That’s especially true in rural areas, where many farms are located near railway tracks.

“In 2022 there were 232 incidents between trains and vehicles or people in Canada that resulted in 66 fatalities and 43 serious injuries,” CN Police Constable Michael Reid explains. “Many of these incidents occurred in close proximity to the victim’s residence and each one may have been preventable.”

Did you know that given their large size, trains often appear to be farther away and travelling much slower than they actually are? But don’t be fooled. It takes the equivalent length of 18 football fields for the average freight train, which travels at speeds up to 100 km/h and can weigh tens of thousands of tonnes, to come to a stop.

So, while farm machines are larger than most other vehicles, they are still no match for trains.

And with most farm crossings being passive — that is, not having warning lights, bells or gates — it’s essential to take extra care to ensure safety.

Safe crossings

When approaching a crossing, always open cab windows, turn off radios and fans, remove headsets and listen for oncoming trains. Look in both directions and look around obstructions like mirrors and windshield pillars. Keep in mind that winter conditions can be particularly hazardous and require extra care, as snow can muffle the sound of approaching trains and ice can cause your machinery to slide into crossings.

Once you’ve determined it’s safe to cross, ensure your machinery is properly lined up with the railway crossing; having the wheels cross tracks at a 90-degree angle will prevent heavily loaded equipment from tipping over. You also want to check that there is enough room on the other side of the tracks to fully clear the crossing without stopping and that the back of your equipment won’t be within five metres of the tracks if you have to stop on the other side.

Be aware of your equipment

It’s important to note not all farm machinery can easily cross railway tracks. An example is low-slung equipment, which should never be used to cross since it can get caught in the tracks.

When using new farm machinery for the first time, especially if it’s particularly wide or heavy, ensure it can cross tracks quickly and safely. Don’t hesitate to contact the railway for assistance regarding any non-standard machinery.

If you’re towing equipment, it’s crucial to prevent it from becoming unhitched when going over farm crossings, so always secure hitch pins with a pin key. And remember to watch wagons and other equipment while crossing to ensure nothing dislodges or becomes caught in the tracks.

Getting stuck or stalled on the tracks

No one wants to get stuck or stalled on train tracks, but if it happens, get out of the machinery immediately and move at least 30 metres away to avoid being struck by debris if your vehicle is hit by a train.

Once you are safely away from the machinery, contact the railway company to let them know a vehicle is on the tracks. Railway companies post their emergency numbers on a blue sign under the crossbuck (the traffic sign used to indicate a railway crossing) or near the crossing. The number may also be posted on a nearby signal house. This is the first number to call if your machinery becomes stuck or stalls on the tracks, as it’s the only way to stop approaching trains. If you are unable to locate the emergency number, call 911.

No matter the type of machinery you are driving or where you are heading, we all share the same goal of getting home safely at the end of the day. Taking safety precautions around railway crossings will help ensure that goal is reached.

“Farmers and the agriculture industry are crucial to the Canadian economy and by working together we can feed the world. But we all need to make sure we do that safely,” Reid says. “As trains can take up to two kilometres to stop, always obey the signs and signals at railway crossings. Use precaution and stay alert around crossings to ensure you stay safe during your workday.”

For more safety information, please visit the Ag Safety Week website.

Every year, CASA raises awareness about the importance of safety on Canadian farms through Canadian Agricultural Safety Week (CASW), which takes place during the third week of March. In 2024, CASW takes place March 10-16, and is sponsored by CN, Syngenta Canada, the Canadian Canola Growers Association, Fertilizer Canada and Parrish & Heimbecker.

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The TSB on Thursday said its investigation, launched in early July, “has not revealed any evidence to link railway operations to the fire” on June 30 that destroyed “the majority of the structures” in downtown Lytton, B.C., about 160 km southwest of Kamloops.

Thus, unless new information turns up to show that a “TSB-reportable” event took place, “no further work will be performed and no TSB investigation report will be produced,” the agency said.

Apart from traffic halted by damage to Canadian National Railway’s (CN) rail bridge at Lytton, the June 30 fire led to a temporary halt in rail traffic through the area.

Tighter inspections and slower speed limits then followed in July for Class 1 railways’ trains rolling through any areas in Canada deemed to be at “extreme” fire risk.

Those rules — which apply to both CN and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) — were put in place in July by order of federal Transport Minister Omar Alghabra, and remain in place until the end of this month.

According to the TSB’s report Thursday, the fire in the late afternoon of June 30 was first reported near Mile 98.14 of CN’s Ashcroft subdivision, just west of Lytton, and “grew rapidly due to the extreme hot and dry conditions combined with high-velocity winds.”

The last train through that area passed by about 18 minutes before the fire was reported — a loaded CP coal train of 157 cars, operated by a CN crew, as per a “directional running agreement” between the two railways — travelling at about 40 km/h with “low to moderate throttle,” the TSB said.

The TSB sent its investigator to the area on July 9, based on information from RCMP and B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) — and also “in light of the presence of rolling stock in the immediate vicinity of the fire within minutes of the fire first being reported.”

However, the agency said, its inspection of the off-loaded train in Burnaby found no signs of “hot bearings, burnt brake heads, built-up tread (or) other potential fire-creating causes.”

The TSB said it also confirmed with CN and CP that no rail grinding activities or other track work had taken place in the area that day or in the days before the June 30 fire.

Also, “no anomalies were observed or reported” from the TSB’s interviews with rail workers and maintenance staff in the area, nor in any of the video or data from recorders on the lead and tail-end locomotives.

All three locomotives in the train were also subjected to stationary load testing, in which the diesel engines are cycled up to maximum operating r.p.m., and no sparking was seen from any of the locomotives. The locomotives’ exhaust stacks were also found to be “clear of carbon buildup.”

The BCWS had “expressed interest” in samples of a “black, carbonaceous coal-like substance” found on the west side of the track near Mile 98.14 as a “possible source of ignition” and ran a lab analysis of it, the TSB said.

The TSB also collected samples of the substance and ran its own lab analysis comparing it to samples gathered from a locomotive exhaust stack and a rail grinder vehicle. Spectral results found the three analyzed samples “have little in common.”

With no link found between railway operations and the fire, “further effort (by the TSB) is not warranted” unless some new information shows an incident involving rolling stock took place, the agency said.

That said, the fire is still under investigation by the BCWS, and the RCMP are running a preliminary inquiry “to determine the need for a parallel criminal investigation,” the TSB said.

B.C. RCMP said July 11 their investigation was “looking at all movements and actions of any individuals, vehicle traffic and a southbound freight train that were all in the area around 4:30 p.m.” on June 30.

Two people were confirmed to have died during the fire and the exact circumstances of their deaths were also under investigation, RCMP said.

A Vancouver law firm, Gratl and Co., filed a notice of civil claim in August for a proposed class action lawsuit against both CN and CP over the Lytton fire, with a Lytton resident as its representative plaintiff.

The law firm, on its website, said at the time that while government-led investigations “have yet to conclude,” legal counsel believe “eyewitness evidence, train schedules and the burn pattern converge” to support a claim against the railways. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Freeland, speaking to reporters in Washington after meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said she was broadly optimistic about the strength of Canada’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

The rebound in demand for goods as restrictions are lifted has exposed supply chain shortages, with firms scrambling for workers, ships and even fuel to power factories, threatening the fledgling bounceback.

“The issue of both supply chain congestion and supply chain shortages, was discussed … it’s definitely a concern on the minds of finance ministers around the world,” Freeland said.

“We are definitely mindful of the supply chain issues in the Canadian economy. We are monitoring the supply chain and Canadian ports, very, very closely.”

Freeland said the process of restarting the economy after the shutdowns was inevitably going to be uneven.

— Reporting for Reuters by David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon.

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Garneau announced Sunday he has pulled his Feb. 6 ministerial order on speed limits and replaced it with a new one affecting so-called “key trains” — that is, trains carrying either 20 or more cars of dangerous goods or one or more cars of gases that are toxic when inhaled.

The new limits took effect “immediately” on Sunday and are in place until April 1, he said. Dangerous goods include flammables, explosives, compressed or liquefied gases, toxic substances, corrosives and radioactive materials, among others.

The speed limit for key trains will now be 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) in metropolitan areas, Garneau said. Outside of metropolitan areas where there are no track signals, the speed is limited to 40 mph (64 km/h).

The new order also sets separate limits for “higher risk” key trains, defined as unit trains where tank cars are loaded with a single dangerous-goods commodity moving to the same point of destination; or trains that include any combination of 80 or more tank cars containing dangerous goods.

For higher risk key trains, the new speed limit is 25 mph (40 km/h) where there are no track signals. In metropolitan areas, the speed limit for those trains is 30 mph (48 km/h) — unless the metropolitan area is in a “non-signal” territory, where the speed limit will remain 25 mph “for greater certainty.”

Meanwhile, Transport Canada is working with the railways on “a more comprehensive set of safety measures, which will include permanent measures,” the government said in a release.

Those measures are to be aimed at track infrastructure maintenance and renewal, winter operations, safety practices and “any other actions necessary to keep Canadians safe.”

The tighter speed limits follow “a number of recent derailments of trains transporting dangerous goods which have resulted in the breach of tank cars and the release of dangerous goods,” Garneau said in Sunday’s order.

The listed examples included a derailment that spilled crude oil near St. Lazare in western Manitoba last February, a derailment and fire near Guernsey, Sask. in December and a second derailment in the same area near Guernsey, about 40 km south of Humboldt, earlier this month.

Affected rail companies have until March 17 to file written requests for a review of Garneau’s order if they so wish. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Canadian National and rival Canadian Pacific Railway were rationing space on trains travelling in the Vancouver area and prioritized some commodities over others to deal with congestion, causing complaints from shippers.

Canada is a top shipper of crops, fertilizer, oil and pulp, but has in recent years needed government intervention to keep commodities moving, as new free trade deals with European and Pacific nations drive up demand.

Fluidity in Vancouver improved this month because of actions taken by CN and other companies in the supply chain, CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said in a statement. He was not immediately available for comment on whether CN is continuing to ration space and prioritize some commodities.

The Canadian Transportation Agency is holding a hearing next week in Vancouver for shippers to voice concerns about congestion at the port in late 2018 and early this month.

— Rod Nickel is a Reuters correspondent covering the ag and mining sectors from Winnipeg.

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As crucial as rail is to your operation, so is being safe where field and farmyard access roads cross tracks. These farm crossings are largely passive. That means there are no warning lights, bells, gates or signs that indicate the crossing. Farm machinery operators need to remain alert and use caution around these crossings. It could save your machinery and more importantly, you!

The following tips and reminders are great to have on hand and are easy to remember and share with everybody that uses farm crossings.

Stop safely at farm crossings

Following a school bus, it becomes apparent that safety is of the top of mind. Children, of course, are our most precious resource and their safety is important to everyone. But did you ever wonder why school buses stop at rail crossings? It’s because sometimes trains can be hard to see or even hear. By taking the time to stop, look and listen, bus drivers are safe guarding their cargo — our kids. Farm machinery operators are important too. Take the time to stop at farm crossings, just like a bus. Remember:

• Because of their size, trains appear to be much farther away and travelling much slower than their actual speed.
• Stop no closer than five metres from the nearest rail. Allow extra distance for front-mounted buckets and chemical tanks on farm tractors.
• While stopped, look carefully in each direction for approaching trains, move your head and eyes to see around obstructions such as mirrors, windshield pillars and implements.

Is it safe to go?

After stopping, take into account the conditions that could impact your machinery. Don’t rush to get across, take stock of your situation first. Remember:

• Before resuming, make sure there is enough room on the other side of the train track or tracks to fully clear without stopping.
• Make sure that any towed equipment does not become unhitched while crossing.
• Watch wagons and other equipment during the crossing so that no loaded materials become dislodged and fall onto the train tracks.

Special circumstances

Larger fields and bigger yields equals larger machinery. Many rural roads and farm crossings were not built to accommodate these large machines. Some farm machinery is uniquely designed for fieldwork and does not transport well across farm crossings, so remember:

• Do not attempt a crossing with low-slung equipment that can become lodged on humped crossings.
• Before moving new farm machinery over farm crossings for the first time, make it can be safely moved over the crossing.
• Do not attempt to cross with equipment that the crossing was not designed to accommodate. Contact the railway for assistance with nonstandard equipment.

If you get stuck on the track, get out of the equipment immediately. Check the signposts or signal housing for emergency notification information and call 911. If you frequently use a farm crossing, have the location information and railway contact/emergency numbers on hand.

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Kyle Petluk hails from Alberta’s Peace River region. He was one of few farmer delegates at the Field on Wheels transportation conference in Winnipeg last December. Farmers are hurting after last winter, not CN and CP shareholders, he said during an interview.

“(The railways are) saying it’s a harsh winter — and, hey, we know all about it. We’re producers. Our livelihood is based on the weather,” said Petluk.

“Now they’re going to throw even more risk upon us saying, ‘Well, the movement is due to the weather. You’re going to incur that too?’ No.”

But no one should expect dramatic technological improvements anytime soon, Paul Miller told delegates at Field on Wheels. Miller is former vice-president of Canadian National (CN) and now serves as railroader-in-residence at the University Alberta.

• More Grainews: Farmers still concerned about grain movement

“If a rail-roader comes to you and says ‘We’ve got winter solved this year,’ I’d be a little bit skeptical of that rail-roader,” said Miller.

Winter is tough on railroads because of the basic technology they use, Miller said. Once the mercury drops to -25 C, railways are plagued by all kinds of problems.

Steel rails contract and break. The ballast under the rail also freezes, so when wheels pass over the rail, there’s no give.

Steel wheels also suffer, getting into “a bit of an out-of-round condition,” Miller said. And when air brakes are applied, wheels heat and cool dramatically, producing a brittle material known as martensite, Miller said. The martensite flakes off the wheel, moisture gets under the flakes, and wheel pieces break away, he explained.

Cold weather also means shorter trains as more leaks develop in the air brakes. Miller said trains could be cut from 10,000 feet to 7,000 feet in cold weather.

Dropping those cars ties up the switching operation and another track in the yard, Miller said. It also delays the crew that’s doing that work.

“And now once the train is put back together at 7,000 feet, they have to again requalify the brake pipe and requalify the brake system,” said Miller. “All of this takes time. So time is kind of the enemy in the winter time.”

Operating conditions may be good through most of the network. But if a central location such as Chicago gets backed up, it ripples through the network, Miller explained.

Sometimes a railway has to choose between sending crews and locomotives to a specific customer’s location or the busy main line. Miller said when the chips are down in the winter, railways will try to keep their main lines and main terminals going.

“If they can’t keep the main core network fluid, dealing at a particular customer location frankly isn’t going to help. So those are the decisions that get made,” he said.

New technology

Steel-shattering cold only affects part of the rail network for part of the year. Historically, research has focused on things that will help all the railroads all the time, Miller said.

But even implementing innovations in air brake and rail technology is easier said than done, according to Miller.

The current air brake system is based on the Westinghouse system from the 1920s, Miller said. “It does not work, on the same train, in conjunction with the new system. So it’s a big, big logistical challenge.”

Both Miller and Jean-Jacques Ruest, executive vice-president of CN, mentioned portable compressed air stations as one way to make rail movement more efficient.

If it’s very cold, it takes two or three hours to charge the air lines before a safety test can be done, Ruest said. Elevator staff can use compressed air stations to boost pressure in the air lines of unit trains before the rail crew arrives. That way the crew can be moving in half an hour instead of three hours, Ruest said.

CN is offering a financial incentive, which Ruest said adds up to $5,000 per train, for grain companies to charge air lines of unit trains in the winter.

“So we’re very happy with those that joined us in that effort and we hope that more of them will decide to sign up, assuming moving grain in the winter time is mission critical for all of us in the supply chain,” Ruest told Field on Wheels delegates.

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