Emo mayor Harold McQuaker has expressed his support for a Transportation Safety Board report which named ice jacking as the cause of the February 18 CN train derailment near his town.
“I agree with it,” he said. “The investigation was very thorough.”
However, he would like to see CN reduce its speed through Emo in the future.
“They could bring down the speed,” he said.
According to the report, a build-up of snow around the track likely made it difficult for inspectors to see the development of ice jacking, which is a build-up of ice under the track, often caused by freeze-thaw cycles.
“A combination of weather conditions and track conditions is required for ice jacking to develop. In winter, roadway snow clearing activities frequently push road sand, salt, and snow off to the ends of a crossing and onto railway tracks. The presence of road salt can accelerate snow melt, which sometimes leaves water pooling alongside the track. When the track is exposed to freeze/thaw cycles, this can contribute to ice build-up along the base of the rail,” said the report. “When water is present, the passage of trains produces a pumping action that can promote water ingress between the underside of the rail base and the tie plate rail seat, where the water freezes. When a number of these cycles occur, it can produce a build-up of ice that physically lifts the rail from the tie plate rail seat, which makes the rail susceptible to gauge spreading when subjected to loading as a train passes. The TSB has observed this phenomenon in at least one other investigation.”
The report noted that the region had experienced several freeze-thaw cycles in the week leading up to the derailment.
Although railways are aware of this condition and track supervisors are trained to recognize it, the condition can still be difficult to detect during a visual track inspection when snow is present, noted the report. Because the derailment took place in the dark, camera footage from the train made the ice jacking difficult to identify. However, footage from a train which safely passed the track earlier in the day showed a build-up of snow around the track, the report noted.
The train was travelling 44 mph in a 45 mph region, when it derailed, causing 33 cars to leave the tracks. According to the report, 28 of those cars were carrying petroleum crude, with one carrying asphalt. Six cars spilled 319,731 litres of crude oil, resulting in months of clean-up and reconstruction work.
According to the report, track in the vicinity “met or exceeded the minimum standards of the Track Safety Rules and CN’s Engineering Track Standards (ETS).”
Following the derailment and investigation, “CN clarified inspection expectations in its ETS to require zone and production gangs that are doing work on one rail to inspect both rails to ensure that they comply with track standards and that no hazards exist,” said the report.
The Times reached out for comment from CN, but no response was received as of press time.
