One responder on the thread about today's incident at Goldthorpe
asked what would have happened if the fuel from the tanks had ignited.

  In November 1994, a VIA Rail Toronto to Montreal express struck a
piece of scrap rail which had been placed on the tracks by vandals.
The locomotive fuel tanks ignited and the train came to a stop in flames.
  The details and the accident report are online:

     www.tsb.gc.ca/en/reports/rail/1994/index.asp 

The accident report is the fourth from the beginning, Report Number R94T0357

   20 November 1994 - Fire VIA Rail Canada Inc. VIA Passenger Train No.
   66 Struck a Piece of Rail Placed on the Track Mile 242.07, CN North
   America Kingston Subdivision Brighton, Ontario
   Report Number R94T0357

Most Canadian accident reports for the last fifteen years are online;
the main limitation is that as inquiries take about two years, they
end in 2003. Most are html but some years need pdf readers.

They are addictive reading. While some accidents are caused by conditions
and operating practices which differ from those in Britain, others are
similar, and lessons could be learned in both directions.

--
Harry Dodsworth Ottawa Ontario Canada  af877@freenet.carleton.ca
----------------------------------------------------------------

Harry Dodsworth wrote:


> ... accident reports ... are addictive reading. 


Indeed they are. Sometimes I feel mildly guilty about that, as if I
shouldn't be so interested in someone else's misfortune.

-- 
http://gallery120232.fotopic.net/p9632955.html
(43 082 at Longbridge, 10 Jun 1995)