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 railroad, model railroad, electronics
 'the real thing' ... 1:1 scale
 Lac MEGANTIC tragedy
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2013 :  21:05:21  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
As any railfan, you have heard about the tragedy that took place about an hour from my home, in Lac Mégantic, this summer.
The new was soooo big it made it all around the world.

Here are some recent news of the AFTER...
Last night, the newschannel were saying that there would still be another year and a half of work JUST to do the de-contamination.

The RED ZONE is now a giant pile of dirt waiting to be de-contaminated.

This was such a nice community, a great tourist attraction of the outskirts, a nice animated downtown.

It is going to take many more years to bring it back to what it was...

CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 12/28/2013 :  04:45:06  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Well, just before Christmas, the first MMA train was allowed to cross the Megantic city.

The rails are repaired, which allow trains to roll again.

Still a lot of work on the buildings around to be done...

But at least, the "railroad" economy is back on tracks... if we can say so.
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 02/16/2014 :  20:59:53  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Well, got to see a great documentary about the accident Sunday, Feb 13.

It seems the federal government knew almost ten years ago that the MMA railroad was dangerous and that an accident could occur !!

In 10 years, MMA did received around 7000 complaints, bills and reports for their lack of competence on their railroad.
7000 in 10 years... that is 2 per day !!

Ed Burkhart, the owner or lead officer did the exact same thing in Wisconsin.
Years ago, there was a similar accident with a one man crew train.
They had a very similar train wreck with petroleum products...
No one was killed back then, but the State of Wisconsin did put a more severe law against one man crew trains.
State of Maine was not intelligent enough to do the same...
And so did Canada allowing MMA of Ed Burkhart to run trains in the province of Québec.

The Unions, the provincial gov and the autorities were ALL against this way of doing things...
But the lobby of TRAIN TRANSPORTATION was so powerful that they were able to lower the level of security in Canada.

Since the accident in Mégantic, 12 other petroleum trains have derailed in Canada...
Nothing has been changed in the ruling in the Canadian transportation board.

It is a REAL SHAME that all these persons died for nothing !!

All the lower autorities are screaming out to changes rules, but nothing is done by the Federal government of Canada.
MMA is bankrupt...
No insurance will be able to cover all the expenses.
It will be the people, once again, who will pay for the mess...
Oh YES, the government will pay some money, but where does the government's money come from ?... the people !

What is wrong with us
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 03/25/2014 :  18:21:29  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
The SURETÉ DU QUÉBEC, our provincial police, has deposit the first criminal charges over the engineer and MMA.

The news channel said that around 6 persons would be charged with criminal charges in the coming weeks.

The inquiry is done, they are ready to put charges over people.

We will see what it brings...
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 03/26/2014 :  01:56:30  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Here is something new... and promising !

CN has decided to remove ALL of its DOT-111 TANK CARS from his roster in the next 4 years.

Finaly, some good news in the canadian railroad industry.
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 04/29/2014 :  09:13:01  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Well, well, well...

Radio-Canada, the french channel of CBC, got the original soundtracks of the 911 calls made that perticular night.

It seems the firefighters did their job perfectly.
They were called around 22h30 for a fire in the first engine of the MMA train consist of five engines.
At 23h30, the fire was finished and the firefighters were waiting for the MMA "expert" to come and secure the train.

To shut off the fire, they had to shut down the motor of the burning engine.
Doing so, the motor could not compressed air anymore.
With the leaks, air pressure did fall enough so that the brakes of the engine were released.
The MMA "expert" did not apply hand brakes on the cars of the train.
So when the engine brakes did release, the train started to roll down the hill until it hit the curve in downtown Mégantic and de-railed.

The five engines did make the turn, but not the following cars.
With all the speed gained, the pile of cars did make giants explosions, that killed 57 people.

It is facinating to see how stupidities can grow fast into a catastrophy...
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 05/16/2014 :  09:12:48  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
3 persons and the MMA in general will face justice for their lack of competence with the train that exploded in LAC MEGANTIC...

In total, they will face 47 charges for the 47 people killed in that terrible tragedy.

Mainly, the engineer and the 2 office people working that night, are now facing justice.
The could be in prison for the rest of their life for what happened...

We will see about that!
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 06/13/2014 :  09:05:42  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
You know, the DOT-111 cars were NOT bad...
They were just not carrying what they were supposed to.
If they would have sticked with the main purpose of carrying SOYA oïl, canola oïl, or whatever oïl that was not dangerous to explosion, there would not have been this accident.

It is like cutting the tree branch you are sitting on...
Nothing dangerous, until you have cut enough then it can support your own weight...

Smoking around a gas station...
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 06/14/2014 :  08:08:52  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
It is now official, from the inquiry done at the MMA headquarters and from the papers that were taken by the police, NOT ENOUGH brakes were applied on the train...

Will anyone learn from that catastrophy ?...

When you cut corners...
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 06/20/2014 :  23:02:56  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Well, well, well...
The government of Québec has asked MMA to refund 409 000 000 $$.

Since the MMA went on bankruptcy, it has been put under the creditor protection.
Acting as a creditor, this is why the QC gov is able to request that anount of money.
126M$ will cover the expenses since the accident...
The remaining 283M$ should cover the re-construction.

They say that if the expenses should ever be more then the 409M$ requested, more money would be asked from MMA...

47 persons died on that July 6, 2013...
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sschaer
Moderator

925 Posts

Posted - 06/26/2014 :  07:58:12  Show Profile  Visit sschaer's Homepage  Reply with Quote
strange... sounds like a lof of political stuff involved.
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 07/08/2014 :  18:57:46  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
It is incredible to see how POWERFUL the railroad's lobby is !!

The railroad is what was first there, so they have the rights.

When you decide to build your house asside a track, do not complain about the vibrations and the noises from a train.

In LAC MEGANTIC, they want to re-construct the track elsewhere, on a diverting route.
In my opinion, it will not happen...
The railroad was there first, it was built by the CP Rail to get to the ports of Maine, in the USA.
Over the years, populations and constructions have grown all around rail tracks.
Rules have also evolved over the years, with all accidents that have occured.

Safety has always been an issue with railroad companies.

The thing here is that a terrible accident has occured here, because of a lack of safety...
There are hundreds of railroad accidents each year... this time, it was very bad.
Over 10 years, everyone had pinpointed the lack of maintenance of the track itself.
This is why MMA was confined to run trains at 5 Miles an hour.
If this company was ABLE AND ALLOWED by the government to run trains this way, what other things is the RAILROAD LOBBY capable of doing regardless of safety and what the people and governments say ?!!...

All the railroads experts AGREE, they should never let that happened.
The thing is that it took 10 years before this terrible accident happened...
Has something changed in the rules so far?... NO !!

The company which has bought MMA is still running trains on the same tracks the same way they did for the last 10 years !

I think this is the MOST frustrating thing for the victims who have lost friends, family members, a great touristic town...

If CN has decided to remove its DOT-111 car fleet, it has nothing to do with rules on the field...
Maybe the accident woke up some consciences in Chicago, where the CN headquarters is now, but it is NOT because of stronger rules in the indutry of railroads...
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CNCPVIA
Brakeman

Canada
272 Posts

Posted - 12/08/2014 :  02:52:44  Show Profile  Visit CNCPVIA's Homepage  Reply with Quote
Hello again !

Some time has pass by since the accident...
Trains are running again on the tracks now.
The tracks are still defficient and the trains are still running slowly.
MMA is no longer the owner of the tracks...

There is a new player: CENTRAL MAINE AND QUEBEC RAILWAY

We will see if it gets any better over the years.
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