Lac Megantic Rail Disaster 5 years later

WARNING: I'M VERY SORRY IF I MISPRONOUNCE NAMES OR LOCATIONS.
Uploaded the exact time disaster struck. Here's a highly requested documentary and then again I haven't made one in a while. A shortline oil train is parked on a downhill grade when a combination of events cause it to run away down towards Lac Megantic and derail.
A sequel is in the works as there's WAY more to the story that needs a 2nd video to explain it more.
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[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

This video is old and lacking some information. Check out the remaster here! kzbin.info/www/bejne/paO7omWZntRpnrM

[@b3j8]

On a night of tragedy the worst was experienced at the Musi Cafe bar which was practically at the derailment site. I believe 30 of the 47 deaths occurred here as those inside had mere seconds to escape.

[@singletruckshaystudios6828]

Imagine if you were just sitting on a toilet then then fire firing up from the toilet

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

Guess you could say it it was "Explosive diarrea" Jokes aside that's a freaky thing to think about. That's like something you'd see in one of those end of the world movies...

[@RockyFoxxowo]

This wasn't a joke! People died

[@aidanfitzpatrick-oneill2072]

Oh god, that would be terrible!

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

The oil got in to the storm sewers, so this shouldn't really happen unless Lac Megantic was an outdated dump with combined storm-sanitary sewers which are very unsanitary to have around.

[@sqike001ton]

Wouldn't happen the trap in the toilet would stop flames but I would be crazy

[@roadwolf2]

If the engineer had been allowed to return to the train. Or one was sent out to it instead of a untrained person They could have started one of the the other locomotives to maintain air pressure

[@Elfnetdesigns]

air pressure is not required to engage train brakes (the cars) only on locomotive air brakes - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_air_brake The train brakes use the westinghouse system because it is a fail safe to prevent runaway cars

[@johnsullivan7176]

I'm a retired freight train conductor and after 12hours on duty and only given a 20 minite power nap try takeing on another 12 hours on duty railroad slogan Safty First...!!!

[@ReMz10184]

The problem is the first engineer that was "qualified" relied on air brakes to hold a train. A release of air brakes to test is very standard procedure. If the train rolls, go set more handbrakes. What should have happened is a road foreman should have been called out there to investigate a train that was just reported on fire and made sure everything was in fact secured and safe. Ball dropped in multiple ways.

[@ReMz10184]

@@johnsullivan7176 Heh. You must have been a conductor from the good ol' days. Now, I can tell you that US federal regulations now require 10 hours of uninterrupted rest after a shift.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

@@Elfnetdesigns "The train brakes use the westinghouse system because it is a fail safe to prevent runaway cars" Absolutely not.

[@TheMNrailfan227]

3:01 and that kids is why you never smoke

[@oky_890]

Siren Boy 1003 because if you do your mouth will be on fire and the fire department will have to turn your mouth off to put it out

[@kyleb06]

Lol

[@ee-yc3dy]

And don't put a toxic chemical cigarette

[@Creativestugboi4208]

Lol truth

[@idknameformyselfbruh4493]

Never smoke drugs kids you will crash train and kill someone And cn dont hire drivers that have risk of heart attack

[@amjkodaz]

RIP All Victims, god bless Lac Megantic

[@theoldsteelisreal7998]

yeah

[@yourebigmad]

Generic comment

[@ee-yc3dy]

F

[@unknownindividual3461]

The locomotive 5017 is cursed

[@radon360]

While crude oil has a thick, viscous appearance, remember that it contains plenty of short-chain hydrocarbons that are distilled out at the refinery. The headspace in these cars ultimately fills up with flammable vapors, just like a tank of gasoline. These vapors ignite readily with a combustion source (such as a spark from steel scraping on rock), and the resulting heat from the fire increases the volatility of the crude, releasing more vapors to feed the fire. As the fire builds, temperatures increase, reaching the flashpoints of longer hydrocarbon chains and eventually all of it gets hot enough to burn. Odd as it may sound, had this train been full of refined diesel fuel, it would have been less dangerous and less likely to have caught on fire once ruptured.

[@TheNemosdaddy]

Actually, most crude oil has the natural gas dissolved in it removed before transportation. The Dakota fracking and Balken Oil sands have no such facilities. So this crude has natural gas still dissolved in it. Thats why these Crude oil train fires have been so volatile.

[@eunuchprovocateur4734]

Pretty sure they already thought of anything you can come up with during the investigation. Better to stick with the official report on this one...

[@brucebrewer6422]

As my brother, a chemical engineer, states, that “ crude oil is flammable, make no mistake about that.”

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

This video is due for remaster at some point especially due to several class 1 railroads wanting to implement single man crews. The remaster should hopefully spread awareness on how flawed that idea is and how it would lead to this accident repeating

[@KSE828]

The irony of talking about black smoke from a blown turbo, then showing a picture of a Leaf.

[@calebtrains2261]

A CSX Train had a similar accident in West Virginia on February 16, 2015, where a 109 car (including 2 buffer cars) oil train. It was not a runaway train but it involved tank cars hauling oil. The cause of the derailment was a broken track. The 2nd tank car (1st car behind the buffer car) through the 28th car derailed. About 18-24 cars derailed leaking volatile Bakken crude oil. The oil was coming from North Dakota's shale fields in Manitou, North Dakota to an oil shipping depot in Yorktown, Virginia. The tank cars were DOT-111 tank cars.

[@TheNemosdaddy]

There has been a number of them. Still for the number of trains that have been run, it is an extremely rare occurrence.

[@reecehaire3232]

4:16 why did I get really scared after hearing that little jingle?

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

Ah that's an excerpt from Duncan gets spooked. For a Thomas and Friends track it's almost fitting enough to use in a horror film.

[@craigthelej]

Yeah that bit of music is terrifying for 6 yr olds

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

@@craigthelej It still gives me goosebumps hearing it today and I'm a 19 year old man.

[@Tegridyvs]

The railroad itself is also at fault for not having the proper employee make sure the brake system was at par. Instead of getting the engineer or another engineer they get someone who isn’t familiar with the air brake system? Great move. Really.

[@nicholasfedirko481]

The Destruction of Lac Megantic looked liked a Nuclear Bomb went off. (Except a Nuke is much bigger than that.) You Should Do the 2013 Ottawa bus-train crash 5 years later. This one involves a Via Train.

[@DB-vo7qf]

Happened just a mile away from me.

[@DB-vo7qf]

Ottawa one

[@corismith7675]

How about viarail 96 in burlington Ontario (which is where i live)

[@adammars1438]

Just curious. Will you include accidents that happened in the subways/metros? If you don't know any, here are some that you can use: the Union Square Wreck of 1991, the TTC Accident of 1995, the Washington Metro Collision, etc. This is just some ideas you can use if you want. It's not a request.

[@regularfather4708]

I live in Franklin County Maine, and we could see the smoke. Nobody even knew about it - other than the firefighters - until the next day. It's a shame. I've been to Lac Megantic. Beautiful place.

[@texas_red4148]

Am I the only one that realizes the music is from Thomas the tank engine

[@TTTEFAN-ke3xp]

Nope

[@joshbrony2204]

No

[@pokepoke7376]

I thought it was

[@iceresistance]

me too.

[@PryceLee]

I also know that the music is from Tomeis the tank engine .

[@hammerdragon4321]

Crude does ignite very fast I worked with someone servicing oil wells and found out it doesn’t matter how long crude oil is exposed to the air it will ignite and it will explode

[@TheNemosdaddy]

Because it has Natural Gas (methane) dissolved in it.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

@@TheNemosdaddy Helps, but not necessary.

[@DTTX-Railfan]

At 6:39 that looks like a nuke from a Game!

[@SaidHead2]

Your pronunciations of the French names and locations were actually pretty good. They are very difficult, even for some of us in Canada.

[@keno77]

Thank you man for a very well made series of trainaccidents, tragic but important to learn from.

[@Giratina575]

Fuel trains are the most intimidating on the rails. And this is a prime example of what happens when people don't follow the rules

[@harrisonofcolorado8886]

PhantomlordGiratina lesson here: railroads are really terrible at transporting oil.

[@Michael-eg3rs]

Harrison La time traveler still safer then Semi Truck delivering it

[@Supercell2]

Anhydrous ammonia tankers are my biggest fear.

[@shanahen]

It wasn't breaking rules, it was the fact that there were NO rules regarding this.

[@francesco1998]

CryptoPilot Multi-Media You did listen when only 5 handbrakes were applied and they’re should’ve been at least 9 if not more because of the incline, not only that but they had a faulty engine and made shoddy engine repairs.

[@vapour_xs9235]

This should be nicknamed “ The Fire Train”

[@LittleOwl2003]

You see the use of Thomas music should be distracting but here its really effective, the use of the Duncan Gets Spooked music before the runaway happens and the Henry's Forest theme in the crashes aftermath really drive home the impact of the catastrophe

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

A lot of the tracks when worked in cleverly enough blend in to the point people forget it's from Thomas and Friends instead of an actual horror soundtrack. The Duncan Gets Spooked theme is probably the best example. During editing when I first spliced it in to see how well it'd fit I got quite the chill down my spine. There's a really good remaster of the said theme titled "The Old Iron Bridge" which will be featured in a future documentary.

[@Mrcreapycreaper]

There's an article on this in the special issue of Trains magazine called Train Wrecks volume 2. It's a very interesting read

[@XGaming1]

I remember my dad telling me about this, also who’s fault was this and what happened to the company?

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

There were numerous people at fault from the engineer to MMA's terrible safety regulations. The company later went bankrupt. If I were to list some of the safety deficiencies they had we'd be here all day

[@carmenwilliams3348]

I love this thunderbolt 1000 siren videos.

[@atsfevan0242]

Today marks the 8th anniversary of this tragic disaster. I'm glad something like this hasn't been repeated in Canada and will be a disaster that'll never be forgotten as well as the lives lost on this tragic day.

[@mononproductions6226]

I saw this same wreck on the show engineering disasters

[@WilliamHBaird-eq2hp]

The Line is now operated by a new Shortline, the CENTRAL MAINE And QUEBEC Railroad and the town has been rebuilt. Trains still pass thru for now but the Canadian Federal Government is also assisting the railway to build a new bypass around the town but this take over one year to build

[@neeheycleo5966]

I remember this I'm sure I was 5 years old back then I saw the fire in the distance And that's all I remember Except for my mom trying to get the cat into the cage thingy

[@corismith7675]

Kennel?

[@steamy1937]

I just LOVE the Thomas runaway theme:)

[@Maine_Railfan]

The train wasn't MMA 2 it was Job 2. The train was destined for Irving's Refinery in St.John NB. The TTC in Hermon, ME was never contacted but rather the Shop Manager at Milo, Maine. Currently the 5017 is still being held as evidence against the MM&A and was prevented from being entered in the Auction in fear MM&A would set up a proxy company to buy the loco and scrap it to destroy any evidence of shady repairs. I can go on and on all day about how many illegal things the MMA did and got away with like running trains 3,000 tons overweight, or doing illegal locomotive repairs. And the county is Franklin county Maine and the other "county's" mentioned are actually towns or townships. The other C30-7's have been sold to LTEX and the two leasers are on one of Fortress Investments railroads in Ohio after being leased by Fortress's railroad CMQ which took over the MMA. The 3166 went to P&W. The shop forces at Derby were only doing what they were told by management, fix the locomotives cheaply as possible and as quickly as possible.

[@Michael-eg3rs]

always enjoy these, 10/10 my friend!

[@ambermolohon3986]

Thanks for pointing out the crispy rust around the exhaust I would have never noticed that unless it was pointed out

[@TheLongIslandRailfan]

Now that was pure hell all over Canada since the Hinton Head-on Train Collision in 1986. And now 5 years later, the survivors still think about this disaster. May the 47 men, women, and children rest in peace.

[@robloxgrbhrg2034]

One person said how could the CEO breath in Lac Megantic

[@Maine_Railfan]

The first thing he said after hearing about the derailment was "How bad is our equipment damaged because we cant afford more units being broken."

[@jellybay6729]

R.I.P those kids

[@bunkertons]

The fire fighters heading towards the fire are brave af. Also, I love that Frenchie had to switch to english to say, "oh my God!"

[@mckracken1164]

i remember watching this on the news they were interviewing a member of a coffee shop

[@carolemommabear9377]

Your videos are so informative. Thank you

[@k5elevencinc0]

Service your locomotives!

[@jhadder13]

Wow interesting to see this my family is from this town and lost a cousin in the accident. i live in the states so its interesting to see this great coverage of it learned alot about what happened that night

[@OwenC1]

Absolutely loved this. Thank you

[@ItsChurchieYall]

love your work man

[@beverlyarcher3744]

That moment when even you know something is going to go wrong without even knowing before hand the danger my leg twitches at those kind of moments

[@harrisonofcolorado8886]

Great work!

[@notthatdonald1385]

1 man 'crew'. Then the RR owner goes bankrupt.

[@Maine_Railfan]

The railroad owner didn't go bankrupt just the railroad.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

@@Maine_Railfan Bankrupt MMA doesn't have the money to pay everything it owes. But Rail World has a bit more. Probably shielded from paying anything by bankruptcy law though.

[@oilersridersbluejays]

Not to sound too picky but in Canada it's railway, not railroad.

[@nathanielcruz6675]

I have a feeling that #5017 was the wrongdoer. Also, Burlington Northern had 242 C30-7s, but the National Railways of Mexico had 305 of these engines.

[@ambermolohon3986]

3:55 Notice the crispy rust around the exhaust. Yeah that's already a red flag that this engine needs servicing

[@bradenmeyer5713]

Beautiful animation quality Honestly impressive

[@abandonrailsbro]

i remember this was all over the news

[@eat_a_dick_trudeau]

I don't understand why, when they had multiple locomotives, they shut down the ones that AREN'T showing signs of mechanical problems, but, leave the one that is having problems, running. That doesn't make sense to me.

[@Giratina575]

Huge fan of your work, since we re on the topic of fuel trains, could you maybe do crescent City 1970

[@thelincolnrailfan]

Congrats on 100K

[@davidakey9743]

Your choice of music was amazing on this documentary. At first I thought "Oh no, the lead Engine is on fire!" to "Good, problem solved." to "Wait, what about the air brakes? OHHHH NNOOOOO!"

[@the_sb_0116]

Great job keep it up

[@harrisonofcolorado8886]

I remember Dad showing it to me on the news I didn't understand what happened then since I was 9 back then.

[@atsfevan0242]

I remember in 2017 my family and I watched a documenry titled why trains crash and they mentioned and showed what happen during this disaster when it happen in 2013 and when it was 4 years old since it happened in 2017 and I almost forgot it was 5 years ago last year and 6 years now as of 2019 and now I'm watching it again from a great KZbinr talking about theses train disasters from in the 20 century to recent years

[@joeundercoffer2567]

Great vid!

[@calebtrains2261]

There was an accident involving an Alvia Train near Santiago de Compostela, Spain that happened 19 days later that same month and year.

[@quebecpilotdreams1516]

I remember my place, the time and what I was doing when this happened.

[@bensmall6548]

Imagine if this occurred in a major city

[@thewheelspinreport]

imagine sleeping and having a dot 111 go flying through ur bedroom

[@Consolidation1282]

oh boy a new ep

[@XGaming1]

Does GE stand for “General Electric”? Do they manufacture the trains you are referring to?

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

Yes it does.

[@rob9995]

This happened a few weeks after the floods of Calgary and Southern Alberta. Worst disaster of Canada after the explosion of 1914 in Nova Scotia during the first world war.

[@ItzBIULDmusic]

What song did u use when u did the derailment

[@calebtrains2261]

Out if curiosity, is it possible to do the 2015 CSX M.t. Carbon, VW Oil Train Derailment in the future?

[@MEVA1104]

I enjoy your videos I just subbed

[@sarp5340]

I Remember Seeing This On The News

[@rdlawrence1473]

I'm enjoying your railroad disaster videos. As several others have noted, air brakes are applied with reduced or non existent air pressure, not with pressure, as one might infer from your video. Just think about it - when a train decouples brakes are applied to the entire train. How can this happen with an open brake line, if brakes are applied with pressure? It seems to me someone might have gone into the cab of the unattended running locomotive and mistakenly released the brakes by applying air. You state the track maintenance guy was unfamiliar with locomotive operation. Then, over time, the train could have started moving despite the five cars with brakes manually applied. Dragging brakes heat up; heat reduces friction. There are more detailed notes about the brakes and other factors in the Wikipedia article. In particular, there was supposed to be a device on the locomotive that applies brakes whenever the locomotive is switched off. This device was not working. To me the root cause of the incident is the most interesting part of these videos.

[@tiarnanferry2735]

I was looking for a comment like this! To me the cause of the accident didn't make any sense. The lack of a functioning air compressor only means lack of air, and with the lack of air in the brake pipe, the triple valve would then move to the apply position and dump the air in the car resevoir to the brake cylinder, thus applying the brakes, not releasing them. I can't seem to find an accident report that says anything but "the air compressor was turned off, thus cutting off supply of air to the air brakes and releasing them". Like that just doesn't make any sense lol

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

@@tiarnanferry2735 Reservoir air should be considered temporary when not continuously replenished.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

If you start with a train with no air pressure whatsoever, the brakes will have no force applying them other than hand brakes. Ignore that hand brakes exist to understand how train air brakes work. The locomotive air compressor fills up the locomotive air reservoir tanks. If you "release" the brake valve it will suddenly send the air from the locomotive reservoir in to the train air brake line, and there should be enough to increase this train line pressure to what is considered "released" by forcing the cars' brake cylinders all the way so that the brake shoes do not contact the wheels. It will also fill the car reservoirs through a check valve that lets air travel only one way. Then, if you apply the brakes, you reduce the train line pressure partially or fully. This causes the car reservoir pressure to be greater than the train line, forcing the brake cylinder to push the brake shoes against the wheels. A partial reduction, and a working air compressor keeps the brake pressure constant in the train line and car reservoirs so the brake shoes will not move from their applied position IN THEORY. The check valves will keep the air pressure slightly higher on the side of the piston that forces the brake shoes against the wheels as long as nothing sticks or leaks. The train will eventually be able to roll away if the train line air pressure is reduced fully as nothing except hand brakes can be counted on to keep the brakes applied without air.

[@DianeHasHopeInChrist]

Great video, historical productions

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

Thank you

[@AlohaMilton]

Very nice mini documentaries on rail accidents, thanks for making these. I have noticed in every instance it is simply cutting costs till something breaks. In this case, simply changing crews and running the train instead of leaving a few million dollars sitting around for another employee, paid a tiny fraction of the value, comes along. that savings, those 6-8 hours of not paying someone to be in charge of several million dollars in company assets as well as client contracts, was obviously an unwise decision, but I guarantee in the company thought bubble it is viewed as perfection. It's going to happen over and over and over again until the climate of maximum return for every layer of bureaucracy is changed. Managers on up to the CEO are incentivised to make sure everything is redlined, is close shaved, is as cost effective as possible. The reality is accidents are built into the process of heavily invested industries that attempt maximum return for multiple investor ownership groups all demanding costs fall and profits rise. See exploding phones etc as an example in a different industry. With incentives and bonuses to cheat the system and show reduction of a departmental cost like maintenance or staffing, and a bit of denial that the real costs will stay offset and unnoticed till after the manager moves on, it just happens in every industry over and over. There is zero possibility of 'learning from mistakes' because in reality they aren't mistakes, they are calculated decisions at various levels of a large corporation to gain some type of benefit for an individual or the corporation as a whole, and hope the consequences fall on someone else. Just wanted to let you know since your young and hopeful, some accidents are planned and society is pretty in denial about how it behaves. You with your attention to detail and interest in practical things like trains, might do better. Good luck to your generation, try not to be selfish jerks like so many before (mine included).

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

MMA was in a lot of deep crap over the years and this was the final straw. The company later went bankrupt because they've had way more safety deficiencies then I listed. It was about as bad as Penn Central

[@Maine_Railfan]

The company went bankrupt to avoid having to foot the bill for the clean up and so that the parent company wouldn't have to pony up the cash for the settlement fund. They were by far worse than PC.

[@Hunter_Dawso]

Didn’t the court case for this accident just finish?

[@theoldsteelisreal7998]

lol.

[@Maine_Railfan]

Yep the crew was cleared of all charges, and their employer threw them under the bus for running trains 3,000 tons overweight, and for illegal track and locomotive repairs.

[@WilliamHBaird-eq2hp]

Yes Last year.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

Court cases will go on for years.

[@MIMRailPics24]

What version of th thomas run away music did u use

[@connorflaherty175]

Could you do a video discussing and reflecting the gare de Lyon train crash of 1988?

[@BagelsGuy]

4:48 yeah question? What’s the theme for that so I can listen to it for 61716 hours straight?

[@jurgenkuhlmann9194]

Just a question: would the use of brake shoes (you put in front of a wheel and lock onto the rail head) have prevented the disaster? They are tiny little things like the red "remove before flight" tags you find on parked and inspected military aircraft....but with a big anti - disaster effect!

[@EndMii619]

its been almost 8 years and this is still one of the most insane things to ever happen with a train crash

[@hamlinfan69]

Stupid question but whats a buffer car?

[@theunitedstates5217]

Fun Fact:In Birdbox. This scenes were Used. The Show Was Sued (I Think?).

[@ltr4300]

That taxi driver said the cab was covered in speckles of oil just from being near that engine for a couple of minutes when picking up the engineer. That's how bad that engine was blowing. I heard it had a cylinder that had been repaired with epoxy? Yikes...

[@reecehaire3232]

Holy moly

[@ericdoesstuff7568]

How about the Casselton,ND next year?

[@AshleesBathroom]

Lac Megantic was worse than Hinton because it caught a city on fire

[@Rangerman69420]

I remember when this one happened I never really found out what went wrong so it's cool to finally know.

[@TheTrainandCar2023]

I like These Crash stories a lot! and also first comment

[@dieseldave71]

I've always wondered why trains don't have a spring brake system similar to class 8 trucks, where the air pressure holds the brakes in the off position. That way when the air leaks down the brakes apply, rather than release as in the current system.

[@MilwaukeeF40C]

Air pressure both applies and releases air brakes in a train line system. That's why continuous pressure, or handbrakes, is required to keep brakes applied. Truck style air brakes with springs are not strong enough for trains.

[@kokls747minecraftandmore7]

Here we go again... another unstoppable movie.

[@evanf1293]

Interesting fact about the town of Lac Magantic that was explained in a documentary titled "why trains crash" where they talk about this disaster and the chatsworth train collision in 2008 is that its home to many french people

[@Dominion69420]

Which runaway song is used at 4:44?

[@JaspeR173]

Damian Simmonds Troublesome Trucks theme

[@minor-devil3299]

Could you do the Dahlerau train disaster and Eschede derailment? I would like to see you take on them.

[@jewellade3304]

I was 3 when this happened and still have a memory of watching the new and seeing the fire

[@traingp7]

Does anyone know the exact model of locomotives in the consist? I know for a fact the dash 7 series of GE's have been gone from big railroads for some time now.

[@Thunderbolt_1000_Siren]

Watch the video. Those were the exact engines. This was a short line don't forget

[@henrygoodsengine4719]

5:22 How did the train derail? Was it going so fast over the points that it derailed or something?

[@frankietherailfan1282]

When the mushroom cloud appears : you've received the casselton award for big tanker car explosion

[@logantails613]

What was the crash music?

[@funnibaldman]

I am from Vaudreuil-Dorion (a suburb of Montreal) and was only 2 at the time of the accident. I never knew about the accident until now.

[@TheRealityfades]

what's the runaway theme cuz it sounds different

[@luciaconn6788]

They run tankers in daylight, a rail-highway truck scouts the track out first... by my house US. Great Documentary / mechanical description

[@nathanielfox9721]

where did you find that post!!!!!!