Engineer of runaway train radioed to warn rail station ‘to get clear at Field’
The freight train involved CalgaRy in a fatal derailment was flagged for speed-control problems hours before its tragic plunge near Field, B.C., early Monday, says a veteran employee with Canadian Pacific Railway.
And he said one of three Calgary men killed had selflessly warned others of the runaway train he was aboard moments before his death.
Staff received an emergency alert late Sunday night that the 112-car, three-engine westbound train carrying grain had been having mechanical issues before it stopped for two hours at a small station above the dramatic descent to the Spiral Tunnels and the town of Field, said the man, who wouldn’t give his name because he didn’t have permission to speak publicly on the matter.
“They couldn’t control the speed of the train, it wouldn’t maintain the speed it should have,” he continued.
He said Andrew Dockrell, Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer and Dylan Paradis were then sent to relieve the train’s original crew, because the time required to ease its length down to Field would have extended well beyond their shift.
“It happens a couple of times every winter ... if the train has trouble, that’s standard operating procedure,” he said.
CP Train 301, which left Red Deer and was heading to Vancouver via Calgary, had halted for two hours at Partridge station before lurching forward and losing control for three kilometres along a challenging, serpentine stretch of mountain track.
Before that, retainers — devices meant to ensure the train’s brakes don’t lose pressure — would have been activated by the original
crew and should have held, said the source. It’s possible temperatures well below -20 C at the time could have impaired the train’s air brakes, he said, something crews have dealt with before.
“We’ve had to leave a train at Banff because the air pressure wouldn’t rise,” he said.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) and CP Rail are investigating what caused the train’s brakes to release without warning, sending it down the steep grade above the maximum 32 km/h speed for that stretch before derailing and plunging 60 metres to the Kicking Horse River, killing the three men on board.
On Tuesday, a TSB official said the relief crew had not been given permission to continue on to Field and had not caused the train to start moving.
The veteran railway source said even in the face of impending death, longtime locomotive engineer Dockrell issued a warning over a company radio about the out-of-control train.
“He’s pretty much a hero, calling the rail traffic controller to make sure to get everyone off of there, to get clear at Field,” said the source.
“It’s amazing he’d take the time to do that ... there was nothing he could do to stop it — that train was on a mission, I guess.”
When asked if the men should have been aboard a train that had already experienced control problems, the man said, “Somebody had to be on it ... this is a procedure we’ve done for all these years and it usually goes without incident.”
It’s unusual, he said, for the lead locomotive to leave the tracks as happened in this case.
Only 13 cars and the rear engine remained on the track.
Paradis was a conductor and father of two, while Waldenberger-Bulmer,
26, had been a trainee since November.
The source said the tragedy has struck a crushing blow to the tightknit railway community.
“It makes you sick,” he said. “You’ve always got to be wondering, ‘How’s that train going to act today?’
“I just hope they hurry up and find out what went on.”
A spokeswoman for CP Rail said she couldn’t comment on the possible sequence of events.
“There’s really nothing I can say to that,” said Salem Woodrow. “There’s going to be a full investigation, and it’s going to take time.”
TSB officials say they’re seeking electronic data from the three locomotives, will conduct interviews and review the possible effects of weather conditions.
Monday’s disaster bears some “eerie similarities” to the fiery 2013 Lac-Megantic, Que., railway crash in which a runaway train experiencing mechanical difficulties — and after a crew change — rolled down a steep incline, said academic Bruce Campbell, author of a book on the earlier tragedy that took 47 lives.
He questioned if increasingly lax regulatory regimes spanning Conservative and Liberal governments laid the groundwork for the latest incident.
“There’s a lot of risk issues that haven’t been addressed. I’ve been worried the window is still open for history to repeat,” said Campbell, author of The Lac-Megantic Rail Disaster: Public Betrayal, Justice Denied.
“There’s a conflict between economics and safety.”
CP Rail said it is not clear when service along the line would resume.