{"id":17034,"date":"2014-08-03T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-03T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=17034"},"modified":"2014-08-01T09:26:25","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T13:26:25","slug":"lac-megantic-locomotive-pulled-from-auction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2014\/08\/03\/lac-megantic-locomotive-pulled-from-auction\/","title":{"rendered":"Lac-M\u00e9gantic locomotive pulled from auction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lac-Megantic<\/a>

Lac-Megantic burning on the first day after the rail car derailment sent fireballs and streams of burning oil coursing through the Quebec village. Photo: Surete du Quebec<\/p><\/div>\n

Slightly over a year<\/a> after the July 6, 2013 inferno which claimed 47 lives in the Quebec town of Lac-M\u00e9gantic, the Canadian Press reported the locomotive from that rail disaster was up for auction.<\/p>\n

It was to have been included in an sale of 25 locomotives from Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Company, which declared bankruptcy<\/a> in the aftermath of that tragedy.<\/p>\n

According to the CP’s Andy Blatchford\u00a0(7\/23)<\/a> the opening bid had been set at $10,000 USD:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MMA 5017 unit was the lead locomotive in a derailment and fire incident in Canada,\u201d reads the ad on the website for Adam\u2019s Auction & Real Estate Services, Inc.<\/p>\n

It notes that due to that crash, \u201cthe number 4, 5 & 6 power assemblies were removed.\u201d The ad also states that MMA 5017 has a \u201cdefective piston.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On July 30, the Canadian Press reports that particular locomotive was pulled out of the auction<\/a> at the request of Quebec Provincial Police.<\/p>\n

A senior executive at the bank said the counsel for the U.S. bankruptcy trustee gave them the go-ahead to sell the locomotive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was indeed our understanding\u2026 that there was no legal impediment being imposed by the authorities to including 5017 in the auction,\u201d Yellow Light Breen wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever\u2026the (Surete du Quebec) made it clear that to the contrary they needed to maintain control of the locomotive during the criminal proceedings. Both the bankruptcy trustee and the bank readily acceded to that demand.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s more background on the assets of the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway<\/a>. The Associated Press reports the company was sold in May<\/a> to\u00a0 “…a subsidiary of New York-based Fortress Investment Group,[which]<\/em> is changing the railroad\u2019s name to Central Maine and Quebec Railway. It has no plans to resume oil train shipments.”<\/p>\n

To date, three ground-level rail employees have been charged in the case, after being arrested in May.\u00a0As reported by the Toronto Star<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Little could be heard as they emerged before the gaze of townsfolk, aside from the clicks of news cameras \u2014 and a few whispers.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not them we want,\u201d said one soft murmur as officers led the shackled men out of a police van.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Railway employees Thomas Harding, Jean Dema\u00eetre and Richard Labrie were each charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death \u2014 one for every person killed last summer when rail cars carrying volatile crude oil exploded in the heart of town.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The three men were released on bail after entering pleas of not guilty. Proceedings on those charges are set for Sept 11.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the five locomotives of the train that derailed in Lac-M\u00e9gantic, Quebec, on July 6, 2013 is guarded by a S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec police cruiser. Locomotives were somehow detached from the train and stopped 1 kilometre (0.6 mile) from the scene of the explosion that killed 47 people. Photo: Bouchecl<\/a>, Creative Commons, some rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slightly over a year after the July 6, 2013 inferno which claimed 47 lives in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[880,883,884,12655,1124,12654,4802],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17034"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17114,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17034\/revisions\/17114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}