Lac-Megantic news report


If the industry conservative estimate as stated in the linked article is that 40% of the cars and locomotives (31 total ) should have been tied down with hand brakes on a 1.2% grade how is it that the MMA procedure would be only one half that amount (11 cars and 5 five locomotives)?

Now lets assume the engineer, Tom Harding, had applied the MMA requisite quantity of hand brakes to the locomotives (5) and cars (11) (Ed Burkhardt has stated this was not done BTW) and Harding preformed the required brake test to confirm the brakes held. Is the brake test performed without using the train and locomotive air brakes to test the ability of the train to be held by the hand brakes alone? i.e. in the absence of any air brakes in the train setting of the hand brakes alone should have been sufficient to hold the train on the grade?