by CN9634
This is what we consider to be a "worst case scenario." From the things I've heard, almost everything that could have gone wrong, did. This reflects the .001% chance of things like this happening but sadly, it did.
Railroad Forums
Moderator: MEC407
newpylong wrote:All the news sources are saying Crude Oil train, and from what pictures that are out there it looks to be. To anyone who thinks Crude Oil won't burn and burn heavily, did you forget the Gulf War? The vapors are what causes the explosions...Absolutely true; however, many of the news sites continue to mention pressurized railcars. Are crude oil tank cars typically pressurized? I didn't know they were, but honestly I never gave it any thought until today. That's why I wondered if this might have been a mixed train, perhaps with LNG or LPG cars in the consist. Not sure about LNG, but LPG cars certainly would be pressurized, and both would be very likely to cause the massive explosions that we saw in Lac-Mégantic. Those explosions, given their violence and the amount of heat they produced, could have easily caused the crude oil leaking from the oil tankers to ignite and burn.
Reuters wrote:In an interview with Reuters in his office near Chicago's O'Hare airport, Burkhardt said the railway had had minor derailments, but no fatalities. "In the 10 years or so we've been in business, this is the only serious derailment we've had," he said.Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/ ... 0L20130707" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
He said he expected claims would "be a lot of money," butthe company and its insurer could handle it financially.
charlie6017 wrote:Only 2 people confirmed dead from that incident, yet news of half a town wiped out & possibly of 100 dead isn't worthy of coverage. It's all about fearmongering in the US news circuits.MEC407 wrote:Meanwhile, the U.S. media has already shifted its focus nearly 100% to the 777 crash in SFO and virtually forgotten about the horror going on just north of us.Sadly, I'm not shocked at all. At one point I considered majoring in journalism........I'm glad
I didn't. Many media-types are very twisted individuals, in my humble opinion.
David Othen wrote:It appears that the train was parked on a siding at Nantes (about 8Does this scenario sound plausible to those of you who work in the railroad industry and/or the fuel industry?
miles from Lac Megantic) about 11:30 pm on Friday night and the
conductor (one man crew apparently) checked into a hotel. About 1 am on
Saturday morning the train got loose. Part of the train remained in the
siding but the locomotives and a string of crude oil tank cars ran away
down a 1% grade. From what I can gather the locomotives became detached
and presumably derailed about 0.5 mile outside Lac Megantic but the
heavy tank cars continued down grade until they reached a curve in the
centre of town and the cars derailed and piled into one one another.
According to Kevin Burkholder's report four propane cars were parked on
an adjacent siding and after being hit these exploded demolishing
several downtown stores and setting alight buildings up to three blocks
away and providing a heating and ignition source for the crude oil.
Volks, I cannot underestimate the significance of this incident regarding handling crude oil anywhere in North America. The railroad industry is looking at considerable traffic losses arising from environmental concerns over coal and diversions of post-PANAMAX container traffic either to shorter hauls or outright loss to highway transport. That the industry appears to be a long term "player" in the movement of Crude rather than the construction of pipelines could well be in jeopardy. Anyone with a stake in the railroad industry's fortunes should be following this matter closely.I can easily believe there will be ramifications that will ripple through the industry. I've been wondering about them since this event occurred. Could one of them be renewed interest in accelerating the PTC mandate on Class II's and even Class III's that carry fuel? Currently only the Class I's seem to be working to any sort of time schedule, all other RRs have been given a more relaxed time-table and/or exemption based on the presence (or lack of) passenger service.