Hi guys,
Back on July 19th 1974 there was a tank car explosion in the
Decatur rail yard operated then by Norfolk and Southern.anyone
know any follow up details?
One has to be aware danger is around us always.
David
Norfolk & Western, actually.
The explosion was caused by kicking a cut of five tank cars loaded with isobutane, which hit an empty box car in the track. Drawbars bypassed, sending the box car’s coupler through the end of the first tank car. The isobutane came out of the tank for a while, and a spark from somewhere ignited the vapor cloud. Seven employees in a nearby dormitory building were killed. Much damage from shock waves in the surrounding community; the explosion was felt as much as 40 miles away.
Tank cars such as these are now required to have head shields and shelf couplers, the presence of which probably would have prevented the explosion, if not the derailment itself. I believe rules for switching cars such as this are made by individual railroads (Ed might be able to shed some light on that), and know that ours, though they would still permit these cars to be kicked, would not allow more than two of them to be released at a time in a flat-switching yard.
The Decatur incident was one of several that occured during that time. Most hazmat specialists will recognize Crescent City, IL; Kingman, TX; Oneonta, NY. I found a site that makes some reference to those incidents: http://members.cox.net/lbjr99/models/GEBMO.html#Hdg40. There isn’t a lot of detail, just an overview.
It is notable that this flurry of incidents undoubtedly served as the genesis of hazmat response as we know it today.
holy crap!..that picture of the fireball above the cresent city, IL blast is mind blowing…damn! i think i’d have to change my pants after seeing something like that…lol
I remember when that happened, one shitty day in that area.
Remember when the boxcar full of 500 and 750 lb bombs blew up in California? Was that the SP at Bakersfield? I think it was in '67, but could be wrong.
I think it was Roseville, California. They uncovered some of those bombs when they were rebuilding the yard there.
As for Crescent City, I was through there on Tuesday…I hadn’t been aware of the history. This town is along the TP&W…last week the TP&W made the news, sort of, when local citizens in Watseka complained about their track conditions through town. Crescent City is the next town west from Watseka; I’m sure some people down there remember this blast, and one can’t blame them for being antsy. Railroad inspection turned up nothing of consequence this time.
Thank you guys
David
Change pants? I would have been running so fast I would have ran out of my pants. Thats a hell of a blast.
Blasts like that (called BLEVEs - as in blev-ee) have been known to propel one half of an LP railroad car over 3000 feet, just like a rocket. Scary stuff.
I read an account of someone actually caught inside a BLEVE. He survived, since he was in the middle of it all. Had he been on the fringes, he would have fried.
The SP explosion was in Roseville and was several cars of bombs traveling from Hawthorne, NV, to Vietnam. Blew down Yardmaster Towers, destroyed the Hump, created some of the worlds biggest pot holes right there in the yard. And a lot more.
Took almost 2 months of rerouting before the Sierra Main was reliably reopened and Roseville didn’t classify much for another year until the yard was rebuilt.
The Kingman BLEVE was in Kingman, AZ. Firehouse magazine had an interesting acticle on it in the July 1998 issue. It showed one end of the tank car that was about a half mile away from the blast site and flattened out by the explosion. The article said the blast level every building within 1/2 mile (not many).
I should mention that it has been a while since I read the article, so some of the information may not be correct.
For those of you wondering, BLEVE stands for Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion.
Current hazmat rules allow for flat yard switching of loaded flammable or explosives in max cuts of two.
No restrictions on empties.
Certain posions, such as hydrocaynatic acid, can not be allowed to roll free, and must be shoved to a joint.
Nothing may be kicked against these car until a bumper or cover car has been added on top(in front) of them.
Ed
Not all seven who lost their lives were in the dormitory in Decatur but I can’t recall how many of the victims were. IIRC, at least one victim was a Decatur switchman, one was a N&W trainmaster, and one was a engineer from Peru, IN, who was in the dorm. The dorm was in the middle of Decatur Yard, and this blast led to rule changes in where dorms could be located but grandfathered in ones that were already in bad locations.
I used visit my aunt who lived in Weyauwega, WI and remember my dad taking to the edge of town to watch the Soo Line freights roll through. I remember a few years after she past away there was a derailment (Hazmat) right on the edge of town and the whole town was evacuated. I remember staring in disbelief at the TV watching the reports and the derailment was right where I used to go to watch. Does anyone remember the date and year for this. I think it was about 10 to 15 years ago?
Thanks
Shrek
I think it was in the late 1990s.
The Weyauwega derailment was March 4th, 1996.
And nobody in that town asked for a light for the cig after that…