Re: Transportation Safety Board [TSB] of Canada Report on the fatal 2006 WP&Y Runaway & Derailment

A typical coal or cinder car can only be loaded about half way when used in sand, gravel or ballast service.

I worked as an engineer in Minnesota where we hauled 25 car trains of gravel or sand a couple times a week during the summer. BN assigned old 3-bay coal cars that were properly loaded about half using a weigh-in-motion conveyor. Even properly loaded, the car side sheets failed on a regular basis due to the corrosion from previously hauling coal. We got back to the yard once after making a 45 mph run on the main and found the top edge of a car had failed enroute and had bowed outward and downward.

The WP&Y incident is unfortunately typical of a modern runaway.