More Things That Go Boom in the Night!

The story of a recent derailment on the Canadian National Railroad (CN) at Plaster Rock New Brunswick, may have been found buried somewhere in the second section of your local newspaper.

Since the cars that caught fire following the derailment were not bearing Fruit of the Loom skivvies, but crude oil and propane, the derailment became page one fodder.

The 122-car train was headed east from Toronto to Moncton, New Brunswick. The tank cars were destined for the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John. That is the same destination of the ill-fated oil train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.

TSB Canada Investigator under car suspected of triggering derailment

This derailment involved the last fifteen cars and pushing distributed (unmanned) power pack. CN believes that this cracked wheel triggered the derailment at this point in their investigation.

Jim Feeny of CN Rail said "Indications are that there was a sudden failure of a wheel on Car 13, which ultimately led to the chain of events that led to this derailment. "Now, there are a number of factors that still have to be looked at as part of that. What exactly failed on the wheel? What are the causes of that failure?"

(Full details.)

This latest incident involving DOT-111 tank cars (designated CTC-111A in Canada) comes just weeks after the fiery display that lit up Casselton, North Dakota.

The Canadian oil originated in the oil sands of Manitoba; the crude oil at Lac-Mégantic and Casselton originated in the Bakken Oil Shale’s of North Dakota. Both areas have experienced an explosion of activity, raising concerns by environmentalists, and frowns from Federal Authorities as to the unusual explosiveness of these new crude’s.

Stand by for more. "An Oil Train Near You," is cooking in the oven.