VIA train 693, the Winnipeg-Churchill passenger train, derailed near Togo, Saskatchewan around 6 PM on Sunday night. There was a washout, likely due to spring runoff, and the track was undermined. There is a highly distorted but dramatic photo in the CBC article showing a coach hanging in mid-air with only one truck on the ground. Fortunately noone was injured beyond "a few scratches". The seven (7) passengers were taken to a nearby lodge in Duck Mountain Provincial Park for the night and presumably other arrangements have been made for the rest of their journey. Reports say the track may be out of service for two days.
There is no word on damage to the train, except that there was a fire under one of the engines, presumably from a punctured fuel tank. The news reports say the fire was quickly extinguished. The plume of smoke was visible from a CN freight train over a dozen miles away.
In case you are wondering why the train was in Saskatchewan, the CN Togo subdivision that VIA 692/693 takes does cross into Saskatchewan and the Hudson Bay is in Saskatchewan for about 4 hours before returning to Manitoba for the long trip north to Churchill. (VIA timetable - PDF)
The Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to the location to investigate.
The Transportation Safety Board has issued their findings. You can go read it - I encourage you to, it is quite readable - but the gist of the findings is that the VIA crew forgot they were supposed to take the siding at Meharry to meet CN 853 and instead carried on until the CN crew saw VIA 692's headlights and called them on the radio to stop. That was a close call.
The CN Togo subdivision is Occupancy Control System (OCS) territory, commonly known as "dark" territory because there are no signals. The TSB report emphasizes that crews must remember their orders and use visual cues like mileboards, station calls on the radio, etc. to recall special orders like the meet with CN 853 that was specified in their train orders. Clearly the VIA crew did not remember and the close call was the result.
I was curious how the Transportation Safety Board investigation into the VIA 692 near miss last November was going, so I went to their rail investigations web page and had a look. On page 2 of the list there is incident R11W0247 which is named "Meharry" and the location is given as Meharry, Manitoba. No further information is available from that list, but a little Googling of the incident name came up with these details.
CN REPORTS, VIA PASSENGER TRAIN P-692-41-29, IN POSSESSION OF AN OCS CLEARANCE WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO ENTER THE SIDING AT MEHARRY, PASSED THE WEST SIDING SWITCH MEHARRY AND CONTINUED ON THE MAIN TRACK FOR 3 MILES. IT WAS FURTHER REPORTED THAT THE PASSENGER TRAIN WAS BROUGHT TO A STOP WHEN OPPOSING CN FREIGHT TRAIN G-853-41-28 CAME INTO VIEW. BOTH TRAINS WERE SAFELY BROUGHT TO A STOP. VIA 692 THEN MADE A REVERSE MOVEMENT AND ENTERED THE SIDING AT MEHARRY FROM THE EAST SWITCH WITHOUT PROPER AUTHORITY. NO INJURIES REPORTED. CN / VIA OFFICIALS RESPONDED. TSB INVESTIGATORS (WINNIPEG) DEPLOYED.
I corrected a couple of typos.
There is an important fact here that was not evident in the Winnipeg Free Press article on this incident, namely that "the passenger train was brought to a stop when opposing CN freight train G-853-41-28 came into view." The WFP article implies that the VIA engineers put the train into reverse to avoid a collision, when the blurb says "both trains were safely brought to a stop" and then VIA 692 was reversed. It puts a different light on things.
I'll check back to see when the investigation is complete. No doubt the focus in the TSB is still on the Aldershot, Ontario accident.
On Saturday afternoon I went out with the kids to run a few errands and shoot a few trains. I headed toward my usual spot near Diamond to try to catch VIA 692 aka the Hudson Bay returning from its long journey from Churchill.
I had a little detour, though, because when I drove over Pembina Highway I saw the headlights of CN 532 to the north. I did a quick turnaround and went into St. Norbert to wait for 532 to roll by. I didn't want to go too far south so I set up at the crossing of Avenue Ducharme to get them. I did not have to wait long. In fact, I was still slapping the tripod up when CN 532 came around the bend. Faded SD75I CN 5628 and shiny ex-BNSF C40-8W CN 2199 were the power for the long train.
After they passed, I continued on my way up to Diamond. There were quite a few CN maintenance vehicles around and a foreman had a block from mile 10 (the hotbox detector) out to mile 17 or so. This meant that all trains had to call the foreman for permission to pass through his block, so I could get some advance warning.
I was not there long before I heard VIA 692 call through loud and clear to acknowledge that the foreman had given them permission to pass through on the north track at 30 MPH. I set up the tripod with the Canon S3 on it for video, and waited for the train.
I should mention that the outside temperature was -11C according to the hotbox, but the wind was howling. My hands were almost completely numb after VIA passed. I think I need to toss some light gloves into the camera bag!
Anyway, here's VIA 6455 leading the usual consist of two engines, baggage car, two coaches, diner and one Chateau sleeper car.
Here's my video. Note that my tripod is a little broken and the wind of the passing train twisted the head around a bit!
That was all well and good. I heard CN 117 calling for permission to go through the block, so I shot them coming the other way. I had already packed up my tripod, and I didn't feel like standing in the cold cold wind again anyway, so I just shot stills.
Dash-9 IC 2724 and ES44DC CN 2292 were the power for this intermodal train. You can see by the light that the sun was getting close to the horizon. This was at 5 minutes to 5 PM.
Yes, yes, Steve, all good, but where is this "shot" you are talking about?
I figured there were not going to be any more trains on CN for a while, and with darkness approaching I thought I'd try my luck on the CP mainline 10 minutes north. I drove up to the elevator at Makwa and saw that the west-facing lights had a green light on them.
In fact it was red over green over red by the elevator at Makwa, which is Canadian Rail Operating Rules rule 416, "Limited to Clear"... "Proceed, LIMITED speed passing signal and through turnouts." From Makwa (mile 11.1 of the CP Carberry subdivision) there are two main tracks east to the yard at mile 1.7, so the eastbound train would be switching to the other main track, hence the LIMITED speed.
This was good! It meant there was probably a train coming soon. I headed west toward Rosser village, straining to see a headlight in the falling dark. I passed through Rosser and continued west toward the grain elevator at Meadows, figuring if nothing else I might get a bit of sunset on the side of the elevator. As I was on the straightaway approaching the elevator, I saw headlights on the track on the other side of the elevator. I was hoping that I could get there in time to get the train passing the elevator.
Well, you might have guessed that I did get there in time. Here's the Shot.
I mean, seriously, look at that sky! I could not have asked for a nicer colour.
The train rolled on by and I gave pursuit. It was going a good 55-60 MPH (speed limit 60) so I did not pass the head end until near Makwa where they had to slow to that LIMITED speed. By this time I had my "nifty fifty" 50mm prime lens on to try to grab what little light there was. I did this panning shot of CEFX 1050 as it rolled on by, and the engineer gave me a few toots.
I was super pleased with myself for getting that elevator shot, and I think I need to try some more sunset shots!
VIA 692 was involved in what appears to be a serious rules violation / near miss near Grandview, Manitoba Tuesday around noon. The train ran about 11 km past Meharry siding on the CN Togo subdivision, where they were supposed to wait for CN 853. The article states they slowed to a stop, then ran in reverse to the siding and CN 853 arrived shortly afterward. A spokesman for VIA said both engineers were suspended without pay on the spot, awaiting the results of an investigation. The passengers were bused to Winnipeg.
The Winnipeg Free Press reported on it. I encourage you to read the article. Apparently a passenger on board the train "who is familiar with train operation" called the Free Press to tell them about it. To quote the Free Press: "I felt the rules violations were so serious the public should know," the passenger said. "There could have been a very serious incident."
Very serious indeed.
My amateur reading of the Canadian Rail Operating Rules (CROR) tells me they violated rule 304: When a train or transfer has been restricted by clearance, such train or transfer must not leave the point named until it is positively known that the opposing trains or transfers named on the clearance have arrived.
Without knowing their orders, or more detail about the event, I could easily be wrong. Whatever the case, they were in danger the moment they ran past the siding. There are no block signals on that track to protect the trains, so they could have met head-on easily enough.
The passenger said that once they came to a stop, they ran in reverse back to the siding, "reaching speeds of about 50 to 65 km/h". The passenger said that there was initially no one on the rear of the train to protect the movement, but after about five minutes one of the engineers reached the rear of the train. Rule 115 (a) of the CROR states: When equipment is shoved by an engine or is headed by an unmanned remotely controlled engine, a crew member must be on the leading piece of equipment or on the ground, in a position to observe the track to be used and to give signals or instructions necessary to control the move.
The WFP article says that the Transportation Safety Board is investigating, so it will all come out in their report. Thank goodness no one was hurt.
PS the photo is an old one of VIA 693 leaving Winnipeg on June 6, 2010... not the train in the article.
I know I haven't been posting at my usual frenetic pace. Work has kept me very busy and the blogging has fallen by the wayside a bit. I have still been shooting trains every now and then, and here are a few of the VIA trains I've seen in May that I haven't already blogged about.
Back on May 5 I was out at noon to shoot the Thursday Canadian. This one had a Rocky Mountaineer car on it, coach RMR 3251. This was the first "summer" Canadian so it was much longer than the usual 9 or 10 cars of the winter version.
As I recall, they stopped for a signal short of St. James Junction, so they were going pretty slowly when they passed me.
The next VIA I saw that I haven't blogged about yet was May 26's Canadian. This was another Thursday VIA 1. This was an entirely ordinary Canadian with no deadhead cars, shot at Waverley Street in Winnipeg.
What made this one special was the meet with CN 114. I was worried that 114 was going to block my shot of the Canadian, but the RTC gods were smiling and 114 was on the north track. VIA 1 shows up at 2:30 minutes in the video.
Finally, I shot both VIA trains this past Saturday, VIA 1 and VIA 692. First, the Canadian at mile 10 of CN's River subdivision.
This had old friend VIA 1721 deadheading behind the engines and ahead of the baggage car.
The other old friend was VIA 6414, the Loto Quebec engine.
The weather turned pretty sour during the day Saturday, and there was some lightning and rain (and a tornado watch!) when VIA 692 returned to Winnipeg from its long trip from Churchill. I shot the Hudson Bay at Diamond.
Thanks to a tip about VIA 692 having a refurbished unit trailing, I decided to head out Saturday afternoon (Nov. 20) to shoot it. As I was getting ready, I heard the RTC say that there would be FOUR eastbounds in a row shortly after 3 PM. I tossed the kids in the car and headed to Wilkes Avenue. Couldn't miss that!
When I arrived, an eastbound was rolling past on the north track. I tried to get ahead of it to shoot the 2 units, only to find a westbound coming on the south track. I turned around and chased that toward Diamond but couldn't catch it. It was CN #837 with CN 2637 and 2511? trailing.
As CN 837 approached Diamond, I saw an eastbound train on the other side of the diamond coming on the north track. I stopped to wait for 837 to pass so I could shoot the eastbound... CN #302 with IC 2716 and CN 5563.
After that madness, things settled down for a few minutes. I heard 837 get a rollby from another train, so another eastbound was coming. It turned out to be CN #304 on the north track. I saw the multitude of ditch lights on the lead unit and couldn't figure out what it was, until it came closer and I saw it was BCOL 4607 with CN 2450 trailing. Four ditch lights!?
Soon enough, the next eastbound came along. They slowed as they approached Diamond because they had a Clear to Stop indication, which turned Clear soon enough. I guess things were starting to back up farther east. This was CN #114 with CN 2504 and BCOL 4603 on the south track.
Almost on the heels of 114 came VIA 692 on the north track. They stopped at Diamond, then stopped again at Carman Junction, so I shot them in both places. 692 had VIA 6438 and 6437 with the usual five cars.
After those six trains, the kids and I had had enough and we left. Not a bad afternoon! List of sightings and times
Clayton Chaloner shot VIA 692 with a Park car on the end, namely 8718 Waterton Park. Apparently Tuesday's outgoing Hudson Bay had the same car. I would have shot it but I was having lunch with my wife instead. I guess I'll make a point of shooting the next Hudson Bay!
(this is part 3 of a series. Read part 1 first if you like!)
After railfanning in Winnipeg, I planned to go to Portage la Prairie sometime during my stay in Winnipeg this December. My wife and I decided that December 27 would be the best day for me to go. For those who don't know, Portage is an ideal railfanning location due to the CP and CN main lines running side-by-side with only a few hundred feet between them. I had visited Portage once before, on July 27, 2004.
I set out from Winnipeg before sunrise to maximize the light. As I passed over the CN mainline at Wilkes Avenue I saw a westbound train rolling by. I figured I would probably beat it to Portage. I stopped in Elie for a quick bathroom break, and when I emerged from the gas station I heard a train horn. Elie, by the way, was the site of a very violent tornado on June 23, 2007. No high winds in December, thankfully. I hit the road and paced the train for a while. It looked very nice silhoutted against the prairie but it was too dark to take a photo.
I eventually decided to cut it off before Portage, so I took the exit at Oakville and rushed to the tracks. I taped it at 08:05 as it passed the local grain elevator. Unfortunately it was still pretty dark and the video camera struggled with the focus. The train had CN 2252 and 2239 leading 168 (!) cars.
I took up the chase again, but on the scanner I heard them calling the outer limits of Portage and I knew I could not get downtown before them. I decided to go around Portage and get them on the other side, as they would have to slow down through the city. By the way, their calls told me this was CN 769.
I found a small crossing just west of Portage, with plenty of time to set up the tripod and take some stills. At 08:30 CN 769 blew through. For trivia's sake, this was the longest train I've ever seen.
After that excitement, I headed downtown to see what was up. I was thrilled to see two big units on the CP side, until I realized they weren't going anywhere. CEFX 118 and CP 9138 did a little switching in the yard, then parked on the secondary line and sat... and sat... with red lights on the signals indicating no other trains around. There were two other CP units in Portage, 3120 and 6039.
I just noticed that I saw CEFX 118 once before - in Chicago on May 8, 2007. The other time I saw CP 3120 was in... Portage la Prairie!
I did a little driving around, a little photographing, and eventually I saw a headlight to the west. At about 09:54 CN 346 rolled through with CN 2533 and 2233 pulling 95 cars, a mixed consist with a lot of forest products. CN 2533 is an old friend to the Maritimes, and I saw it once in Saint John, NB on November 1, 2006.
I made a crucial mistake after that train, getting into my car, and missed a CN container eastbound at 10:03 with 2 units. They passed under me when I was on the bridge. Dang it.
I saw a CN track foreman near their little hut by the VIA station, and I asked him if he knew when the Canadian would be coming through. He checked the RTC display and said they would be by around 11:00. He mentioned the Hudson Bay was on the Gladstone sub but would be coming through soon. I thanked him and went up to the bridge to get overhead shots of those two.
I eventually saw a little headlight to the west that turned into an F40PH. From the length of the train I could see it was VIA 692, the Hudson Bay, running 3 hours late at 10:33. It had VIA 6456, 6445, baggage, coach, coach, diner, and sleeper Chauteau Viger. They did not stop at the station.
Soon after that, VIA 2, the Canadian, came by at 10:44, 50 minutes late. The consist was VIA 6436, 6453, deadhead sleeper Fraser Manor, baggage, coach, 8227?, Skyline, car, Skyline, diner Emerald, sleeper Draper Manor, sleeper Butler Manor, sleeper Dawson Manor, observation car Tremblant Park. As it approached me, the Canadian disturbed a group of birds that were feeding on spilled grain between the rails.
After that, nothing. Nothing on the CN side, nothing on the CP side. Oh, I shouldn't say "nothing" because CP 3120 eventually rolled out and started doing some shunting. The two big CP units rolled down a little way to make room for 3120.
I had told my wife I was leaving at noon, so I was starting to get nervous. As noon approached I saw the lights on the CP side had changed, and at 11:48 a CP eastbound rolled through with CP 9700 and 9663 leading a long doublestack train.
CP 3120 pushed a short train out of the yard with a boarded-up CP caboose at the head end.
Right after that, the two big CP units hooked on to their train, and left at 12:03 with CEFX 118 and CP 9138 leading 88 cars.
I hit the road back to Winnipeg. I heard a CN track foreman on the scanner talk to the RTC, and the RTC mentioned there were two westbounds coming through shortly. Sure enough, I heard CN 115 call its way through Portage at 12:20. Therefore, one more westbound on the way! I decided to try to get it at Oakville. As I turned off the highway, I saw it approaching across the wide open prairie. As I zoomed down highway 13 I was trying to figure out who would get to the crossing first. I'll cut the suspense... it was me by at least 5 seconds. I screeched to a halt before the gates, hopped out and started filming. Westbound CN 303 rolled through with CN 2554?, IC 6058, and 113 cars (I knew it was CN 303 by some later scanner traffic).
With that I headed back to Winnipeg, a little annoyed by the lack of CP traffic but otherwise satisfied. I was especially pleased to bag two VIA trains. 4 CN trains, 3 CP trains, and 2 VIA trains... not too bad.
