Canadian Railroads > Fatal runaway on CP east of Field

Three operating employees on a westbound CP freight train are dead after a derailment near Mile 130 of the Laggan Subdivision around 1am today. Apparently the locomotives ended up in the Kicking Horse River. The engineer and conductor died on impact, a conductor trainee died in an ambulance.

Posted from iPhone

What a tragedy. Thoughts and best wishes for the families of those involved.

Sad.  RIP to the crew.

Not good...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/train-derailment-cp-railway-field-bc-tsb-1.5004622

CBC story now has a short video taken by a CBC radio reporter on an IPhone.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/train-derailment-cp-railway-field-bc-tsb-1.5004622

This looks to be at Yoho just below the Spiral Tunnel viewpoint (closed). The derailed cars stretch all the way back to the highway overpass. If the locomotive did indeed end up in the Kicking Horse River that bridge would be a ways off-camera to the right of the excavators

The story describes the train as "westbound", but if it was empty and the new crew had just boarded (at Field), isn't it more likely to be headed east?

GTD

sp8192 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not good...
>
> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/train-derai
> lment-cp-railway-field-bc-tsb-1.5004622

I'm guessing that UP locomotive in the first photo was a DPU cut in mid-train and was unoccupied.  Sad indeed.

cn6218 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The story describes the train as "westbound", but
> if it was empty and the new crew had just boarded
> (at Field), isn't it more likely to be headed
> east?

I don't know how a runaway train would be going uphill....
 

CBC adds the information that the locomotives fell off a bridge...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/train-derailment-cp-railway-field-bc-tsb-1.5004622

The Calgary crew was on their hours and a relief crew taxied out of Field to relieve them.

I had the pleasure of working with the two gentlemen fatally injured, I don’t have a bad thing to say about either one. Two of the most kind hearted human beings you could ever hope to meet. RIP brothers, you will be missed

cn1063 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Calgary crew was on their hours and a relief
> crew taxied out of Field to relieve them.
>
That would explain it then.  From the video in the news story, it does appear that it was going downhill, although it reverses compass direction in the tunnels.  I can't find it now, so I may have made the "empty assumption".

It's a grim situation all around.

GTD

Yoho is between the two tunnels so a westbound is in fact heading compass east through there. Just past Yoho the track curves to the north and crosses the Kicking Horse for the first time as it approaches the upper portal of the lower tunnel. If the head end left the tracks in the middle of the curve at the bridge it makes sense that it was a runaway and just couldn't hold on through the curve. 

newtonville150 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> sp8192 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Not good...
> >
> >
> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/train-derai
>
> > lment-cp-railway-field-bc-tsb-1.5004622
>
> I'm guessing that UP locomotive in the first photo
> was a DPU cut in mid-train and was unoccupied. 
> Sad indeed.

Yeah my first thought when I saw that UP unit was that in the head end consist with the lead unit underneath it or a DPU?  Don't know but do know if anyone was riding in that UP unit they most likely would have survived this tragedy.

Here is a piece of a map showing the track and highway around Yoho and the tunnels

---

Obviously our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those killed in this disaster.  Professionals through and through.  I just hope it is not someone I know, not that this would make a grim situation any better.
Probably one of the first reroutes out of Calgary as a result of the deadly incident is this westbound (now southbound) on the Aldersyde Subdivision, headed for Lethbridge and then west through the Crowsnest Pass.  #201 is crossing the Highwood River south of Aldersyde Alberta on a ccccold -25c day, will circumvent the accident site and rejoin the transcon mainline at Golden BC.  A few other trains are already in the process of diverting due to the tragedy.

---

Well it turns out that the head end of the train actually made it through the Lower Tunnel at twice the mandated speed and derailed on the second river crossing bridge. The news photos showing the UP loco and grain cars in the river make more sense now. They would have derailed after crossing the first bridge and before entering the lower tunnel and then slid down the slope into the river between the two bridges.
 

---

Sad for those that passed away as a result of the derailment.  From the photos, it does not appear that the derailed train was a loaded one as there are no big piles of spilled grain about the derailed cars.  Does CP run westbound grain trains that are empty?    

There are photos out there that do show lots of grain coming out of the cars.

Those are the most inaccurate maps and account of what happened I could have imagined.  Good God.

The derailment is at the uppermost overpass of the railroad by the Trans-Canada highway, and that doesn't happen anywhere near that bridge at the lower tunnel.

New media makes me want to barf.

Bill Miller
Galt, ON



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/19 17:52 by CCMF.

Here's a link to some good helicopter aerial footage that was shot by a Calgary TV station.

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1603405

From what I can gather, it looks like the derailment started near the upper portal of the upper tunnel.  I would imagine derailed cars are clogging the upper tunnel.  There's another big pile up of cars that went down an embankment after they exited the lower portal of the upper tunnel.  There's also another big pile up of cars where the track crosses under the Trans Canada Highway between the upper and lower tunnels, and another big pile up of cars just before the bridge that's on a curve over the Kicking Horse River that leads into the upper portal of the lower tunnel.  If the lead units went into the river, this is probably where it happened, and NOT after they exited the lower tunnel. 

I'm guessing that the train did not get through the lower tunnel or, if it did, it was just a small portion of the train, with most of it having derailed and wrecked higher up on the grade.   

Very tragic.  That mountain has taken a toll on many trains over the years.  Condolences to the families of the crew members who perished.   



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/19 18:06 by CA_Sou_MA_Agent.