Canadian Railroads > Seems some have trouble keeping trains still

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/runaway-train-cp-canadian-pacific-alyth-calgary-yard-rolled-away-1.4896921

Following an incident at Edson AB on the CN main line where freight cars rolled unattended into the path of a westbound freight with three fatalities, derails were added to many locations where trains are regularly stored and yarded.

I think the criteria was "unattended" yards, meaning that staff were not often near to the equipment. On the CN, these derails are radio controlled, and have a "talker" feature  which tells trains when the derail is "restored to derailing position".

CP's Calgary Aylth yard is a major yard with classification tracks and shop and car repair facilities. There are staff present 24/7 in the main part of the yard, but the yard is large and spread out so there are likely areas that would fit the "unattended" criteria.

Transport Canada has really tightened up on securing trains with sufficient handbrakes, however classification yards frequently switch large cuts of cars with the air brakes "bled off".

Sometimes big cuts get away on the crew switching them.

The alternative to ensure this never happens would be to switch out trains always using air brakes. Possible but very time consuming.

eminence_grise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Following an incident at Edson AB on the CN main
> line where freight cars rolled unattended into the
> path of a westbound freight with three fatalities,
> derails were added to many locations where trains
> are regularly stored and yarded.
>
> I think the criteria was "unattended" yards,
> meaning that staff were not often near to the
> equipment. On the CN, these derails are radio
> controlled, and have a "talker" feature  which
> tells trains when the derail is "restored to
> derailing position".
>
> CP's Calgary Aylth yard is a major yard with
> classification tracks and shop and car repair
> facilities. There are staff present 24/7 in the
> main part of the yard, but the yard is large and
> spread out so there are likely areas that would
> fit the "unattended" criteria.
>
> Transport Canada has really tightened up on
> securing trains with sufficient handbrakes,
> however classification yards frequently switch
> large cuts of cars with the air brakes "bled
> off".
>
> Sometimes big cuts get away on the crew switching
> them.
>
> The alternative to ensure this never happens would
> be to switch out trains always using air brakes.
> Possible but very time consuming.

Taschereau Yard in Montreal certainly has derails at Ballantyne. When a train leaves the yard to head east on the Montreal Sub, you'll hear the crew say on the scanner that they are entering CTC territory and will talk to the RTC about the derails.

Michael

In the Edson incident, there had been an old style derail installed at the east end of the yard, but had been removed to facilitate cabooseless train operation.  The day after the accident, a bulletin was issued to re-install the old derails system wide until a new style (remote) derail was available.

Chris Rye

I couldn't tell from reading four separate news articles re: this unattended "run away train" event but were there locomotives coupled to the 80 cars? And how was the train stopped? I'm guessing the speed was slow enough such that a person(s) could somehow access brakes on the train?

The article says Aylth is a major yard.  Don't they mean "it used to be"...