Port Coquitlam British Columbia - Last Monday evening at 18:35 there was a huge fire in the CP Port Coquitlam Yard (POCO).
 
I didn't see the incident personally and did not venture over for a look.
 
The whole area was under lock down as could be expected.
 
Speculations on many counts were running wild at the time, but I did confirm at the time that the locomotive involved was CP 5014, a six or so year old PR/EMD SD30C-ECO unit.
 
What happened?
 
In a nut shell, at the West end of the POCO Yard is one of two entrances to the property (the other up near the overpass where I took this photos from).
 
Road traffic heading to the General Yard Office or Diesel Shop heads over the X-Lead crossing and along to the east.
 
The crash site is another crossing just to the South and is used internally and also by a trans-load outfit that works down by the Scale.
 
So apparently they are trans-loading different types of fuel there now, and in this case a truckload of ethanol was loaded and being moved out of the yard.
 
The truck driver had stopped short of the south crossing, as a switching move was taking place on the X-Lead crossing.
 
Once the X-Lead move cleared, all the vehicle traffic started moving, and so did the driver of the Ethanol truck.
 
However, the driver didn't notice a train approaching from the left on the second track behind the first track.
 
A local road switcher with CP 5014 and 5005 was pulling a train in, and the crew were fortunately running backward with the CP 5005 to the West.
 
The CP 5014 hit the fuel truck between the two trailers and pushed it east along the track for a short distance before it split the tanks and erupted in a massive fireball.
 
Fortunately the truck driver and both CP crew members escaped injury.
 
Very lucky!
 
That's the long and short of it.
 
The fire departmen let the fuel burn out over night.
 
The place was still locked down the next day.
 
As luck would have it, the shop staff had parked CP 5014 yesterday over on the south crossover at the Diesel Shop from there I was able to get a shot of it from the overpass so you can see the damage incurred.
 
The right front corner took the brunt of the heat damage.
 
And it only looks as if the handrails were damaged from the impact.
 
Offhand I'd say the unit is totally repairable.
 
It will obviously need a new cab, electrical cabinet, air brake system, and front truck.
 
Andy Cassidy.