Posted on 07/09/2013 4:43:49 AM PDT by thackney
...The locomotive caught fire, so firefighters shut off the engine to stop the flames from spreading. That slowly disengaged the air brakes, and the driverless train carrying 72 cars of crude oil rolled downhill into the scenic lakeside town of Lac-Megantic, derailing, exploding and leveling the town center.
At least 13 people were killed and some 37 are still missing, according to Canadian police...
He secured the train at 11:25 p.m. on Friday, setting the air brakes and hand brakes, according to MMA. Burkhardt said the engineer set the brakes on all five locomotives at the front of the train, as well as brakes on a number of cars, in line with company policy. Four of the train's engines were switched off, but the front locomotive was left on to power the airbrakes. The engineer, who Burkhardt declined to name, then retired to a hotel in Lac-Megantic.
Soon after, things started to go wrong. Nantes Fire Chief Patrick Lambert said the fire department got a call about a blaze on one of the locomotives at 11:30 p.m. He said the fire was likely caused by a broken fuel or oil line.
Firefighters reached the scene within seven minutes.
"It was a good sized fire, but it was contained in the motor of the train," Lambert told Reuters. "By 12:12, the fire was completely out."
But as they extinguished the fire, the 12 volunteer firemen also switched off the locomotive, in line with their own protocols, to prevent fuel from circulating into the flames.
One of the many unknowns in the story is precisely what happened next.
Lambert said the fire department contacted the railway's regional office in Farnham, Quebec, and spoke to the dispatcher...
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I was wondering the same thing. Also one article mentions an explosion, but I don't know if the author meant an "explosion" from collision noise or a 2,000 degree over pressure explosion.
Very Interesting. Keep me posted please.
If this was deliberate sabotage they are responsible for multiple murders.
This should give even more importance to the Keystone pipeline.
Perhaps a spring would work better.
No matter the brakes or whatever, a train should never be left alone. IMO.
The cost of one man left with the train is nothing compared to the damage done here.
Westinghouse's 1869 version, the straight or direct air brake, used air hoses to connect the cars. When the engineer turned on the brakes, air pressure turned the brakes on in each car of the train. Of course, if the hoses leaked or disconnected, the train lost braking power.
With air brake 2.0, Westinghouse turned things around. Air pressure kept the brakes off. The engineer reduced pressure to put the brakes on. This built-in safeguard meant a loss of pressure would stop the train automatically. That applied to leakage and to the situation where cars came unhitched: Loose cars would brake to a stop. The system went into use in 1872 on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/dayintech_0305
FRED lets engineers know about pressure conditions at the end of the train nowadays (it used to be the guy who road in the caboose).
FRED stands for flashing rear end device, and FRED has a radio transmitter and regularly reports conditions on the air line.
I had wondered how the crude got caught on fire.
A heavy train will roll even if a few cars have hand brakes on.
In a word, no.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_air_brake
"An air brake is a conveyance braking system actuated by compressed air. Modern trains rely upon a fail-safe air brake system that is based upon a design patented by George Westinghouse on March 5, 1868. The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) was subsequently organized to manufacture and sell Westinghouse's invention. In various forms, it has been nearly universally adopted."
While billed as "fail safe" the Westinghouse air brake system can and does sometimes fail, leaving rheostatic brakes (which don't work w/out engines), manual brakes (which were engaged but on only a few cars), and emergency brakes (which are dependent on air pressure which fell to zero when the engine was shut down). Unlike truck brakes which apply with spring pressure and release when pressure is applied, train air brakes are applied and released by raising and lowering the pressure in a line that runs the length of the train. The individual cars apply their brakes using an air reservoir on each car in response to changes in the "train line" pressure.
Regards,
GtG
Doesn’t sound too fail-safe to me.
I really do believe no train should be left running with no one in it.
All trains have a device on the last car that monitors air pressure and is in radio contact with the head end. It attaches to the air line and is mounted on the knuckle.
It’s called a FRED Unit, which stands for friendly rear-end device. (Sounds kind of gay.)
Engineers (not train drivers) have a saying: Every time that you make something "fool proof", God makes a more talented fool!
I really do believe no train should be left running with no one in it.
It happens more often then you might suspect, 99.9% of the time it doesn't matter. It's that 0.1% that bites. There are times when it's unavoidable, I would think it a better policy to chock the wheels just to be sure. Trains have four braking systems and that should suffice. This time it wasn't enough to quell the perfect storm. Very sad...
Regards,
GtG
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