http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/keci/mrl-locomotive-erupts-in-flames/45243677 Actually they erred, saying it's MRL in ownership. No surprise, I guess. Today's all too common sloppy "reporting".
My mother is the daughter of a newspaperman and her aging eyes and experience lead her to find all sorts of errors in the current press. Just last week there was a story in her local paper about a car "that lost control on the curb". Um, how about "curve"? What kind of Editors are on staff these days? Even stories from Associated Press are hard to decipher sometimes.
And then there is the good old spell checker, which is far too heavily relied upon by some, and they don't pay enough close enough attention the changes it makes. Or by others not used enough. And there's the crappy grammar which has become fad today. "I seen", "me & him" or "him and me". Perhaps the most abused now is "so fun", having no adverb to quantify the level or amount of enjoyment achieved. Every time I read or hear an alleged 'adult' use those two words together, my first impression is they've the intellect of about a twelve year old. Even worse are those defend this junk.
Looks like another high pressure fuel line blew out all over the hot exhaust stacks! Good ole SF "world class maintenance" may have allowed a lot of gunk to build up around those stacks, too. Add that to a fresh hot bit of diesel, and combustion will ensue!
It may have been proper reporting. Just because it was BNSF power doesn't mean it wasn't an MRL crew operating on MRL trackage (which is the likely case). So it would be MRL investigating, not BNSF. That engine likely just got moved up in its chances for an AC44C4M rebuild.
I get my information straight from inside HQ, MRL. From an official who has the job of handling such incidents. Also, the article has been edited since originally published. So what you read now is not the same content. Excepting a rare detour requirement, all crews are MRL.
Note the comment beneath by "Michael R Morris" and the unchanged article title. It repeated the title, speaking of how that was an "MRL locomotive". Of course it was a BNSF engine, on a BNSF train, being forwarded as part of the MRL lease requirements, with an MRL crew. Easy to learn from my friend at MRL, if they'd contacted him or the PR folks there. Alberton is almost thirty miles from Missoula. A couple of years back, there was a dynamic brake fire in a BNSF engine, in the yard at Missoula. Confined to that portion of the engine. The local media had everyone in a panic that this train was actually going to blow up the city. That episode even brought out protestors.
