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Old 07-08-2013, 08:37 AM
 
Location: Somewhere flat in Mississippi
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A tragic situation in Canada. Five dead and 43 missing! Of course, our news media has been covering a plane crash in San Francisco around the clock the last few days where only two people were killed!



Incendie centre ville Lac-Mégantic partie 2 Vue du centre ville - YouTube
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Old 07-08-2013, 09:11 AM
 
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There is 24/7 coverage on RDI here but yeah it's about 50/50 on CBC.

The thing is, there is a lot more to talk about with SF right now, lots more video and a global situation. With the derailment, they haven't been able to really get into the site yet. On the French news, they are just repeating the same thing over and over and over. No new developments really (I think we all know what has happened to the missing but they aren't going to confirm this yet), whereas SF has more news available.

It's really a tragedy though, scares me to think how close it was to where I live. Did give my boys a couple extra kisses at bedtime for sure.
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Old 07-08-2013, 09:28 AM
 
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As if we needed reminding how tenuous a grasp we have on our lives along comes a tragedy like this to turn an idyllic town into a disaster area.

All those families missing a member, while not having the ultimate proof of the remains to grieve over, waiting and watching with the futile hope held that they'll somehow turn up safe.

I cannot begin to imagine what they're going through and if I could, it would probably need a magnification to the power of ten to come anywhere close.
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Old 07-08-2013, 12:02 PM
 
Location: Bella Vista, Ark
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There are so many tragedies and we just never know when one will affect us directly. I hope those missing, like those unaccounted for in the SFO plane crash are found unharmed and safe.
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Old 07-08-2013, 01:38 PM
 
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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I think that there was a act that may turn out to be called terrorism at work here.

The train was parked for the night, with the engine of the locomotive turned off, and the air brakes locked on. The company that owns and operates the train, has recently reduced their crews to ONE engineer, and they don't operate at night, all to save money. So, how does a train that is has the brakes locked, and the engine shut down......move ? Obviously, some one did something to it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I really feel for the people who have lost a relative, and the town as a whole has been dealt a real blow, BUT. I have to ask this question......who "benefits from this " ?

Not the railway company, or the insurance company, or the dead people , or the town of Lac Megantic.

So, that leaves us with the anti petroleum anti pipeline groups, the eco nuts, the anti globalisation anarchists, and of course the "home grown terrorists ' such as the wing nuts who tried to blow up the BC legislature building , recently, or the two guys who wanted to attack a VIA train on the way to NYC.

The train was parked on a higher elevation, outside of the town, so when the brakes were released, gravity took over, and the train crashed at a track junction, right in the middle of the town. A huge explosion followed, destroying six square blocks of buildings, one of which was a bar, and that is where the main loss of life took place. So far only five deaths have been confirmed, but a further 40 are missing, feared dead in the rubble.

In case you don't know, before 911, the two largest domestic terror groups in the USA were the Earth Liberation Front, and the Animal Liberation Front. Between them, they did about 50 million dollars worth of damage to buildings and Government installations, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. Although most of those groups are behind bars, there is a new generation of people who could do such things , today.

One only has to look at what has happened at various sites, to see what they are capable of doing, in the name of "protest ".

We will see what comes out as the investigation proceeds.

Jim B

Toronto.
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Old 07-08-2013, 01:43 PM
 
Location: Somewhere flat in Mississippi
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Have any of you traveled to Lac-Megantic in the past?
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Old 07-08-2013, 03:28 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by canadian citizen View Post
I think that there was a act that may turn out to be called terrorism at work here.

The train was parked for the night, with the engine of the locomotive turned off, and the air brakes locked on. The company that owns and operates the train, has recently reduced their crews to ONE engineer, and they don't operate at night, all to save money. So, how does a train that is has the brakes locked, and the engine shut down......move ? Obviously, some one did something to it.

So, that leaves us with the anti petroleum anti pipeline groups, the eco nuts, the anti globalisation anarchists, and of course the "home grown terrorists ' such as the wing nuts who tried to blow up the BC legislature building , recently, or the two guys who wanted to attack a VIA train on the way to NYC.


.
Before getting into paranoia land as to the causes its the rare locomotive that will be turned off for the space of one shift, the engine also needs to run to maintain air pressure to the brakes of not only the engine but the 72 cars in the assemblage, shutting the engine off could have in someway disengaged the brakes..Why would any one turn the engine off you may wonder..=
Broken fuel line may be cause of late night fire on Lac-Mégantic train - The Globe and Mail

another write up of events.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/M...739/story.html
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Old 07-08-2013, 05:38 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo View Post
Have any of you traveled to Lac-Megantic in the past?
I have. Gorgeous area, Lac-Mégantic is a bit of a typical Appalachian town, with a good-looking main street and a few big mills.

Something I haven't seen in the news reports linked here -- the lake itself is the source of the Chaudière river. Looks like quite a bit of oil has made it into the river system, which has created drinking water problems throughout the region, all the way to Quebec City's southern suburbs (roughly 200km to the north of Lac-Mégantic).
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Old 07-08-2013, 09:02 PM
 
Location: New York City
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Old 07-08-2013, 09:06 PM
 
Location: Somewhere flat in Mississippi
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This is copied from a railroad group that I own and moderate. It might answer some questions about what could have happened in Lac-Megantic.

Okay, thanks.

On another list, there was this reply to my quoting of the MMA spokesman
talking about the release of the brakes due to the shutdown of the
locomotives:

Here, what is certianly being referred to is the Independent
air brakes. That is, the brakes on the engine which get air straight
from the compressor and can be set separately(hence Independent) from
the train-lined braking control arrangement of a system of
interconnected of valves and reservoirs(which can be used for
simultaneous braking of both the cars and the locomotives, or just the
cars).
Using the Independent brake to hold a standing train in
place is standard practice, both on level track AND on slight grades.
The compressor relies on a running diesel engine to keep pressure up.

Okay, that makes plenty of sense, especially since that's the reason for
the auto-start feature on newer locomotives, right?

So, although train brakes should not be relied upon to keep a train in
place, I didn't realize that it was standard practice to rely on the
independent brake to keep a parked train parked.

If this was the problem, would it have mattered whether or not the
locomotives uncoupled from the train? Regardless, this now seems to
explain how the locomotives were able to roll through town ahead of the
train that derailed behind it, right?

I wanted to reply to something else that Ken Cotton said in another
message, and I've waited until now when I'm replying to something else so
that I can keep the quantity of messages down.

I have never seen air bleed off 73 cars IN TWO HOURS unless they had help

Aside from the fact that we seem to have realized that the problem was the
independent brake and not the train brake about which the "bleed off"
comment is made, bleeding off is a gradual process, isn't it? If the
problem were the reservoirs in the cars bleeding off, they wouldn't need to
completely bleed off to have a problem, right? Wouldn't they only need to
have bled off enough so that the weight of the train was now overpowering
whatever effect that the air brakes were still having? especially if the
train no longer had the benefit of the locomotives' independent brakes?
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