Talk:Hinton train collision

A TV program I watched once claimed the the crash had happened because Jack Hudson died at the controls while Mark Edwards slept. Any more info on this? GCarty 14:26, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It's a possibility, especially considering Hudson's health problems. However, the coroner's inquest was not able to draw any conclusions because the bodies were so mangled. So, I haven't introduced this idea in the article since I didn't have any hard evidence to back it up. JYolkowski // talk 21:01, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

More recent investigation suggests you were partly right, but the brakeman at the other end of the train should have caught the error. It seems probable that the man in the caboose was asleep and not sitting in the watch position from which he would have seen the warning lights (three sets)and had time to set the breaks from his cab. The Canadian railway system at that time was inherently unsafe because single track was used for fast passsenger and freight trains running in contrary directions and used simple loops off the main line to park the freight trains to allow a passenger train to pass.This system was entirely reliant on the train crews applying the brakes when in a loop. Such an a system is inherently accident prone would not have been allowed by that date in the USA where trains that did not stop jn the loop were run off into dead track. After the crash Canadian Railways radically altered their practices and track engineering.

Sun and glare

Were the tracks oriented east-west or north-south, and would this have made the signals susceptable to glare?

Does the conductor in the caboose have a speedometer, or does he have to rely on seat-of-the-pants guesswork to determine if an overspeed is occuring?

Signals goes back to red as the engine passes them, and the conductor 1866m behind would probably find it difficult to read these signals when still yellow or green (and apply the brakes if an overshoot is occurring). The relevant rule probably hasn't been altered since the time that trains were much shorter.

BTW, a reference to a red signal might actually means a red/red/red signal, while a reference to a green signal might mean a red/green/red signal.

Tabletop (talk) 10:08, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Similarity to Hinton, AB's page on the Crash

While conducting research into the crash, I noticed that the large sections of this article which lack references have actually been sourced (mainly copied), from the town of Hinton's website, a link to which I have included in the new External Links section. As of right now I have no time to spare to rewrite and re-cite those sections, but will try to complete that soon. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.110.39.2 (talk) 01:58, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

• It appears that Hinton copied from Wikipedia. Their page dates from 2011 (that I can find); this article was started in 2005. Mackensen (talk) 14:24, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

Slight ambiguity

In this sentence "On the passenger train, one coach was crushed by a freight car after it was thrown into the air by the force of the collision, killing one of its occupants." the words "it" and "its" are ambiguous. I think "it" is the freight car and "its" is the coach but I'm not sure. If so, it could be reworded to remove the ambiguity, for example "On the passenger train, one coach was crushed, killing one of its occupants, by a freight car which had been thrown into the air by the force of the collision." ☺Coppertwig (talk) 18:47, 26 April 2022 (UTC)

TV series 'Air Disasters' in 2021

@AGOLFR: Are you sure that the TV episode you described isn't just a repackaged version of the 2005 episode of Mayday? Air Disasters is one of the names Mayday goes under in some countries. Indefatigable (talk) 21:31, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Yes, it is a possibility that this is a repackaged version. I am unable to confirm since I have not seen the 'Mayday' 2005 release version. 2601:182:B82:9170:0:0:0:7D42 (talk) 16:18, 18 October 2023 (UTC)