Hazard Markings For Asphalt Tank Cars

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hi. Trying to understand the different hazard labels and placards that would be on a tank car carrying asphalt.

I see several models that have no warnings at all, and I don’t understand why the prototype would not. (I understand that models are not always accurate).

Is asphalt not considered hazardous?

Yellow lettering warning of hazardous material? Placards indicating “Hot”?

What’s normal in today’s railroading?

2

There are at least 2 different hazard placards for Asphalt. Flamable (red) 1999, or hot (white) 3257. It might be that asphalt with a low flash point might not be considered hazardous.

3

It should be a white placard with 3257 on it. I have also seen white placards with HOT on them and 3257 in an orange rectangle above the placard.

https://www.marathonpetroleum.com/content/documents/Operations/Tesoro_SDS/Asphalt_SDS_Tesoro.pdf

4

I just checked the DOT hazmat table (49USC172) and it shows ashpahult as UN 1999 for all of the entries.

5

Asphalt would have no placement restrictions, it’s just a car. It can be used as cover for hazmat cars.

6

Thanks everyone for their responses thus far.

Many tank cars have small yellow lettering on the body indicating…I believe…hazardous material, and a phone number to call.

Would an asphalt tank car NOT necessarily have that lettering? I think that is what you are saying.

I’m thinking of turning some surplus vegetable oil tank cars into asphalt cars (changing road names, etc). I’ll add the placards, but the warning/hazardous lettering seems not necessary.

7

ALL of the entries in the DOT hazardous materials table for asphault show a hazmat placard of 3 (flammable liquid) which is the one that is REQUIRED for all cars containing asphault.

8

All the asphalt cars I’ve seen, and I see a lot of them, have the white placard with the word “hot.” As Dave said, no placement restrictions.

gatx89282-asphalt.jpg (1024×683) (wordpress.com)

Jeff

9

See the material safety data sheet I linked to. Asphalt is Class 9 and has a white 3257 or HOT placard. That MSDS lists a flash point of 445F. I cannot remember ever seeing a tank car placarded 1999. It looks like 1999 is the placard number for asphalt mixed with naphtha (or something similar) with a flash point in the 100F to 150F range.

https://www.dissco.net/wp-content/uploads/SDS-DISSCO-MC-Asphalts-UN1999.pdf

https://ca.henry.com/fileadmin/pdf/current/msds/HERC250_msds.pdf

I looked at a small sample of asphalt tank cars. Most had the Chemtrec placard (yellow box with phone number). However, not all did have it.

10

Thanks for the pic Jeff. I searched and could not find.

It looks like its most common is to have the white placard and the yellow warning sign with phone number on the body. Vegetable Oil tank cars have neither. I have a decal set with both so conversion shouldn’t be a problem.

There appears to be some debate over flash point temperature, so possibly there are some different grades of asphalt requiring different warnings, but I’ll go with what seems to be most common.

11

Good to know, and maybe that explains why some models don’t have the Chemtrec placard on them even though they are advertised as asphalt cars.

Curious, maybe the Chemtrec placard is a recent requirement with repaints so older cars wouldn’t have them.

Thanks.