Lately, I’ve seen several unit ethanol trains come through. They all had old, rusty gondolas or old, rusty hopper cars between the engines and the first ethanol tank car. One train today even had a rusty, old hopper on the tail end. Maybe it would receive a DP unit somewhere along the way? Is this an idler car put in for safety of the crew, in the event of an accident? Is this something new?
Yes ethanol trains require buffer cars. Having one on both ends eases the task of turning the train at either end of the trip and adding helpers if needed.
Nick
Ethanol is a Class 3 Flammable liquid, as such the hazmat rules require only 1 non placarded buffer/cover car for loads, and none for empties or residue cars if it is runs as a unit or single commodities train.
In a mixed freight it would have to ride at least 5 cars back / away from any occupied engine or caboose
The reason you might see a cover car on both ends is simple, you are looking at a unit train which they don’t turn at the loading facility or the receiving facility, they run the locomotives around the train and haul it back.
Having a cover car at each end eliminates the need to switch out the cover car or find a way to move it from one end of the train to the other.
Before you ask why it makes a difference if it is a unit train or mixed freight…
In a unit train, it makes no difference if 1 or all the cars derail and catch fire or leak, all you have is a ethanol fire…in a mixed freight, the chance of the ethanol mixing with other chemicals can create various hazards each of which requires different measures to contain or extinguish.
And think about this, the reason we have cover cars is because most of the stuff in tank cars belongs in the tank car, not out in the atmosphere.
On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being corn syrup, and 1 being hydrocyanactic acid, ethanol ranks about #8 for me.(because you can’t see the stuff burning, the flame is almost invisible)
Its alcohol, so if it catches fire, it simply burns away, just like gasoline or diesel fuel.
On the other hand, chlorine gas, if the tank is breached, will react with the moisture in the air and create hydrochloric acid, not fun to be around.
Vinyl chloride, sulfuric acid, benzene and lots of other stuff pose a much greater danger that ethanol.
Hydrogen peroxide is more dangerous than ethanol, the stuff in tank cars is 100% pure, unlike the stuff in the brown bottle you buy at the drug store, which is 3% peroxide and 97% distilled water.
Hydrogen perox
Thanks for the informative post , Ed.
Tank cars do make me a little nervous. Lots of things that can go BANG! And lots of things that will kill you painfully by breathing them.
compared to trucks, how many people got killed with accidents of rail tank cars???
I believe your worries are a bit overrated.
Ed, I think you need to look at those UP instructions again.[:)]
Ethanol loads, whether in a unit train or not, requires 5 buffer cars when train length permits between the car and the engines, working or not. When train length doesn’t permit the 5 cars, use the ones you have with at least one being required.
Empty ethanol residue cars require at least one buffer car.
If you see a unit ethanol train with one buffer between the engines and t
Which brings to mind the discussion about bees and wasps around syrup cars…
I could have sworn that I saw trains with single idler cars going in both directions- both to and from the ethanol plants. But, I’m married, so I’m used to being wrong.
Is an idler car used when switching such nasty tank cars?
If you mean switching in a yard then no, buffer cars are not used.
Jeff,
Not to argue. but I direct you and readers to this weeks Train’s photo contest, and Drew Halverson’s photo of a ethanol train, moving with one (that’s one) car of cover.
We routinely send out the BNSF’s diesel fuel train with one empty on the head end .
It can travel as a unit train this way.
What the rule says is if there are any more cover or buffer cars in your consist, they must all be used up to five, but if you only have one buffer or cover car, it must be between the occupied locomotive and the rest of the train.
At least one buffer car is required.
According to our FRA field agent, as long as the consist remain the same commodity, diesel fuel for our BNSF fuel train, ethanol for an ethanol train, it can run point of origin to destination (and back) like that.
If they stop and pick up any non placarded cars along the way, those cars must be cut into the consist at the head end to attempt to achieve the 5 car buffer requirement.
If they make no pick ups at all, it can still run just like it looks.
Note also SP’s (now Uncle Pete’s ) oil can express, loaded gasoline tanks running as a unit train, point to point.
I cant count the number of photos I have seen of it running loaded with only an old hopper or boxcar between the locomotive and the rest of the consist.
In the case of our BNSF fuel train, the empty train often returns sans any cover cars at all, class 3 combustible empties have no placement in train restrictions.
Next time I see our local FRA field agent, I will ask him if there is a Federal Exemption notice for this, and what its number is if there is one, or is this simply an FRA rules interpretation.
Ed, I may have misread your original post. I think we are mostly in agreement. At least one buffer is required for an ethanol train, loaded or empty. On a loaded train, if there are more cars available to be used as a buffer in the train, they must be used. After you have 5 buffers, any other non hazardous (generally speaking) can be placed elsewhere.
I think I erred on your post because Murphy saw a buffer on both ends. I took it that you were saying that in that case if you had one on the head end of a load, you could have that second one on the other end, where there was no engine. An empty can run like that, a loaded train can’t. That one on the end (if the train were loaded) would have to be with the other buffer, because your train length allows two buffers in that situation.
There are certain hazardous materials that have no placement in train restrictions, loaded or empty. In fact they could even be used as buffer cars. Combustible liquids fall into this category.
A manifest train could theoretically could end up with at least one, but less than 5 buffer cars between the engine and train. Usually a manifest would probably have many cars that could be used, but you never know.
Sorry for any confusion on my part. Aren’t rules and instructions fun?
Jeff
Jeff,
I you are correct, I think maybe we both kinda misstated the same thing.
Yeah, if all there is happens to be 1 buffer, that’s what you use, in the case of Murphy’s question, I agree it was most likely an empty run…had the train been a load, the car on the other end, (the rear) should have been up front between the motor and the ethanol cars.
And no, rules and instruction are no fun when they are not chrystal clear…
And we have rules re-cert coming up next month…yeah…