The derailment site, looking south (supplied photo/TSB)

By Tyler Marr

AXLE FAILURE

TSB report points to axle failure behind 2018 Landis train derailment

Jul 9, 2019 | 12:25 PM

A catastrophic axle failure is being pointed to as the cause behind a 2018 train derailment outside Landis.

The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) released its final report on the Sept. 26 Canadian National (CN) derailment that involved 41 covered hopper cars carrying grain and two mid-train locomotives.

At around 9:15 a.m., the TSB report said the train was travelling at 51 miles per hour through the town, which is about 80 kilometres south of North Battleford, when it experienced an “undesired emergency brake application.”

When TSB investigators examined the site, they found the first car to derail was missing its number one axle and wheels. A broken axle from the railcar was discovered north of the track, about 300 feet east of the track switch. The other half of the axle and wheel set were not recovered.

Fresh abrasion marks on ties between the rails showed the other wheel set on the railcar was dragged about 4,000 feet to where the main pile-up occurred.

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The point of derailment and main derailment pile-up (supplied photo/Google Earth, with TSB annotations)

The broken axle, the report said, was made in 1999. The wheels were made in December 2015. Before the wheels and bearing were applied to the axle, the report said it was inspected on Jan. 12, 2016 and met the requirements to qualify as a secondhand unmounted axle.

The report said the failure was likely due to high cyclic fatigue, which is defined as the weakening of a material caused by repeatedly applied loads. The fatigue crack propagated across about 80 per cent of the axle cross-section until it could no longer support the operating stress.

The broken axle from the first rail car to derail. (supplied photo/TSB/SGS MSi Testing & Engineering Inc.)

According to the report, the track was inspected on Sept. 20 and 24, just days before the incident, and found no defects. The turnouts at each end of the industrial spur — a secondary track used to load and unload railcars — were inspected on Sept. 19 and likewise, no defects were detected.

A forward facing camera on the lead locomotive found no track anomalies when it passed over the site.

CN determined the damage that led to the failure may have been caused by a defective indexer at a customer loading facility. Indexers are used to move railcars at these facilities.

The TSB said while rail cars receive regular certified inspections, these visual inspections may not be able to identify a cracked or damaged axle depending on the size and location of the defect.

“Additionally, current wayside detectors are not necessarily designed to identify a rail car with a cracked axle,” the report read. “As such, cracked axles are often difficult to detect.”

The report said CN is currently implementing and issuing guidance to its customer facilities for the inspection and maintenance of indexers to prevent axle damage.

The TSB report was a limited-scope investigation that may contain limited analysis and does not include findings or recommendations.

The 2018 derailment occurred almost five years to the day after another incident outside the village in 2013. That year, 17 cars jumped the track, some carrying flammable petroleum, ethanol and chemicals. It caused a grass fire that was soon extinguished, but school was cancelled for the day in Landis as a precaution.

—

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr