Edit topic

Updated your discussion topic below.

Subject
Enter a subject for your topic. Maximum 150 characters.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
Here is a bit of detail from Wikipedia that changes everything. Certainly one might question the accuracy, but it is the most detailed account of the circumstances surrounding the fuel leak and so-called fire that I have seen.  From this information, I conclude that there never was a fuel leak or a fire.  The news says there was a fire, and the public reported a strong fuel odor and heavy smoke.  That would be a symptom of fuel leaking onto a hot manifold, but the smoke would be white.  The smoke would also probably not contain droplets of liquid fuel as has been reported. This new information says that the smoke was black, and that it was coming out of the exhaust stack.  Black smoke comes out of an engine due to incomplete combustion. The description of black smoke and spitting oil coming from the exhaust stack sounds like a failed turbocharger.  A failed turbo does not deliver enough combustion air, so the normal engine fuel delivery is excessive for the amount of air available.  So the engine runs “fuel rich.”  The excess fuel makes heavy black smoke, which is also likely to contain droplets of unburned fuel.  Both the droplets and the black smoke are combustible.  So with this combustible trail of fuel and smoke leaving the cylinders, the cylinder combustion process carries right into the exhaust manifold and up the stack.  This typically causes flames to blow several feet out of the exhaust stack along with extremely thick black smoke.  The flames are called “torching.”  Here is an example of torching: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG0N58_dUuY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG0N58_dUuY</a> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is the quote regarding the smoke and flame incident at Nantes: “After finishing his work, the engineer departed by taxi for a local hotel, l'Eau Berge in downtown Lac-Mégantic,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_derailment#cite_note-thestar7-44">[43]</a> for the night.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_derailment#cite_note-thegazette4-45">[44]</a> While en route to the hotel, the engineer told the taxi driver that he felt unsafe leaving a train running while it was spitting oil and thick, black smoke. He said he wanted to call the U.S. office of the MMA (in <a title="Hermon, Maine" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermon,_Maine">Hermon</a>, <a title="Maine" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine">Maine</a>) as they would be able to give him other directives.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_derailment#cite_note-journaldemontreal130708-46">[45]</a> Witnesses recall having seen the train seemingly unattended and in distress around 22:45 that night.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_derailment#cite_note-quatrevingtdixhuit01-47">[46]</a> People driving on the road that parallels the rail line near Nantes, recall seeing the train and having to slow down as they passed by the locomotives where there was a thick dark blue cloud of diesel smoke being emitted as well as sparks coming out of a locomotive's exhaust.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_derailment#cite_note-quatrevingtdixhuit01-47">[46]</a>” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I interpret it to mean than there never was a fire or a fuel leak.  The information strongly suggests this unusual scenario: 1)      The engine had suffered a turbocharger failure which left the engine able to run and load, but do so with extreme fuel usage due to a starvation of air from the turbo.   2)      Being that the engine was still able to run, it was deemed acceptable to let it idle as the one locomotive needed to keep one air compressor running.   3)      There never was a fire.  It was just visible flames and sparks in the heavy black smoke coming out of the exhaust stack.  The smoke and stack flames probably grew more intense as the engine idled because the excess fuel would have accumulated in the exhaust manifold rather than being aggressively blown out the stack when the engine had been working.   4)      Even though it was not on fire in the normal sense, it was presenting an extreme abnormality of heavy black smoke and flames, which the public driving down the highway interpreted as a fire.   5)      The public reacted to the appearance of the engine being on fire by calling the fire department.   6)      The fire department arrived and did the first thing they are trained to do with a locomotive fire, and that is to shut the engine off.   7)      Shutting off the engine ended the black smoke and stack flames.  The appearance of a fire emergency ended as the engine stopped running.   In this scenario, the MM&A is not irresponsible for ignoring an imminent danger of fire because there was no fire.  However, the locomotive mimicked a fire to the untrained public witnesses.  It probably never occurred to the MM&A supervisors that the public would interpret it as a locomotive being on fire and call the fire department; and that the fire department would shut off the engine.  Other than that one wrinkle in the plan, it probably would not have been a problem to let the smoking engine idle.    Railroad companies have routinely continued to run locomotives with failed turbochargers while under pulling load, so they must have felt that it would not be too unreasonable to let one idle.  However, pulling with a bad turbo is an emergency measure to get the train over the road.  Whereas, letting an engine with a bad turbo idle just to pump air seems foolish when you have four good engines that are each capable of pumping air.    Since the locomotive was not on fire or in any danger of starting a fire, the MM&A did not take an undue risk by postponing dealing with that problem—a risk that might be evidence of a willingness to take a risk by not setting enough handbrakes. But we are still left with the fact that they decided to let the controlling unit idle with a bad turbo that resulted in laying down a thick blanket of black smoke and fuel droplets.  The public nuisance of that alone makes me question their judgment. The engineer told the cab driver that he felt uneasy about doing that.  He no doubt realized that unburned fuel vapor is incredibly bad to breathe.  And it would readily get into peoples’ houses in the town.  Unburned fuel vapor is diesel fuel in its liquid state, and if gets into your house, it penetrates all carpet and upholstery, fabrics, and it cannot be gotten out.  It gets on every surface.  If the surfaces are hard, it can be washed off.  If not, the oil can only dissipate by very long term evaporation.  So the information tells us that the engineer was told by his supervisors to leave the smoking engine run, and that he was second-guessing that order to the extent that he intended to re-contact them to make sure they were advising the best approach.  This indicates that the engineer did not think that the smoking engine should have been left running, but was overruled by his supervisor. When viewing this whole incident in this new context, in my opinion, it is easy to see why Burkhardt came out swinging at the Nantes Fire Department.  He was indignant that they shut off his locomotive.  He felt they had no right to do that because the locomotive was not on fire.  That is why he referred to shutting off the engine as “tampering.”  He knew that his company was pushing the envelope by letting the smoking locomotive run.  It came back to bite him in a most unusual and catastrophic way.  I believe that is why he is so defensive about what the fire department did and why he is so intent of blaming others, including the engineer.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
E-mail Subscribe
Check the box below if you want to receive e-mail notifications when replies are made to this thread.

Receive notifications