The Ocean derails

At about 4:45 this morning, while southeast of Quebec City, VIA Rail Train 15 "The Ocean" derailed, sending one rail car crashing into a house, and leaving 4 people in hospital with minor injuries.

Here's the news story from Yahoo!:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1002 ... derailment

Also, the initial release from VIA Rail:

http://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail/train-15

It's still preliminary news, so there doesn't seem to be any news of the extent of the damage (ie: to locomotives and rolling stock, infrastructure, or property), apart from noting that one car ended up crashing into a house. It's good to hear only 4 people suffered minor injuries. There is also still no word on the cause of the derailment.

According to VIA's site, all trains are still operating normally, so we can assume no major damage was caused to the tracks in the area. The train was running 2 locomotives and 7 cars (separate from the Chaleur at the moment).

I'll be on the same train this Saturday, so this is interesting news.

It looks like newly rebuilt F40 #6457 was involved, and may have suffered damage. Here is another story, with photo:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/ ... lment.html

The CBC photo:



According to the newer story, 7 people suffered injury, but only one may have been taken to hospital, while others were treated for shock.

VIA is set to hold a press conference shortly, to address the incident, and possible interuptions to train service. With being set to travel on Train 15 this Saturday, I really hope this doesn't mean any interuptions to the Ocean's schedule. We'll have to see what happens though.

Another image, from CTV news. This shows that the other locomotive, also one of the rebuilds (hard to tell number) ended up on its side, and appears to have been noticeably damaged. It also shows that the consist running this morning was the set of Budd cars.

*Edited to add second photo:

From CBC:

To add more to this story:

The other locomotive (the one on its side) was 6400, which quite evidently suffered major damage to its pilot, and presumably damage to the engineer's side of the locomotive.

4 passengers were injured, but only one taken to hospital with bruises. The engineers both suffered slightly more severe injuries, and have been hospitalized. The house the locomotives ended up in had its garage and contents (multiple vehicles) and part of the main building (the bathroom) destroyed, but no one was injured.

A reporter on the scene said firefighters had told him the accident was caused by a problem with the switch, noting that the track goes from single to double trackage at that point. We'll have to wait for official word from VIA and the CTSB to be sure.

there are some incredibly stupid antirail comments attached to the comments section of the CBC article (you know the kind-I rode a train once-could have hitchhiked faster, etc.). I have a feeling it is a CN maintenance (or lack of) problem. Hopefully they'll put the blame where it's due.
Sad to see two of rebuilt F-40s involved................

Yes, very sad to see the commenter reactions. People can be so ignorant in those comment sections.

I'm glad that there were no major injuries. I hope that none of the Budd cars were damaged beyond repair. I would have liked to have seen an overhead shot.

Also interesting was in the CBC News report, a firefighter on the scene said in French that it was due to "lumières", which would mean signals, however the reporter in English said switches.

I also hope 6400 can be saved. Being VIA's first F40 and F40 rebuild prototype made it unique. I have an HO scale model of 6400 as she looked post rebuild.

Tom6921 wrote:I also hope 6400 can be saved. Being VIA's first F40 and F40 rebuild prototype made it unique. I have an HO scale model of 6400 as she looked post rebuild.

With regards to 6400, this might not be all that bad...it was eventually going to get fully rebuilt (with the extended carbody, separate HEP, 3rd headlight, etc.) the same as the rest of the newer rebuilds, so maybe it will just get sent off for that now. I'm in the same boat though, that I just (about 3 days ago) fully finished an HO model of 6400 in the post-rebuild state....now if it goes and gets the extended carbody and all that, my model will already be out of date!

6457 is more of a shame, as it was just fully rebuilt in the last year.

miklin wrote:there are some incredibly stupid antirail comments attached to the comments section of the CBC article (you know the kind-I rode a train once-could have hitchhiked faster, etc.). I have a feeling it is a CN maintenance (or lack of) problem. Hopefully they'll put the blame where it's due.
Sad to see two of rebuilt F-40s involved................

My thoughts exactly. I had to sit there and shake my head at some of the comments, like "do trains in Canada even go fast enough for that to happen?", and "that looks like the trains they have in India, old and dirty...where's the sleek high speed train?", and stuff like that. One person did actually allude to some fault on CN's part, which was nice to hear.

I find it rather amusing how when anything like this happens, suddenly every person there is an "expert" on what's wrong (it's always about what's wrong) with the rail system, or whatever else is in question. Why does it tend to be only the most ignorant people who actually choose to be the most vocal??

I find local newspapers have the most inflammatory, one-sided, asinine comments of any internet venue. It's amazing how many tough guys read online newspapers. Roid rage anybody?

Anywhooo... good to hear nobody was hurt in the house.

Either way, our models may become "collectors items". Though I didn't want to become collectors items like this.

timberley wrote:With regards to 6400, this might not be all that bad...it was eventually going to get fully rebuilt (with the extended carbody, separate HEP, 3rd headlight, etc.) the same as the rest of the newer rebuilds, so maybe it will just get sent off for that now. I'm in the same boat though, that I just (about 3 days ago) fully finished an HO model of 6400 in the post-rebuild state....now if it goes and gets the extended carbody and all that, my model will already be out of date!

good news is that both engineers have been released from the hospital already

Just to add to a bad day for VIA Rail, later in the day on Thursday a VIA Rail train in Brockville ON struck a man on the tracks, adding to the long list of pedestrians hit by trains in Brockville...fortunately for this man, he is in the hospital in serious condition, but alive.

Here's the story from the Brockville Recorder and Times:

http://www.recorder.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2467033

Yesterday was quite the day for VIA :S

I was at St-Charles-de-bellechasse this afternoon...

The CN 403...


The 6457...


The 6400.. :shock:






I'm gonna do a report on that subject!

Je suis en train de monter un "report" la-dessus!

Wow , very interesting chain of events, locomotives live a good life, near the end of there life cycle get a major overhaul, comes back as good as new, not even a year into service and run into a major accident. One locomotive (6400) looks like a total loss. Why couldn't it have happen to to a non rebuilt is all Im wondering.
Anyone have the exact location on where this accident occurred, Id like to google map it and see how close the house was to the actual tracks. Im actually thinking of purchasing property close to a very active ROW and want to know how far back I should keep my garage..LOL.

buddah wrote:Anyone have the exact location on where this accident occurred, Id like to google map it and see how close the house was to the actual tracks.

Here's one better - already googled http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s ... 6&t=h&z=18