8 February 2006
20 CPR Coal Cars Slide Off Tracks Near Brisco
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A CPR crewman surveys the scene of a 20-car derailment
just outside the Brisco Wood Preservers Ltd. factory last Wednesday. The train - loaded with 115 cars of coal - tore through a rural
road intersection, before coming to a stop in a dramatic pile-up. Remarkably, only one car lost its
load.
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Brisco - A CP Railway train carrying coal derailed just north of Brisco in the early morning
hours last Wednesday, sending 20 loaded cars barrelling through a rural road crossing and into a massive pile-up in front
of Brisco Wood Preservers Ltd.
The 115-car freight train was heading north from the Elk Valley towards Vancouver when it slipped off the tracks at
approximately 4:35 a.m.
The train appears to have dug up the timbers between the rails before coming to a complete stop. "Most of the cars are upright and
there's no threat to the environment or any waterways in the area," said CPR spokesperson Ed Greenberg, confirming that one car
had tipped over, spilling coal on the ground adjacent to the track. "We're ensuring the site remains secure and we're doing the
appropriate clean-up and remediation, and track building that meets Federal and industry standards."
Greenberg refused to speculate as to possible causes for the accident, but emphatically ruled out speed as a factor. Asked weather
conditions played a role, he said: "We'll be launching a comprehensive investigation and we'll be looking at a number of
different factors to see if any contributed to this situation."
Damaged rail cars will be analyzed and the locomotive's black box will be recovered to "tell us how the train was performing and
indicate what the weather conditions were like," says Greenberg.
Special equipment was brought on-site to re-rail some cars and remove others that were damaged in the
pile-up. "It's a pretty standard operation in terms of clean-up and track repair," says Greenberg,
adding that a crew of 20 employees were called out to help with the remediation process, including one investigator.
The line was re-opened at approximately 5 p.m. Thursday and CPR resumed full operations as it completed a final
clean-up of the site and continued environmental monitoring.
Greenberg says CPR had an incident rate of two per million train miles in 2005. This includes a total of 17 derailments, most of them
minor, involving one or two cars. "We're considered one of the safest railways in North America. But whether one car slipped off
the tracks or 20, our company views each one as important to investigate."
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