I was building a tank car model; since I am modeling the 1950’s I wondered if I needed to add the Hazardous material placards, the little black diamonds. In the latest issue of Model Railroader the article Pipe Line on Wheels (pg.56) seems to show them. Did all hazardous materials have to have these? When was it started? Was it originally just for oil, and gas tankers?
There are 9 classes of hazardous materials.
Class 1 is Explosives
Class 2 is Gases
Class 3 is Flammable liquids
Class 4 is Flammable solids
Class 5 is Oxidizers
Class 6 is Poisons
Class 7 is Radioactive materials
Class 8 is Corrosives
Class 9 is Miscellanious/Other excepted materials (OEM)
If you email me offline, I will email you detailed information on the subclasses and color placards.
Ira
I do not think that is accurate for the 1950s.
James, I suggest you look around at the DOT’s website and see what you can find, although I doubt that they will have information about the old placard system.
You might try looking throught the Code of Federal Regulations that deals with the transportation of hazardous materials and try to determine from that what the placard requirements were in the 1950s.