Hinton train collision
Encyclopedia
The Hinton train collision was a railway
accident that occurred on February 8, 1986. Twenty-three people were killed in a collision between a Canadian National Railway
freight train and a Via Rail
passenger train. It was the most lethal Canadian rail disaster since the Dugald accident
of 1947. It was surmised that the accident was a result of the crew of the freight train becoming incapacitated, and the resulting investigations revealed serious flaws in CN's employee practices.
's transcontinental main line, near the town of Hinton, Alberta
, west of Edmonton. Nearby towns are Jasper
to the west and Edson
to the east.
Passenger service on the line was provided by Via Rail Canada
. Slightly over half of the 100 mile (160 km) stretch of track between Jasper and Edson was double-tracked, including 11.2 miles (18 km) of trackage from Hargwen siding west to Dalehurst siding. Traffic on this line was controlled with Centralized Traffic Control
(CTC).
's No. 4 train, the combined Super Continental
and Skeena
, was travelling from Jasper
east to Edmonton on its transcontinental journey. It consisted of 14 units in the following order:
The unusual make up of the train was the result of two separate trains being joined together in Jasper. The first seven units had originated in Vancouver
, and the next six units had originated in Prince Rupert
. The last unit, the steam generator car, was added in Jasper on its way to Edmonton for maintenance. One hundred fifteen people were on the train; 94 passengers, 14 stewards and seven crew.
Canadian National Railway
's westbound train No. 413 consisted of three locomotives,
EMD GP38-2W number 5586,and two EMD SD40
numbers 5062 and 5104, followed by a high-speed spreader
, 35 cylindrical hopper
s loaded with grain
, seven bulkhead flat cars loaded with large pipes, 45 hopper
s loaded with sulphur
, 20 loaded tank car
s, six more grain cars, and a caboose
; a total of 118 units. It was 6,124 feet (1,866 m) long and weighed 12,804 tons. In the front locomotive were engineer
John Edward (Jack) Hudson, aged 48, and brakeman
Mark Edwards, aged 25. In the caboose was conductor
Wayne "Smitty" Smith, aged 33.
The freight train left Edson at 6:40 am, and took the siding at Medicine Lodge to allow two eastbound trains to pass. It departed Medicine Lodge at 8:02 am and reached Hargwen at 8:20 am, where a section of double track started. The remote dispatcher at Edmonton had set the switch so that the train was routed onto the north track. At the same time, the Super Continental stopped at Hinton, and left five minutes late.
At 8:29 am, the dispatcher set the switch at Dalehurst, where the section of double track ended, to allow the Super Continental to take the south track. This switch setting would have caused the freight train to see signals indicating a stop. A two-light signal 13,600 feet (4.15 km) east of Dalehurst showed yellow over red (meaning prepare to stop at the next signal). As the train approached this signal, it was already going full throttle at 59 miles per hour (96 km/h), faster than the 50 mile per hour limit on this stretch of track. It did not slow down after passing the signal.
Further west, there was a three-light signal, 490 feet (150 m) east of the switch at Dalehurst that showed three solid red lamps, indicating a stop. The freight still did not slow down, instead jumping the switch and entering the section of single track occupied by the Super Continental. Had the Super Continental been even a minute early, it would have been past the switch at this point, but it was not. Seconds after the freight jumped the switch, at 8:40 am, the two trains collided.
Eighteen of the 36 occupants of the day coach were killed. The contents of a grain car were propelled on top of the car, helping to smother the fire somewhat. Had the sulphur cars, for instance, been at the front of the train, the death toll might have been higher.
The observation dome car behind the day coach suffered serious damage, and was also hit by a freight car, which was thrown into the air by the force of the collision. One of its occupants was killed. The others were able to escape either through a broken window in the dome or through the hole left by the freight car. The two sleepers following the dome car derailed and were thrown on their sides. There were no deaths in these cars, but there were several injuries. The three passenger cars at the rear of the train did not derail, but there were some injuries.
As the accident unfolded, the cars on the freight train piled up on each other, resulting in a large pile of rolling stock
. The three freight locomotives and the first 76 cars of the train were either destroyed or damaged.
s or alcohol
as the cause.
A Commission of Inquiry investigated the crash.
Mr. Justice René P. Foisy, Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta
, held 56 days of public hearings and received evidence from 150 parties. The inquiry report was published on January 22, 1987. Instead of condemning any one individual, it instead condemned what Foisy described as a "railroader culture" that prized loyalty and productivity at the expense of safety. As an example of this disregard of safety, it was noted that the crew of that train had boarded the locomotive at Edson "on the fly". While the locomotive was moving slowly through the yard, the new crew would jump on and the previous crew would jump off. While this method of changing crews saved time and fuel, it was a flagrant violation of safety regulations requiring a stationary brake test after a crew change. Management claimed to be unaware of this practice, even though it was quite common.
Another frequently ignored safety regulation mentioned in the report was the "deadman's pedal"
, which a locomotive engineer had to keep depressed for the train to remain underway. Were he to fall asleep or pass out, his foot would slip from the pedal, triggering an alarm and engaging the train's brakes automatically a few seconds later. However, many engineers found this tiresome and bypassed the pedal by placing a heavy weight on it. It was uncertain whether the pedal had been bypassed in this case because the lead locomotive of the train had been destroyed. A more advanced safety device was available, the Reset Safety Control (RSC), required crew members to take an action such as pushing a button at regular intervals, or else automatic braking would occur, but neither lead locomotive was equipped with this safety feature. While the second locomotive in the freight train was equipped with RSC, it was not assigned as the lead locomotive because it lacked a "comfort cab". Management and union practice was to place more comfortable locomotives at the front of trains, even at the expense of safety.
The report also noted that although the front-end and rear-end crews should have been in regular communication, that did not appear to be the case in this accident. As the freight train reached Hargwen, Hudson radio
ed back to Smith that the signals were green, a communication that was heard by a following freight. As it ran towards Dalehurst there was no evidence of further communication. As the conductor is in charge of the train, had Smith felt that the train was out of control or there were serious problems, he should have pulled the brake cord
in the caboose to stop the train. However, Smith, who appeared to be nervous while testifying, said that he did not feel that the freight was ever out of control, misjudging its speed. He also testified that he attempted to radio Hudson on two radios and several channels, but neither seemed to be working, despite the fact that immediately after the crash Smith was able to contact the dispatcher by radio. Even if Smith's testimony was true, he apparently did not consider the problem sufficiently serious to stop the train, a second misjudgment.
show Mayday
(known as Air Emergency in the US, Mayday in Ireland and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of world). The episode is entitled "Head-On Collision".
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
accident that occurred on February 8, 1986. Twenty-three people were killed in a collision between a Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
freight train and a Via Rail
VIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
passenger train. It was the most lethal Canadian rail disaster since the Dugald accident
Dugald Train Disaster
The Dugald rail accident was a railway accident that occurred on September 1, 1947 in Dugald, Manitoba, Canada, ending the lives of 31 people.-Scene:...
of 1947. It was surmised that the accident was a result of the crew of the freight train becoming incapacitated, and the resulting investigations revealed serious flaws in CN's employee practices.
Vicinity of the accident
The accident took place on a stretch of Canadian National RailwayCanadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
's transcontinental main line, near the town of Hinton, Alberta
Hinton, Alberta
Hinton is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada.It is located in Yellowhead County, northeast of Jasper and about west of Alberta's capital city, Edmonton, at the intersection of Yellowhead and Bighorn Highway, in the Athabasca River valley.-History:...
, west of Edmonton. Nearby towns are Jasper
Jasper, Alberta
Jasper is a specialized municipality in western Alberta, Canada. It is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park, located in the Canadian Rockies in the Athabasca River valley....
to the west and Edson
Edson, Alberta
Edson is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is located in Yellowhead County, west of Edmonton along the Yellowhead Highway and east of the intersection with Highway 47.- History :left|thumb|200px|Welcome Sign...
to the east.
Passenger service on the line was provided by Via Rail Canada
VIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
. Slightly over half of the 100 mile (160 km) stretch of track between Jasper and Edson was double-tracked, including 11.2 miles (18 km) of trackage from Hargwen siding west to Dalehurst siding. Traffic on this line was controlled with Centralized Traffic Control
Centralized traffic control
Centralized traffic control is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America and centralizes train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system consists of a centralized train dispatcher's office that...
(CTC).
Prelude
On the morning of February 8, 1986, Via RailVIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
's No. 4 train, the combined Super Continental
Super Continental
The Super Continental was a transcontinental Canadian passenger train operated originally by the Canadian National Railway beginning in 1955 and subsequently by Via Rail from 1977 until its cancellation in 1981. Service was restored in 1985 but was again eliminated in 1990...
and Skeena
Skeena (passenger train)
The Jasper – Prince Rupert train is a Canadian passenger train service operated by Via Rail between Jasper, Alberta, Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia.- Introduction :...
, was travelling from Jasper
Jasper, Alberta
Jasper is a specialized municipality in western Alberta, Canada. It is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park, located in the Canadian Rockies in the Athabasca River valley....
east to Edmonton on its transcontinental journey. It consisted of 14 units in the following order:
- FP7A Diesel locomotive number 6566
- F9B Diesel locomotive number 6633
- Baggage carBaggage carA baggage car or luggage van is a type of railway vehicle often forming part of the composition of passenger trains and used to carry passengers' checked baggage, as well as parcels . Being typically coupled at the front of the train behind the locomotive, this type of car is sometimes described...
- Coach
- Dome carDome carA dome car is a type of railway passenger car that has a glass dome on the top of the car where passengers can ride and see in all directions around the train. It also can include features of a coach, lounge car, dining car or observation...
number 513 - Sleeping carSleeping carThe sleeping car or sleeper is a railway/railroad passenger car that can accommodate all its passengers in beds of one kind or another, primarily for the purpose of making nighttime travel more restful. The first such cars saw sporadic use on American railroads in the 1830s and could be configured...
- Sleeping car
- FP9A Diesel locomotive number 6300 (inoperative)
- Steam generator car
- Baggage car
- Coach
- Lounge carLounge carA lounge car is a type of passenger car on a train, where riders can purchase food and drinks. The car may feature large windows and comfortable seating to create a relaxing diversion from standard coach or dining options...
- Sleeping car
- Steam generator car
The unusual make up of the train was the result of two separate trains being joined together in Jasper. The first seven units had originated in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, and the next six units had originated in Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert, British Columbia
Prince Rupert is a port city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. It is the land, air, and water transportation hub of British Columbia's North Coast, and home to some 12,815 people .-History:...
. The last unit, the steam generator car, was added in Jasper on its way to Edmonton for maintenance. One hundred fifteen people were on the train; 94 passengers, 14 stewards and seven crew.
Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
's westbound train No. 413 consisted of three locomotives,
EMD GP38-2W number 5586,and two EMD SD40
EMD SD40
The EMD SD40 is a 6-axle diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1966 and August 1972.-Design:Like its predecessor in EMD's catalog, the SD35, the SD40 is a high-horsepower, six-motor freight locomotive....
numbers 5062 and 5104, followed by a high-speed spreader
Spreader (railroad)
A spreader is a type of maintenance equipment designed to spread or shape ballast profiles. The spreader spreads gravel along the railroad ties...
, 35 cylindrical hopper
Hopper car
A hopper car is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, track ballast, and the like. The name originated from the coke manufacturing industry which is part of the steel industry ....
s loaded with grain
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
, seven bulkhead flat cars loaded with large pipes, 45 hopper
Hopper car
A hopper car is a type of railroad freight car used to transport loose bulk commodities such as coal, ore, grain, track ballast, and the like. The name originated from the coke manufacturing industry which is part of the steel industry ....
s loaded with sulphur
Sulfur
Sulfur or sulphur is the chemical element with atomic number 16. In the periodic table it is represented by the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow...
, 20 loaded tank car
Tank car
A tank car is a type of railroad rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities.-Timeline:...
s, six more grain cars, and a caboose
Caboose
A caboose is a manned North American rail transport vehicle coupled at the end of a freight train. Although cabooses were once used on nearly every freight train, their use has declined and they are seldom seen on trains, except on locals and smaller railroads.-Function:The caboose provided the...
; a total of 118 units. It was 6,124 feet (1,866 m) long and weighed 12,804 tons. In the front locomotive were engineer
Locomotive engineer
A locomotive engineer may refer to:*Railroad engineer, a person who operates a locomotive, usually called an engine or train driver outside North America*Locomotive builder, a person who designs and builds locomotives...
John Edward (Jack) Hudson, aged 48, and brakeman
Brakeman
A brakeman is a rail transport worker whose original job it was to assist the braking of a train by applying brakes on individual wagons. The advent of through brakes on trains made this role redundant, although the name lives on in the United States where brakemen carry out a variety of functions...
Mark Edwards, aged 25. In the caboose was conductor
Conductor (transportation)
A conductor is a member of a railway train's crew that is responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve the actual operation of the train. The title of conductor is most associated with railway operations in North America, but the role of conductor is common to railways...
Wayne "Smitty" Smith, aged 33.
The freight train left Edson at 6:40 am, and took the siding at Medicine Lodge to allow two eastbound trains to pass. It departed Medicine Lodge at 8:02 am and reached Hargwen at 8:20 am, where a section of double track started. The remote dispatcher at Edmonton had set the switch so that the train was routed onto the north track. At the same time, the Super Continental stopped at Hinton, and left five minutes late.
At 8:29 am, the dispatcher set the switch at Dalehurst, where the section of double track ended, to allow the Super Continental to take the south track. This switch setting would have caused the freight train to see signals indicating a stop. A two-light signal 13,600 feet (4.15 km) east of Dalehurst showed yellow over red (meaning prepare to stop at the next signal). As the train approached this signal, it was already going full throttle at 59 miles per hour (96 km/h), faster than the 50 mile per hour limit on this stretch of track. It did not slow down after passing the signal.
Further west, there was a three-light signal, 490 feet (150 m) east of the switch at Dalehurst that showed three solid red lamps, indicating a stop. The freight still did not slow down, instead jumping the switch and entering the section of single track occupied by the Super Continental. Had the Super Continental been even a minute early, it would have been past the switch at this point, but it was not. Seconds after the freight jumped the switch, at 8:40 am, the two trains collided.
Aftermath
After the crash, diesel fuel spilled from the locomotives and ignited, and the locomotives, the baggage car, and the day coach were engulfed in flames. The two crew members in each of the locomotives were killed.Eighteen of the 36 occupants of the day coach were killed. The contents of a grain car were propelled on top of the car, helping to smother the fire somewhat. Had the sulphur cars, for instance, been at the front of the train, the death toll might have been higher.
The observation dome car behind the day coach suffered serious damage, and was also hit by a freight car, which was thrown into the air by the force of the collision. One of its occupants was killed. The others were able to escape either through a broken window in the dome or through the hole left by the freight car. The two sleepers following the dome car derailed and were thrown on their sides. There were no deaths in these cars, but there were several injuries. The three passenger cars at the rear of the train did not derail, but there were some injuries.
As the accident unfolded, the cars on the freight train piled up on each other, resulting in a large pile of rolling stock
Railroad car
A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...
. The three freight locomotives and the first 76 cars of the train were either destroyed or damaged.
Cause
Why the freight train failed to stop was unclear. A wrong-side signal problem was eliminated, leaving human error as the only possible cause. However, since the head-end crew of the freight train did not survive, it was not clear why they had erred. However, enough of their remains were found that testing was able to rule out drugIllegal drug trade
The illegal drug trade is a global black market, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.A UN report said the...
s or alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
as the cause.
A Commission of Inquiry investigated the crash.
Mr. Justice René P. Foisy, Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta
Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta
The Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta is the superior court of the Canadian province of Alberta....
, held 56 days of public hearings and received evidence from 150 parties. The inquiry report was published on January 22, 1987. Instead of condemning any one individual, it instead condemned what Foisy described as a "railroader culture" that prized loyalty and productivity at the expense of safety. As an example of this disregard of safety, it was noted that the crew of that train had boarded the locomotive at Edson "on the fly". While the locomotive was moving slowly through the yard, the new crew would jump on and the previous crew would jump off. While this method of changing crews saved time and fuel, it was a flagrant violation of safety regulations requiring a stationary brake test after a crew change. Management claimed to be unaware of this practice, even though it was quite common.
Another frequently ignored safety regulation mentioned in the report was the "deadman's pedal"
Dead man's switch
A dead man's switch is a switch that is automatically operated in case the human operator becomes incapacitated, such as through death or loss of consciousness....
, which a locomotive engineer had to keep depressed for the train to remain underway. Were he to fall asleep or pass out, his foot would slip from the pedal, triggering an alarm and engaging the train's brakes automatically a few seconds later. However, many engineers found this tiresome and bypassed the pedal by placing a heavy weight on it. It was uncertain whether the pedal had been bypassed in this case because the lead locomotive of the train had been destroyed. A more advanced safety device was available, the Reset Safety Control (RSC), required crew members to take an action such as pushing a button at regular intervals, or else automatic braking would occur, but neither lead locomotive was equipped with this safety feature. While the second locomotive in the freight train was equipped with RSC, it was not assigned as the lead locomotive because it lacked a "comfort cab". Management and union practice was to place more comfortable locomotives at the front of trains, even at the expense of safety.
The report also noted that although the front-end and rear-end crews should have been in regular communication, that did not appear to be the case in this accident. As the freight train reached Hargwen, Hudson radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
ed back to Smith that the signals were green, a communication that was heard by a following freight. As it ran towards Dalehurst there was no evidence of further communication. As the conductor is in charge of the train, had Smith felt that the train was out of control or there were serious problems, he should have pulled the brake cord
Emergency brake
On trains, the expression emergency brake has several meanings:* The maximum brake force available to the driver/engineer from his conventional braking system, usually operated by taking the brake handle to its furthest postion, through a gate mechanism, or by pushing a separate plunger in the cab*...
in the caboose to stop the train. However, Smith, who appeared to be nervous while testifying, said that he did not feel that the freight was ever out of control, misjudging its speed. He also testified that he attempted to radio Hudson on two radios and several channels, but neither seemed to be working, despite the fact that immediately after the crash Smith was able to contact the dispatcher by radio. Even if Smith's testimony was true, he apparently did not consider the problem sufficiently serious to stop the train, a second misjudgment.
Dramatization
The story of the disaster was featured on the third season of Canadian National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel
National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...
show Mayday
Mayday (TV series)
Mayday, also known as Air Crash Investigation in the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia and Air Emergency and Air Disasters in the United States, is a Canadian documentary television programme produced by Cineflix investigating air crashes, near-crashes and other disasters...
(known as Air Emergency in the US, Mayday in Ireland and Air Crash Investigation in the UK and the rest of world). The episode is entitled "Head-On Collision".
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