Euclid If my understanding is correct, the federal DOT has called for oil trains to be equipped with ECP brakes, and notified the AAR of this in a recent letter to them. What is the status of that request? Is it likely to be mandated by the DOT? As I recall, CSX has come out against it, saying that it will not do much good in preventing accidents.
If my understanding is correct, the federal DOT has called for oil trains to be equipped with ECP brakes, and notified the AAR of this in a recent letter to them. What is the status of that request? Is it likely to be mandated by the DOT? As I recall, CSX has come out against it, saying that it will not do much good in preventing accidents.
FRA, an arm of DOT has a proper rule making proceedure. Comment is allowed under those proceedures and it might take a few years to finally iron out. This prevents knee-jerk reations from becoming stupid laws/rules.
Randy Stahl That's the PERFECT setup for a vandal or terrorist leaving a train in emergency. All you gotta do is pull some bleed rods and the train is gone... with NO chance of stopping it even if the train separates. NO thanks, I'd rather have the train fully charged.
That's the PERFECT setup for a vandal or terrorist leaving a train in emergency. All you gotta do is pull some bleed rods and the train is gone... with NO chance of stopping it even if the train separates. NO thanks, I'd rather have the train fully charged.
Pull some bleed rods? How is that going to release the whole train?
And if the train is on air, and separates, it will still dump the cars. Why? Because if the air is still running, the self maintaining feature on the Automatic Brake Valve will keep the line charged to it's last state. So no matter how many times you pull the bleed rod, the car valve will sense the brake pipe pressure, and charge the EMG reservior back up to at least the pressure of the BP.
If the train is off air, then of course there is concern, however, if there is no brake pipe pressure involved, then you are a fool for thinking even emergency application will hold it.
Secure! Test! Set Air!
zugmann How do you test effectiveness of handbrakes when the train is in the hole? . . . . . . You can't. And you NEVER rely on just the airbrakes (emergency or not) to hold a train. Railroading 101.
How do you test effectiveness of handbrakes when the train is in the hole?
.
You can't. And you NEVER rely on just the airbrakes (emergency or not) to hold a train. Railroading 101.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Jerry Pier A very important requirement, not noted is that an unattended triain should be placed in "Emergency" not full service. The Lake Megantic train would have sat there fro a week or more in that state without any risk of a run-away. it takes a little longer to recharge the train but that is minor factor for the removal of risk. )I wrote on this at the time of the crash but it bears repeating.)
A very important requirement, not noted is that an unattended triain should be placed in "Emergency" not full service. The Lake Megantic train would have sat there fro a week or more in that state without any risk of a run-away. it takes a little longer to recharge the train but that is minor factor for the removal of risk. )I wrote on this at the time of the crash but it bears repeating.)
That is not a valid statement (assuming that the engines are attached and there is continuity in the trainline) and it is not "a very important requirement".
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I think when Mr. Davis says there isn't a general cry from the public calling for abandonment of crude oil shipments or hazmat shipments he's saying there's no evidence anyone's planning a march on railroad corporate headquarters with torches and pitchforks. The general public's smarter than that.
Certainly there'll be letters to the editor calling for the banning of oil shipments, hazmat shipments, nuke waste shipments, or any other "scary" shipments. There's always letters to the editor about those topics, typically from the 30% of the people in this country who aren't happy unless they're terrified of SOMETHING. The general public knows that the stuff HAS to be moved somehow, there's no avoiding it, especially oil. The country and it's economy runs on oil. The world runs on oil, some places more than others.
But this sure doesn' t mean 'ol John Q. Public doesn't want it moved as safely as humanly possible.
Will DavisHow the industry centrally responds (AAR), individually responds (each railroad) and how the Federal government and public have responded seem so far quite as I could have expected, with the pleasant exception that the general public isn't calling for the wholesale abandonment of crude oil shipments, tank cars, or railroads.
The public is in the PNW. Every day there seems to be a news story, editorial or letter to the editor demanding nationalization, the banning of hazmat transport, etc...
Good thoughts on the parallels with nuclear power. Keep us posted on you observations, please!
I'm watching this string with extreme interest; you see, I'm in the nuclear field, and this rail accident is one of those watershed events like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima Daiichi. It's an event that is easily going to have permanent repurcussions industry-wide.
How the industry centrally responds (AAR), individually responds (each railroad) and how the Federal government and public have responded seem so far quite as I could have expected, with the pleasant exception that the general public isn't calling for the wholesale abandonment of crude oil shipments, tank cars, or railroads.
I've bookmarked the AAR response and I will to compare it to how the Nuclear Energy Institute has been responding to Fukushima Daiichi in order to see if there are interesting parallels. Perhaps we can learn something 'bigger picture' by studying both; we shall see.
One thing is clear: The spotlight is on, as we say, and it won't go off soon. There will have to be credible responses to equipment conditions, and to the risk (both real and perceived) to populated areas, before it dims any.
-Will Davis
Railroad Locomotives - My Blog
Another thing to consider when putting the train in emergency and leaving it, say the outbound crew to pick it up arrives 5 hours after the emergency application. The train will have been off of air for longer than 4 hours, and the entire train will have to have a new Class 1 brake test done which means a walking inspection of making sure that all the brakes on the cars apply and either a roll by or walking inspection to verify that they release.
The AAR just put out a comprehensive paper on railroad industry actions on CBR safety:
https://www.aar.org/keyissues/Documents/Background-Papers/Crude%20oil%20by%20rail.pdf
http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2014/07/04/5-ways-the-lac-megantic-crash-changed-how-we-ship-crude-by-rail/
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
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