Monday, August 18, 2008

Looking back now...


A few years ago I was looking around on line and I had found an article about a derailment on the Nipisiquit sub outside of Bathurst. I don't really remember much about the article except the driver got out without a scratch. On Friday I receved a reply to a comment I had left on another video on Youtube and in the related videos window there was a video with audio trascripts of the derailment that I had read about a few years earlyer.

I had read the unoffical transcripts and listened the whole twenty minute radio conversation between the CN dispatcher in Moncton and the crew member onboard the runaway train. After reading the transcripts I had this sudden feeling of sympathy for the crew, I never before realised how close railroad workers can be in terms of a brotherhood, I don't know why I never thought of it that way but I guess I just never really thought of it till I heard that conversation. This is the link to the audio file, you must have Real Audio to listen to it, and it is recomended to download the file to listen to it. I didn't download it but it worked just fine for me. http://www.cwrr.com/Lounge/Feature/runaway/runaway.html
And here's the link for the transcripts.
http://www.cwrr.com/Lounge/Feature/runaway/trans.html
And lastly here's the link to download the audio file.
http://www.cwrr.com/Lounge/Feature/runaway/runaway.html

It's actually a little chilling to hear the conversation, to hear the fear in the engineer's voice is really chilling. But it gave me a whole new respect for train crews who are faced with difficult decisions daily and faced with danger everyday while working in the field they love. The incident took place on March 9th 1987 I was only seven years old then come to think of it! Thankfully the engineer made it out of the crash alive with not even a scratch! On the site it says the events took place on March 9th 1997 however CN was long gone by then and obviously a typo, however it was 1987 and not 1997.

Near the begening of the conversation once the dispatcher is aware of the situation his first priority is to check the location of VIA 14 which after a minute or two was past the Wye and out of danger. You can almost feel the tension in the whole twenty minutes.
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On saturday night I went to chase the Ocean 615 from Dalhousie Jct to Campbellton, and I was at the Jct for no less than ten minutes when I heard the detector sounding off, and I was at my spot in seconds to get ready for the Ocean. Strangely the Ocean didn't annouce they were at Dalhousie Jct. I shot two different videos, one at the Jct and the other at McClouds. The McClouds video is a lot better in terms of light, I think I'll post both videos anyhow but the latter is my choice. That's it for me for trains this past week/end have fun and keep chaseing those trains.

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