I have been loosely following this story over the past few days. And I have largely declined comment, until I gathered the information. As it turns out, it seems that the crew left the train parked, in neutral and removed the reverser handle, which is basically the key to the train. With this handle removed the train could not of been placed into powered movement. These keys are assigned to train crews when they are assigned their locomotive, and if they leave the train they are supposed to bring the reverser handle with them.
The train may remain running however, and railroads rarely will turn off large diesels which are idle unless they are forced to by environmental regulations. It just will not be able to be put in gear, so to speak.
Railroad air breaks operate like truck breaks. You apply pressure to release them. This means that this article here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100871020 is full of bullshit. Shutting down a locomotive would not release the breaks. If anything it may be more likely to release the air pressure, and hold the breaks on.
The only way I could see the fire crews, possibly causing the train to roll, would be to manipulate the trains break controls to release the breaks while the engine was still on. Waiting a while for the engine to pressurize the break line, and then decouple the trainline air break hose from the cars, before shutting the engine down (if in-fact this is what they did). That way the engine shuts down and bleeds its breaks, but the cars would remain pressurized (they can remain pressurized when uncoupled) with no breaks. The engines breaks alone wouldn’t of been able to hold a long train stationary on a grade.
Alternatively; Assuming the fire crew did not shut the engine down (or shut down only one engine of a multi-engine set), and instead fumbled around inside the train cab, not understanding what the controls did; a firefighter could of inadvertently released the trains breaks without realizing it. The train wouldn’t of started to show signs of movement for about a minute or so as it pressurized the line. Also note, they may have shut down the engine that was on fire, however the other engines must of been still running. The trainline air is common to the whole train, and if an engine is off, the other engines can still pressurize it.
That is quite a mistake for a fire crew to accomplish. Another common theory is that it was more like something a ‘terrorist’ would do.
Adam Curry (of No Agenda) has a theory about pipelines. Specifically that pipelines in the mid-east are the cause of much of the turmoil which is going on over there. Everyone wants to be in control of the flow of fuel. And pipelines are easy enough to target. Well, as it seems, so are freight trains.
However, This incident smells like a ‘terrorist’ related incident. Perhaps not a typical one however. I wouldn’t expect Al Queda to be claiming responsibility for it anytime soon. But I believe that this is perhaps either politically motivated or corporate warfare. In either case I believe it could possibly be being masked as an accident.
It is interesting to note that I received my August 2013 issue of Trains magazine in the mail today, and on page 6, was a lengthy article proclaiming the safety and convenience of transporting crude oil by rail. The article touts rails dominance in transporting crude oil, and outlines the Keystone XL proponents as ‘attacking’ the railroads. The article also makes light of Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper’s push for the Keystone XL pipeline, and his general distaste with transporting crude oil by rail. The article itself does not mention the incident in Quebec, and I am sure it was printed and mailed out before the incident took place. Kinda spooky how the article was placed in print just before this happened.
Crude oil is also thick and needs to be heated by steam in order to flow as a fluid. These insulated tank cares are fitted with steam pipes which can be hooked to a steam generator at the point of delivery to warm up the crude. But without this action, the crude remains in a thick tar-like state inside the car.
I am unsure about the properties of crude oil. I have never seen it myself, or played with it. But I do know that it has a lot of impurities which need to be refined out in order for it to become useful. I know if you throw a match into diesel, or oil, or thicker, less refined oil products, they tend not to ignite, and rather extinguish the flame. I imagine the same is true for crude oil. So how did this explode into a blaze of fire?
This is sad because if this is true, this could raise the security around rail travel more then it is, and ruin the hobby of railfanning for good. Coincidentally, in the same issue of Trains Magazine, on page 10, there is a article about terrorism, railfans and the railroads.
The rail transport industry is always under attack somehow, and they really aren’t the multi-billion dollar ventures that other corporations are. That being said, they provide the cleanest and most convenient method for transporting bulk loads long distances. They are also union based, and generally care about their employees and safety. They can’t afford not to.
It will be interesting to see what the ‘official’ findings come up with, but to me, it looks quite suspicious.
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