CN Dealing with 2 More Derailments

Sunday, January 22, 2012 05:42 PM

Prince George, B.C.- CN rail is dealing with two derailments, one which took place last night about 50 km north east of Prince George.

Around 11:30 last night, 13 loaded coal cars went off the tracks on the Tumbler subdivision line. All of the cars remained upright. There were no injuries and no environmental damage. CN says it is not clear when that line will be cleared as communications with crews in that location are limited because of poor cell service.

The other derailment happened just after 4:15 yesterday afternoon 20 km west of Wainwright Alberta. A westbound train hauling 31 loaded grain cars from Winnipeg to Edmonton saw more than half the train go off a trestle bridge.

17 cars went off the bridge, landing on the valley floor below. CN says there were no injuries and no environmental damage. The trestle bridge was damaged and crews are working to make repairs.

Until that bridge can be repaired, CN traffic is being rerouted along the Prairie North line, the secondary CN line.

The causes of the derailments have yet to be determined.

These are the fourth and 5^th derailments this week for CN.

· January 17^th a freight train collided with a stationary train near Hinton

· On January 18^th, a train carrying lumber and pulp products went off the tracks about 10 km north of Prince George

· January 20^th, 18 cars derail just north of Hay Lakes in Alberta

· January 21, Wainright, 17 grain cars off the trestle bridge

· January 21 Northeast of Prince George, 13 coal cars off the tracks.

Last week, during the deep freeze, CN had issued an advisory that it was reducing the length of its trains because the extreme cold weather can impact the braking systems. That advisory was lifted once the temperatures started to warm up. It is not known if the weather was a factor in any of the recent derailments.

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Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2012 05:42 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: BCRacer on January 22 2012 6:40 PM

Isn't it just about time CN had to stand up in front of the transportation safety committee and expain themselves...
maybe even get a fine or shut down for awhile.
or do we have to wait until they kill someone first?

Posted by: Headshake on January 22 2012 7:09 PM

Pretty shoddy.

Posted by: Palopu on January 22 2012 7:10 PM

BC Racer. Shut down CN Rail and you shut down the Province (Country). This would mean stopping the movement of Lumber, Coal, Potash, Sulphur, Grain, Gasoline, Diesel, Propane,Containers, etc; etc;

We only hear about these railways when they have an accident, but the fact of the matter is CN Rail and CP Rail are the backbone of the Country. Without them we are dead in the water.

Derailments happen all the time some worse and some better than those posted above. There have been thousands of derailments over the years, and they will continue. Its the nature of the beast. They all have safety programs, however they still have derailments.

Remember you are running steel wheels, over steel tracks, on Wooden ties at relatively high speeds. All it takes is a broken track and down you go. Years ago they patrolled the tracks on a regular basis with sectionmen, however this practice has long since been discontinued as being too expensive.

Posted by: metalman on January 22 2012 10:15 PM

Palopu said:
"Years ago they patrolled the tracks on a regular basis with sectionmen, however this practice has long since been discontinued as being too expensive"

As well as a broken track Palupo, how about a washout of the rail bed? Even a small one and the next train along will likely be derailed. REgular inspections would find these washouts too.

What, it's cheaper to wait for and clean up after the derailments?
I guess it must make fiscal sense to the board of CN, but it sure does not make common sense, to me.
Sure, given the millions of rail miles travelled across N. America by CN & Burlington Northern in a year, derailments are going to happen, but to discontinue track inspections is to invite eventual loss of human life.
metalman.

Posted by: seamutt on January 23 2012 3:38 AM

So anyone have any facts about inspections or lack of? Some people say ship the oil out west by train!

Posted by: Mercenary on January 23 2012 5:02 AM

If they did discontinue rail inspections as some have suggested then they're definitely playing with fire. Its just a matter of time before we have a major incident.

Posted by: xanadu on January 23 2012 8:01 AM

CN still does regular inspections it is a requirement of Transport Canada the amount done is based on the amount of traffic that goes over the track but would be at least 2 times a week for low traffic areas and 3 to 4 times for high traffic areas. Not to mention the requirement for track testing done with tec and sperry cars not to mention train crews are trained to report any thing odd with the track.

Posted by: Jimmi on January 23 2012 9:51 AM

The January 18th derailment was within city limits - 10km north of downtown perhaps

Posted by: P Val on January 23 2012 12:05 PM

There is ALWAYS environmental damage.