[Newsbot]

Title: Devastated Lac-M�gantic waits for word of its missing
Category: Misc CDN
Posted By: commanderkai
Date: 2013-07-08 07:30:42
Canadian

[commanderkai]

Hopefully the loss of life stays low, but I have doubts of that considering the sheer devastation of the town. Wow

[Zipperfish]

Sounds like a worse case scenario for a crude oil train. Just heard about this now. It's very tragic.

One Red Cross worker: "You have to understand: there are no wounded. They’re all dead."

[ShepherdsDog]

Wondering what the criminal investigation is going to turn up. News was saying the engineer had everything secure and locked up.

[DrCaleb]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Wondering what the criminal investigation is going to turn up. News was saying the engineer had everything secure and locked up.

From the news descriptions, a train car may have had a brake siezed and fried. Securing that would have made no difference, they would still fail.

[Gunnair]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Wondering what the criminal investigation is going to turn up. News was saying the engineer had everything secure and locked up.

From the news descriptions, a train car may have had a brake siezed and fried. Securing that would have made no difference, they would still fail.

Confusing. There were reports of a fire earlier on one of the engines put out by the fire dept.

[DrCaleb]

Gunnair Gunnair:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Wondering what the criminal investigation is going to turn up. News was saying the engineer had everything secure and locked up.

From the news descriptions, a train car may have had a brake siezed and fried. Securing that would have made no difference, they would still fail.

Confusing. There were reports of a fire earlier on one of the engines put out by the fire dept.

From the article:

$1:

On Sunday the railway, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, said the locomotive was somehow shut down after the engineer left the train.

It said he had locked the brakes before leaving the train.

That shutdown "may have resulted in the release of air brakes on the locomotive that was holding the train in place," the statement said.

$1:

There might have been warning signs hours before the disaster.

Witnesses in the neighbouring community of Nantes, where the train had been parked before breaking loose, said Sunday that they had seen sparks and a cloud of diesel smoke as it came to a stop a few hours before the derailment.

Sparks can come from wheels that are locked due to overheated brakes.

[Gunnair]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Gunnair Gunnair:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

From the news descriptions, a train car may have had a brake siezed and fried. Securing that would have made no difference, they would still fail.

Confusing. There were reports of a fire earlier on one of the engines put out by the fire dept.

From the article:

$1:

On Sunday the railway, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, said the locomotive was somehow shut down after the engineer left the train.

It said he had locked the brakes before leaving the train.

That shutdown "may have resulted in the release of air brakes on the locomotive that was holding the train in place," the statement said.

$1:

There might have been warning signs hours before the disaster.

Witnesses in the neighbouring community of Nantes, where the train had been parked before breaking loose, said Sunday that they had seen sparks and a cloud of diesel smoke as it came to a stop a few hours before the derailment.

Sparks can come from wheels that are locked due to overheated brakes.

Noted, however the story I had read stated a fire dealt with by the fire dept. Anyway it's too early to tell and no doubt there's a lot if misinformation out there.

[Zipperfish]

Most events like these turn out to be the result of cascading failures. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here. It will be interesting to see what happened. I would expect you'd have to have hours of direct flange impingement to get those things to go off like that.

[ShepherdsDog]

maintenance and repair records will get a fine going over

[DrCaleb]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Most events like these turn out to be the result of cascading failures. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here. It will be interesting to see what happened. I would expect you'd have to have hours of direct flange impingement to get those things to go off like that.

That's exactly why I was thinking. I know a guy who worked at the Edmonton Calder yards and he described to me once where a brake that stuck closed would be pulled by the locomotive for miles, making sparks all the way. The heat that would build up took the temper out of the springs that were supposed to keep the shoes closed, and the brakes fail.

But Gunnair is correct - just speculation at this point.

[Gunnair]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

Most events like these turn out to be the result of cascading failures. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case here. It will be interesting to see what happened. I would expect you'd have to have hours of direct flange impingement to get those things to go off like that.

That's exactly why I was thinking. I know a guy who worked at the Edmonton Calder yards and he described to me once where a brake that stuck closed would be pulled by the locomotive for miles, making sparks all the way. The heat that would build up took the temper out of the springs that were supposed to keep the shoes closed, and the brakes fail.

But Gunnair is correct - just speculation at this point.

It's hard to imagine what the families are and will be going through when the realization is that their missing family and friends were possibly vaporized. No closure whatsoever

[BartSimpson]

Eventually there will be a town memorial for the dead and, hopefully, the dedication of such a memorial will provide closure for the survivors.

[jeff744]

Wikipedia has a map up

[Zipperfish]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

That's exactly why I was thinking. I know a guy who worked at the Edmonton Calder yards and he described to me once where a brake that stuck closed would be pulled by the locomotive for miles, making sparks all the way. The heat that would build up took the temper out of the springs that were supposed to keep the shoes closed, and the brakes fail.

But Gunnair is correct - just speculation at this point.

Speculation sure, but that mode of failure certainly correlates with the evidence so far.