the ramble. What I did learn from this post is how the five engines did not derail. One is never too old to learn. When they subpoena the engineer, we will know more. Last year the Transport Board lifted the mandatory regulation that there must be two engineers on board. One only was then scheduled by the railroad company. One wonders what would happen if the one engineer became ill while operating, or a sudden lurch caused him to fall and become incapable