With this many derailments something should be done. Just because "no one hurt yet"or "No environmental damade" or whatever the pacification used, must we wait until something major happens. With this government i suppose we do.
Any other business that would have had these many accidents would have long since been under the microscope.

The question I have is this: Why are these trains falling off the rails? Surely to goodness, someone in the rail business can explain to me what the problem is. I have heard very little about the cause of these derailments. Chester

That is my concern as well Chester...
I doubt sabotage as that would have made headlines by now.
So are the rails so old, or trains need maintenance that bad,
going too fast?
Overloaded?
combination of two or more of the above.
It is starting to be come very concerning.

Chester.....Being on the railroad for 30 plus years...on the trains....is easy to explain the derailments.
We used to have section crews about every 40 miles. Their job was to maintain the track on a daily basis. To find trouble spots and spots that were starting to wear. The section foreman had the authority to fix and repair what was needed.
Most of these crews are gone now.
They still have a road foreman that has a job of inspecting his area. Which can be 250 miles of track, or more. This is with his usual duties of meetings and paperwork, and all sorts of duties. There used to a road foreman for each subdivision, and was mandatory that he walked it all, over the course of each year.

Also a vehichle inspection is done on a regualar basis. But how many times a person actually gets out of the vehicle is sometimes wondered. While riding in vehicle if they see or feel anything then they will inspect. Imagine driving at 60 kmph and being able to see everything going by or under you. Try counting the lines in the road...now think of him trying to see loose bolts, spit ties, undermined ties, or a split rail that isn't broken on top.
Sections crews had speaders and also the foreman walked his track in all the likely bad spots. His area was walked many times a year.

Special rail machines are brought in about twice a year for well used track to exray and find broken rails

As for actually fixing potential bad spots. The place is noted and when enough of them are found a gang is brought in and the whole area is done. That is if upper management agrees with the local people that the cost is warranted and lots of times projects are put off cause they think it will last one more year.

We now have hot box detectors. They are incredible machines that dectects and reports instantly on every train. If there is adnormal heat sensed from a hot bearing or anything draging the train is stopped right away, and inspected. Very seldom is a derailment now a days is because of a problem with the train itself. Mind you inspections for cars now are up to 2500 miles...this used to be 1200 miles. So if metal fatigue shows, it can be missed now. If this happens and something like axels or the bearing housing breaks...you will have a derailment.

Its all cost management and shareholders now. It's not speed, trains now are downloaded on a continuous basis. Times are kept between signals and speeds and times are very well known.
For your information...Trains were much faster 30 years ago than they are now. Funny to note the railbed wasn't anywhere as good as it is now, and all inspections were done by the crews and by section crews as you went by them. Also by carmen in the yards. Carmen still inspect the train at most main terminals...but is a roll by inspection. Is hard to see everything on a car pulling by you at 10 mph.
Trains are much heavier now and much longer. 5000 feet a few years ago was a big train...Now we handle 15000 feet....that's just about 3 miles. There is no way the engineer has any idea what is happening back in his trian 2 miles back, going over dips and hills. We used to say...We'd handle the first mile....the rest just tags along. It's to bad they didn't have to report how many times a knuckle is broken on a train. This is because the slak action is so great at times it just tears the train apart. If the head end of the train stops quicker...the tail end part will smash into the headend and most times derail cars. With the Americans in control of our Canadain dream...railroaders don't talk about all this...as they will be gotten rid of....Used to be hard to get fired off the railroad...now....is very easy just for voicing your oponion..warrants a week or more off.....
Hope I can't be fired off my pension.....but this is my opinion....right or wrong....I know I'm close....Have a nice day....

Another derailment today...Aug 04, 2006....
CN once again sluffing it off as if it is nothing to worry about.....
well CN I am worried..... do they have to kill someone to get this investigated in depth????

Longnecks, thank you so much for the enlightening explanation. I am much more knowledgeable now. So, the next question is this. What should be done to improve the situation and who do we lobby for some action? Chester

Chester...We have the National Transportation Board...and Canadian Rail Safety.
The NTA is involved with the railroads on an every day basis. They are supposedly checking that the railroads are doing every thing right. They make recomondations and are supposed to be followed. They actually write the rules for the railroads. With a lot of NTA officals I have delt with, the seem to be pretty much up on the job. They seem like a pretty tough group, and they don't miss much. But it is a political job. As many have told me...They are not going to shut the railroads down because of incidents they find. The workers they catch breaking rules are usually displined. But the railroad is only chastised and very seldom fined. The one accident that comes to mind where we lost the Engineer and Conductor...just west of McBride is the first I have heard of the CNR being found accountable and fined. The fine wasn't actually big enough to hurt them, and nothing in the way upper management thinks changed. They still wait till something is completly, or close to wore out before it's fixed. Maybe if there were a set of heavy fines for violations...They might think different. But the NTA is government run and you would have to get the Prime Minister and Transportaion Minister to OK that. I don't believe that's going to happen.
Rail Saftey Canada as far as I know get involved on serious accidents and seem to carry more wieght in their recomondations. Trouble with that is it's after the fact, and someone is usually already dead. In my opinion, untill the railroads have to pay a heavy price for violations...nothing is ever going to change. Now don't get me wrong...The railroads try to keep their trains on the track. It's very expensive when on falls off...and can be in the millions of dollars. With the change of policy and management we have a lot of very good business people running the railroads. But they have never actually worked on jobs out there and do not really understands the logistics of what has to be done to keep things safer. There is an attitude problem where they do not listen to some of the older people out there that tell of problems...It all comes down to dollars and sometimes the sense is not there. You can have all the fun you want in trying to lobby and get things changed. I was on the legislative board for years...and believe me, it took a long time to just get one rule changed....The saying around there was...What we fight for today is so the next generation is safer....
If you want an example...The train accident at Hinton where the passenger hit a frieght train... there is a report called the Foisy Report...Belive you can read it in the library.. A lot of recomandations came out of that...and were put into place. If it was followed up on now you'd find the report is redundant and most of the recomandations made are long gone and forgotton or changed in such a way that the railroad came out on top. Only thing that I know that has stuck around is the rest rules. And even these have been changed in the benifit for the railroad. In arguing with the railroads...You start to feel like a squirl on a huge tree...You scamper all over it and really never leave a mark.
Or their like an elephant...and just step on anything that gets in their way... But this is just my opinion...

Great information given in this string. Thanks to all who contributed.