Topic: Tweet Thread

[Fobroader]

Holy crap, any idea what happened??

[sailor723]

RR's pushing to maximize profits result in steadily lowering maintenance standards for roadbeds.

[Great_Big_Abyss]

Yup.  And Winnipeg has a TON of rail lines running through the city.  CN and CP's East-West Mainlines run right through the middle of the city (CN's goes through downtown).  Both railways maintain multiple massive train yards within city limits.  There is also a main line that goes South to the US, as well as multiple main lines that head North and Northwest. Train operations in the city are non-stop, and a massive source of annoyance when it comes to traffic delays. 

It's really only a matter of time until a derailment happens with some dangerous goods near a residential area, and we have another Lac-Megantic style disaster, but on a much bigger scale, because more people!

[Ex-airbalancer]

Yup.  And Winnipeg has a TON of rail lines running through the city.  CN and CP's East-West Mainlines run right through the middle of the city (CN's goes through downtown).  Both railways maintain multiple massive train yards within city limits.  There is also a main line that goes South to the US, as well as multiple main lines that head North and Northwest. Train operations in the city are non-stop, and a massive source of annoyance when it comes to traffic delays. 

It's really only a matter of time until a derailment happens with some dangerous goods near a residential area, and we have another Lac-Megantic style disaster, but on a much bigger scale, because more people!

It has happened before
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Mississauga_train_derailment

[PJungnitsch]

Edmonton's the same way, tonnes of railcars going right through the center of the city, likely to get more w/these pipeline restrictions

Propane/butane bleve's are pretty impressive:

https://www.firerescue1.com/hazards-hazmat/videos/massive-train-car-explosion-bleve-Mld5gN4Nfb3zFXIT/

[OliverD]

It's really only a matter of time until a derailment happens with some dangerous goods near a residential area, and we have another Lac-Megantic style disaster, but on a much bigger scale, because more people!

At least you don't have hills for unattended rail cars to roll down. 

[Great_Big_Abyss]

It's really only a matter of time until a derailment happens with some dangerous goods near a residential area, and we have another Lac-Megantic style disaster, but on a much bigger scale, because more people!

At least you don't have hills for unattended rail cars to roll down. 

That's true, although that's only one potential cause of derailment. 

[sailor723]

Just to give an idea......an older friend of my parents was a RR engineer for CN in the 50's and 60's.  He drove the Ocean Limited on part of it's run from Montreal to Halifax. I can remember him saying they would sometimes open it up and hit 90+ mph while in the wilds of northern NB overnight. I've read that that same track today has sections limited to 20 mph due to track condition.

[Bubba]

Another derailment pic.

[tenpenny]

In other news, the Keystone pipeline just spilled 1.4 million litres of oil in North Dakota.




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[Sir Osis of Liver]

Just to give an idea......an older friend of my parents was a RR engineer for CN in the 50's and 60's.  He drove the Ocean Limited on part of it's run from Montreal to Halifax. I can remember him saying they would sometimes open it up and hit 90+ mph while in the wilds of northern NB overnight. I've read that that same track today has sections limited to 20 mph due to track condition.

Dad worked for CN for 37 years. He had free coach passes on VIA as a perk so we'd take the train to travel between Moncton, Bathurst and Campbellton to visit relatives.

He knew some of the drivers and conductors. I got to 'drive' a rail-liner for a little while on that route, and I remember the speedometer was over 75mph. 

Those were neat rigs. It was a shame most were sold off to (IIRC) Argentina.

[tenpenny]

When I was in university, the rail liner used to go right into downtown Fredericton.  I could take that at 2pm on a Friday afternoon, and hop off in Hampton, our house was about a mile from the train station.

For the return trip, there were white flags you'd put in a holder next to the rails, as the railliner came around the bend, the engineer would see the flag and stop to pick us up.

It was a long slow trip, since it went through Fredericton Jct, but there was bar service, so it wasn't a bad way to spend the afternoon.

[OliverD]

When I was in university, the rail liner used to go right into downtown Fredericton.  I could take that at 2pm on a Friday afternoon, and hop off in Hampton, our house was about a mile from the train station.

For the return trip, there were white flags you'd put in a holder next to the rails, as the railliner came around the bend, the engineer would see the flag and stop to pick us up.

It was a long slow trip, since it went through Fredericton Jct, but there was bar service, so it wasn't a bad way to spend the afternoon.

You're really dating yourself. 

A guy I work with said he used to take the train from Fredericton Junction to Halifax in university. By that time it didn't come into Fredericton anymore.

Fun fact for those not from around here, the old Fredericton train station is now a liquor store.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

^ That's pretty neat.

Passenger trains were shut down to Fredericton before I moved there.

That poor old train station looked to be beyond salvage at one point. Glad they saved it.

[Bubba]

When I was in university, the rail liner used to go right into downtown Fredericton.  I could take that at 2pm on a Friday afternoon, and hop off in Hampton, our house was about a mile from the train station.

For the return trip, there were white flags you'd put in a holder next to the rails, as the railliner came around the bend, the engineer would see the flag and stop to pick us up.

It was a long slow trip, since it went through Fredericton Jct, but there was bar service, so it wasn't a bad way to spend the afternoon.

You weren't covered in coal dust by the end of the ride? 

[OliverD]

^ That's pretty neat.

Passenger trains were shut down to Fredericton before I moved there.

That poor old train station looked to be beyond salvage at one point. Glad they saved it.

I think parts of it were torn down. Unfortunately they just added a box onto the back of it for the retail part. Then the front part is used for events.

[Ex-airbalancer]

It also crazy you cannot take a train to Thunder Bay anymore

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Why would you want to go to Thunder Bay?

 

[Bubba]

Why would you want to go to Thunder Bay?

 

To see Sleeping Giant!

[sailor723]

Saint john was the eastern terminus of the CP mainline back in the day. My Dad remember the "boat trains" from Montreal that would go right out onto the piers. People would get off the train and board the Empress liners to Europe..

Even in the 60's and 70's we had an overnight train to Montreal. My mom and dad took us to Expo 67 on the train because even then there was talk of it being cut and they wanted my sister and I to have the experience. As an 8 year old at the time it was a great adventure, Compartment where the chairs turned in bunks, dining car with table cloths, Observation dome car etc etc.  It left Saint John early evening (around 8:00 I think) and you woke up in time to have breakfast while pulling into Montreal.

 Later I used the train a couple of times in the late 70's to go skiing at Big Squaw Mountain in Maine. The Saint John-Montreal train would let you off in Greenville Junction around 2:00AM and the resort would be there with vans to shuttle people to the mountain hotel.