Above: A tractor with a set of tanks gets into trouble were nobody wants to get stuck—on the tracks.
Some things should not be disturbed, and a pipeline is one of them.
by Collin Vandenheuvel
Photos courtesy Collin Vandenheuvel
When the phone rings at 4:00 a.m. and the person on the other end says, “You’re going to want to have a look at this one,” you know the day is off to an interesting start.
Interesting was exactly what I rolled up to—a tractor with a set of tanks perched on the back of a train, leaning heavily and about 200 feet from the roadway. Thankfully for everyone involved, the tank trailers were on their way to loading. If it was the other way around, this would have been a whole different kind of cleanup.
Tow Canada, Sept-Oct 2025
“The operator of the train began to move
as carefully as one can with a few million pounds.”
Upon first inspection, it looked like we would be able to reverse the train slowly and let the trailer come down under its own weight. However, after taking a closer look at the scene, we noticed a set of pipes protruding out of the ground right where the trailer would be landing. Sarnia, Ont. is known for its refineries and pipelines, so I knew right away that we were dealing with something underground that shouldn’t be disturbed.
We looked around and found signs of the pipeline that had been knocked over by the truck. We called the relevant number and waited for the pipeline representatives to arrive, inspect the area, and give us an idea of what we were dealing with.
In the meantime, I ran back to the yard, grabbed our rotator, and had Kris load up the only tool we had that could make it back into the marshy field beside the tracks—our skid steer equipped with a winch box.
When we arrived back at the scene, the pipeline representative had shown up and was inspecting the pipes. Fortunately, they were only vent pipes that, if necessary, could be cut to get out of our way. We wanted to avoid any unnecessary cutting or damage, so we offloaded the skid steer and tracked it out into the field. From there, we rigged the trailer to pull it backwards and away from the vent pipes.
We began inching the trailer backwards so as to not upset its precarious balance, as we were pulling it towards the side it was leaning towards. Once we had safely moved it a few feet back and away from the vent pipes, it was time for the train to do its part. We repositioned the skid steer to hold the trailer to prevent it from rolling over as the train moved away.
“This one was literally off the rails, and it’s going down in the books for us.”
The operator of the train began to move as carefully as one can with a few million pounds. As the train began to move, the trailers slowly slid off and came to rest back on their wheels. From there, we were able to drag the trailers around even further, giving the unit a straighter shot to the road. We were able to fire up the tractor to release the brakes; however, the trailers were too heavily damaged and would not take air.
We positioned the rotator on the roadway, ran the wire rope to the tractor, and began the slow process of dragging it closer to the roadway. Once the unit was at the roadway, we positioned the skid steer across the road to pull it further, giving us a better angle to pull it around the rail crossing indicators. Once we were in the clear, we finished pulling it back onto the roadway with the rotator, and we began all the prep work to get the trailers towable for the short distance back to their yard.
All said and done, the transport company, the rail operators, and the pipeline representatives were happy to see this unit up and on the road with no extra damage to any of their respective pieces. We have handled many train versus vehicle accidents over the years, but this by far was the most unique and challenging situation with many obstacles. This one was literally off the rails, and it’s going down in the books for us. 🍁