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Burlington Northern C30-7 No. 5017

(Requested by Jeri_)

(This is the U20C model disguised as a C30-7).

The General Electric C30-7 is a road-switcher locomotive, of which 1,137 were built between 1976 and 1986. Burlington Northern was the 2nd largest customer, ordering 242 C30-7’s to add to their fleet.

One of those engines was the now infamous 5017. She was built in 1979, and had a long - by US standards - service life of 20 years with Burlington Northern and BNSF, which was created in 1996 through a merger of BN and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway. 5017 was retired in 1999 and sold to the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. And this is where the story gets interesting.

5017 wasn’t well maintained under MMA ownership, due to the railway’s poor financial situation. In October 2012, she was brought to the MMA's repair shop following an engine failure. A dangerous combination of the time and cost for a repair and the pressure to return the locomotive to service resulted in her being repaired with an epoxy-like material that lacked the required strength and durability. Unsurprisingly this material failed while 5017 was in service, leading to engine surges and excessive smoke. Over the next nine months, oil began to accumulate in the body of the turbocharger. This oil overheated one night in July 2013, which resulted in the locomotive catching fire.

When 5017 caught fire, she was the leading engine on MMA Train 2, an oil train that started in New Town, North Dakota (USA) and was heading to Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada). The train consisted of C30-7 No. 5017, a remote-control caboose, four more locomotives, a boxcar acting as a runner wagon and 72 tank wagons (all of them were the DOT.111 type. The other four locomotives were as follows:

C30-7 No. 5026
SD40-2 No. 3053
C30-7 No. 5023
SD40-2 No. 3166

After a few crew changes (and a long journey), the train arrived in the siding at Nantes, 11 kilometres west of a town called Lac-Mégantic. As mentioned previously, 5017’s turbocharger was in terrible condition due to oil accumulation. This played a major role in the events of that night.

The driver left 5017’s engine running to keep air pressure up and - thus - keep the train brakes on. But due to the oil in the turbocharger, 5017 caught fire. Men from the Nantes Fire Department arrived on the scene at 11:50pm and promptly shut down the C30-7’s prime mover before putting out the fire. Now none of the five locomotives on the train were running, which resulted in air leaking from the brake lines. With no air to keep the brakes on, MMA Train 2 rolled away down the hill without anyone onboard.

By the time the train reached Lac-Mégantic, it was doing around 65 miles per hour on a section where the speed limit was only 10mph. As the train rounded the curve near the town centre, sh** really hit the fan.

As the train passed through the town, 63 of the 72 tank wagons derailed, exploded and created a colossal wall of fire. Tragically 47 people were killed in the disaster, and at least 30 buildings were destroyed. However the mayor of Lac-Mégantic at the time - Colette Roy-Laroche - has said the town will rebuild itself.

As for the locomotives were found intact about 800 metres down the line from where the explosion took place. The Lac-Mégantic disaster didn’t just take out 47 lives, but also the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway itself. The MMA filed for bankruptcy in August 2013, and their assets were sold at auction in January 2014. This included C30-7 No. 5017, which was sold to Railroad Acquisition Holdings LLC.

Nowadays the locomotive sits in a siding at South Lagrange, Maine. It is unlike she will ever run under her own power again, especially if her condition is anything to go by.