> The fatal accident that occurred on the White
> Pass and Yukon a few years back with a work train
> that ran away was a few years ago was as I recall
> blamed on improper use or lack of use of retainers
> turned to the proper position.

Railroad accidents seem to follow a pattern of either being a primary fatal error, or a chain of incidents/violations that together in sequence create dire consequences. The White Pass wreck was a chain of fatal errors.

According to the Transport Canada accident report, engine 114 was on a work train with 8 ballast cars just loaded at the ballast pit. The 114 had been delivered with a defective dynamic brake which had never been repaired. Both the engineer and conductor each had 20+ years of seasonal experience, but had not moved a similar train under those conditions before. On the first downgrades of 1.5% the engineer was using an 18 pound reduction and some independent brake. Once they hit the 3.3%, they were a runaway. The ballast cars had been built in the 1940s for Newfoundland, and purchased used by White Pass who had only retofitted three of the eight cars with retainers, which the conductor had improperly placed in the slow direct position instead of high pressure. It is estimated that the cars had been overloaded somewhere between 10 to 50 tons per car. The obsolete car design did not meet curent braking ratios, and it is estimated that the cars had only one-third to one-half of the braking effort required to control the train's speed and stop.

Years ago there was another runaway where 17 cars loaded with ties behind an SD40 ran away on Cima Hill, finally rear-ending the train ahead of them killing their rear end crea and the work trains head end crew. The engineer had tried to refuse the train since the SD40 did not have working dynamics, but a system gang was out of ties. They stopped at the crest and set all retainers in high pressure, but it is thought they actually were a runaway with a couple minutes. The cars were later determined to be severly overloaded, and the rear end valve had been mishandled giving them a partial release, but UP rules did not cover this.

Another runaway in Canada was on the former BCR. One GP40-2L and two loaded centerbeams ran away killing two of the three on the crew. Tests showed the cars wee improperly designed as to braking ration, and thee wee questions as to if the empty-load device was properly maintained. CN was faulted for assigning a unit not equipped with dynamic brakes and for not adjusting the rules or conducting a risk assessment.