Thursday, May 8, 2014

Don't tell me to "LOOK, STOP" when your rail lines have cut a Public sidewalk in half

While out for a walk this morning, down near Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards on Pemberton in North Vancouver (District), McKeen Avenue exactly, we came across this oddly composed PEDESTRIAN sidewalk sign proclaiming that we should all LOOK  STOP and when safe????, STEP OUT of the marked crosswalk and ONTO THE ROAD.

We've recently banished our collapsible wheelchair (@ $75/month BC Government rental charge) to the nursing home closet, sidetracked the walker (another $75/month), threw away the canes yesterday ($16 each/month), although they may have been of use here today.   Can you just imagine what it would be like, or worse at night without street lighting...., Ooooops! in the middle of a sidewalk, trip toeing over the tracks..... wouldn't it be loverly if District Hall finished doing the asphalt paving, eh, or even CNR, going so far as to replacing the missing sidewalk that they ripped out for their rail line?

Google Map location

STOP LOOK gone Sidewalk fixed  2018


Then we looked to the South, to the right, and saw a painted Yellow, and slightly rusty EB Hayes hinged Derailer complete with a bona fide CN Rail Titanium padlock.  Supposedly, just one of these little "Hinged" Derailer beauties would have saved Lac Megantic from being wiped out if the device had been in place when that dilbit laden train was left unattended at Nantes, Quebec.   All that a proactive locomotive Engineer had to do was to walk up to the front end of the Engine, or the first car behind, remove the padlock, flip the hinged Derailer into place, padlock it.  DONE!  When ready to roll, remove the padlock, flip the Derailer out of place, secure the padlock again for security of other rail cars and say Bon Voyage from Nantes!
 

The Nantes to Lac Megantic run ....... no Derailer otherwise this would have happened to the locomotive:


Video Source


In the photo of the yellow painted Derailer above it's mounted on the Inside Curve.  It's important to make that distinction, Inside or Outside of the curve.




 Manufacturer WC Hayes explains:
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Source

Sounds like a good idea to have Derailer on the spur lines around the Port of Vancouver, because of the hopper cars loaded with Sulphur, now with covers, heading for Kinder Morgan's Vancouver Wharves mixed in with Dilbit tankers on the Main Line, no more than a 100' away from chipped wood pellets. 
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..... a growing body of evidence suggests several factors may have contributed to the crash, including MM&A’s practice of leaving trains unattended on the main line instead of moving them onto the siding, a stretch of parallel track equipped with a large metal derailer that is designed to push the front of the train off the tracks and stop it from moving farther. Globe and Mail  - July 24, 2013
One Derailer, One Lock, Two railway ties 12" apart with six railway spikes, could have saved 47 lives, numerous injuries, and Lac Megantic's downtown core from being wiped out.

A North Van Sidewalk is secondary to a CN Rail spur line to the Port of Vancouver
Hayes, the manufacturer of the Derailer, states that it should never be installed in paved areas, like McKeen Avenue???, or on the bottom or Inside Rail of a Curve.   .... and Derailers should be placed far enough ahead of any area being protected  to ensure that the derailed equipment (locomotives, tankers and railcars are safely stopped.  Expensive to clean up afterwards, but lives are saved, so too the towns.

Source
As to that Yellow painted Derailer?????  it should be painted INTERNATIONAL ORANGE and while still WET .... sprinkled with Glass Beads to increase night time vision, that would help a pedestrian too if the District doesn't want to pave the road:


For more information:


A Double Steel Chock would work, less damage to railway company equipment like when CN Rail blamed Canadian Beavers for derailing one of their coal convoys in Burnaby.

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