Barons Alberta - A broken rail was the cause of a September 2019 derailment of a Canadian Pacific (CP) train in Alberta which led to a spill of hazardous materials and a local evacuation, according to Investigation Report R19C0094 released Tuesday by the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada.
 
The incident at 07:43 on 2 Sep 2019, near Barons, about 50 miles southeast of Calgary, led to the derailment of the second head-end locomotive and 21 cars of the 96 car train, which also included a mid-train distributed power unit.
 
Eleven of the derailed cars were tank cars, three containing octane, a flammable liquid, lost part of their load as a result, leading to an evacuation within a 1.2 mile radius of the accident site.
 
No injuries or fire resulted.
 
A review of the lead locomotive's forward-facing camera showed a brake in the left-hand rail before the train passed over, marks on the wheels of the lead locomotive, which did not derail, were consistent with this damage.
 
The investigation was unable to determine the cause of the break in the rail.
 
Author unknown.