(The following article by Chris Kitching was posted on the Portage la Prairie Daily Graphic website on January 2.)
OAKVILLE, Manitoba — Jan Tooth was a little apprehensive when she was first told a freight train had derailed about a kilometre from her home on Wednesday.
The Oakville resident felt the same way in 1992 when a Canadian National Railway train went off the tracks at the very same spot, spilling dangerous chemicals and forcing people from their homes.
This time, the derailment wasn’t as serious, but that doesn’t mean Tooth has stopped worrying about the rail line.
“(Another derailment) doesn’t exactly make us feel confident about the movement of the cars on the tracks,” she said. “The derailments keep occurring in the same place. There must be a major problem there.”
Steve Ford, a member of Oakville’s local urban district council, is also questioning the safety of the rail line.
“This happens all too often it seems,” he said. “It kind of makes you wonder about the maintenance of the track itself.”
Jim Feeny, a CN Rail spokesman, said the main line is inspected regularly.
“I think (Wednesday’s derailment) is purely coincidental,” he said. “There’s no indication that there’s any problem with the track at that location.”
Three of 100 empty grain cars being pulled by a single locomotive came off the tracks around 3:50 a.m. on Wednesday, Feeny said.
The cause of the derailment, which occurred just east of Oakville, is still under investigation.
Feeny said the westbound train was travelling at about 56 kilometres per hour at the time of the accident. The train’s crew was not injured.
Wednesday’s derailment did not interrupt traffic along CN Rail’s main line, which has two sets of tracks. Trains were diverted to the north set while the south line remained closed until a crew from Winnipeg cleared the scene at about 10 a.m., Feeny said.
With 1992 still in their minds, Oakville residents are thankful this derailment wasn’t as dangerous.
“We were fortunate this time it was empty grain cars,” Tooth said. “Next time, who knows?”
A week before Christmas in 1992, a CN Rail freight train jumped the tracks and caused a 26-car pileup east of the village. A broken axle on the lead locomotive caused the wreck, which punctured a number of the tank cars carrying vinyl chloride, a highly flammable substance that leaked out of the containers.
More than 400 residents from Oakville and surrounding area were evacuated for three weeks until the derailment site was cleaned up.
“It was a pretty traumatic affair,” Ford said. “Every time I hear about a train derailment it always takes you back to the Oakville derailment. It does still hit home.”