MacMillan Yard

The MacMillan Yard is the 2nd largest rail classification yard in Canada, after CN's Symington Yard in Winnipeg. It is operated by Canadian National Railway (CN) and is located in Vaughan, Ontario. It was originally opened in 1965 as Toronto Yard, but was renamed MacMillan Yard in 1975 after former CN president Norman John MacMillan.

An aerial view of the MacMillan Yard, looking northwest near Highway 7 and Keele Street

MacMillan Yard is located at the junction of the CN York Subdivision and CN Halton Subdivision. The yard measures approximately 3 kilometres in length and 1 kilometre in width, with a north–south orientation. The property is bordered by four main roads:

  • Highway 7 (York Regional Road 7) to the south
  • Keele Street to the east
  • Rutherford Road (Regional Road 73) to the north
  • Creditstone Road to the west

There are five road entrances into the yard which are designated as: S Yard, Jane Street, CargoFlo, Bowes, and Administration.

Much of the yard is composed of side-by-side track, switches, humps, and control tower buildings. The yard is designed to take incoming trains and reorganize and rejoin the individual cars based on destination to create new departing trains. The yard operates 24 hours a day and handles over 1 million cars (loads and empties) per year. It has flat switching capability as well as both dual and single humps. In addition to car handling, other yard facilities include locomotive repair, car washing, and car repair. In one part of the yard, a CargoFlo terminal is used for transferring flowable bulk, dry bulk (plastics) commodities between rail cars to tanker trucks, as well as a small intermodal and RoadRailer operation.

The yard was developed in the late 1950s as part of CN's redesign of its Toronto trackage network. At the time of construction, Vaughan was a largely rural community; however, subsequent development on adjacent properties has created an industrial area surrounded by a variety of industrial consignors, distributors, and suppliers. Some commercial establishments (e.g., restaurants, retail and wholesale outlets) are located along the perimeter of the yard.

The closest residential population to a track that carries dangerous goods is located approximately 150 meters from the northernmost extension of the yard near Jane Street. At the southern end of the yard, where several rail lines merge, Highway 7 provides a road bridge. Toll Highway 407 also bridges the southern entry point to MacMillan Yard; all trains enter and exit by way of southern end.

Incidents

On September 17, 2007, while pulling south on the pullback track with consist of 67 loads and 30 empties, weighing about 9054 tons, the 2200 West yard assignment side-collided with the tail end of train M33931-17. The train was departing MacMillan Yard at 15 miles per hour on the Halton outbound track. Two locomotives and two cars of the yard assignment derailed. Six cars on train 339 derailed and/or sustained damage, including two special dangerous goods tank cars containing chlorine (UN1017). Approximately 3785 litres of diesel fuel (UN1202) leaked from the derailed locomotives. There were no injuries.[1]

On July 29, 2015, 91 freight cars ran away in the CN MacMillan Yard after they separated from a switching locomotive. Nine of those freight cars derailed and two freight cars on an adjacent track were damaged when the runaway cars collided at low speed with other cars that were a part of an incoming train in the yard. No injuries were reported. The Transportation Safety Board sent two inspectors to the site to investigate the incident.[2][3][4]

On June 17, 2016, a runaway train incident occurred at CN Rail's MacMillan Yard in Vaughan, in which 74 rail cars — one of them carrying dangerous goods — rolled away uncontrolled for five kilometres. The TSB said that ground crews were using a remote control device known widely in the industry as a "belt pack" to assemble a train when the 72 loaded cars — as well as two empty ones — rolled away uncontrolled.[5]

On May 12, 2017, a derailment at the rail yard caused a chemical spill. At around 11:30 p.m. ET, a locomotive derailed and "sideswiped" seven hopper cars. The impact resulted in a spill of a powdered form of terephthalic acid, a compound used in the manufacturing of plastics.[6]

On August 15, 2019, a derailment at the rail yard caused the death of a worker. At around 2 a.m. ET, emergency services were called. They found a CN worker trapped beneath a rail car that had derailed and fallen on its side. The employee died as a result of injuries sustained in the incident. [7]

References
  1. http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/2007/r07t0270/r07t0270.pdf
  2. "No injuries when 91 freight cars ran away in Toronto-area switching yard: CN - Toronto - CBC News". Cbc.ca. July 30, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  3. "Transportation watchdog looking into CN runaway train collision". The Globe and Mail. July 30, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  4. "91 freight cars collide at Vaughan rail yard". Yorkregion.com. July 31, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  5. Dave Seglins (June 28, 2016). "74 runaway CN Rail cars rolled 5 km out of GTA yard, TSB says - Toronto - CBC News". Cbc.ca. Retrieved November 23, 2016.
  6. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/cn-rail-acid-toronto-1.4114189
  7. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/tdsb-worker-dead-industrial-accident-1.5248088

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