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It is obvious that setting handbrakes to hold a train on a grade is as much art as it is science.  There are too many variables to make it entirely scientific.  Brake winches can lack proper lubrication to the point where they require more torque to set to the same brake pressure as a well lubricated brake winch.  So a person setting brakes cannot know how effective the brake will be.  That variable makes the minimum guideline rather meaningless.  While this mixture of art, science, good judgment, good luck, and guesswork has been common practice, it is not sufficient in situations where a runaway train will be disastrous to population centers.  In wide open spaces, some runaways will not even derail, and if they do, it is possible that no injuries will result.  But in the case of this Lac-Megantic runaway, the parking oil trains uphill from a 10 mph curve through town amounts to holding a loaded gun to the heads of the residents.  It should not have been hard to see that before the disaster occurred. Based on the Lac-Megantic experience, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board has already ordered that oil trains must not be left unattended on a main track.  They have also ordered the revision of Rule 112 in a way that obsoletes the old art/science push-pull method of achieving holding force for trains parked on grades.  It sounds like they are going to replace the push-pull test with a detailed specification for setting handbrakes.  They will take the guesswork out of it by stipulating the number of brakes, the torque setting, the grade, the tonnage, type of cars, weather, wind, safety factor, etc.      The Canadian Transportation Safety Board says that rule 112 is not specific enough because it does not spell out how many handbrakes to apply for various weights and types of cargo. It also says that the standard, so-called "push-pull test" does not always accurately show whether the brakes have been adequately applied.
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