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B.C. Coal Train Derailment Investigation Delayed By Salmon Run

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 August 2006, 21:00 CDT

By JEREMY HAINSWORTH

VANCOUVER (CP) - Sections of CN track from a train derailment near Lytton, B.C. last month are being tested in an Ottawa lab but much of the investigation has been delayed until a salmon run on the Thompson River is finished.

Twelve fully loaded CP coal cars on the 124-car train plummeted from track on a CN trestle into the Thompson River July 31. John Gehring, Transportation Safety Board senior investigator, said the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment Canada don't want the cars and several pieces of rail removed from the river until the salmon have finished a spawning run.

Gehring said that might not be until late September or early October.

Fisheries spokesman Dan Bate said the river is home to sockeye and coho runs.

"At this point in time, the coal cars do not represent a significant block to the path up the river," Bate said. "We're confident that the fish can pass through the area.

"If CN were to remove the cars at this point in time, it's possible that additional coal materials could flow downstream and affect the salmon which are swimming upstream," Bate says.

"Our recommendation at this time is to wait until the salmon have passed and the water level has dropped to such a point where the rail company can recover the cars without further threat to the release of coal pollutant down the river."

Investigators are focusing on two pieces of broken track from the incident 160 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.

The section of broken CN track is being studied by the safety board's metal lab to determine its role, if any, in the derailment of 20 cars.

Several wheels off three cars are also being analyzed, he says.

"They were in a condition where they were providing a little higher impact (on the rails) than normal," he said. "The railway has a wheel-impact load detector that picked up those wheels."

He said most wheels impact the rail at 90,000 pounds per square inch.

"These were a little under that and one was a little over," he said.

Currently, CN and CP are cleaning coal off the embankment where the derailment occurred.

CN spokesman Jim Feeney said the delay won't affect the ultimate outcome of the investigation and doesn't hamper rail operations.

The main track is visually inspected routinely and is subject to ultrasonic inspections five times a year.

A second derailment occurred several days later on a secondary line that was being used by heavily-loaded CN trains while the site of the previous accident was repaired.

Nine cars of a 102-car grain train derailed in the second accident.

Source: Canadian Press

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