Hey guys,
How were hazmat items, such as welding gas/torch gas, 55 gallon oil drums shipped via rail in the 50s? I have a few businesses trackside (gasoline, service/auto repair station) on my PRR branchline that require the above items in small qtys from time to time.
Thanks as always! ----Rob
Hazmat was not around in the 50’s these shipments would have gone to the local dealer. A small town garage would have had to go a local dealer even if that meant the next town over or a 30 to 50 mile drive if the dealer did not deliver.
Hazmat as we understand it today didnt exist in the 50’s… have a drum of BOOM? Good it will go to somebody somewhere along that railroad.
People back in those days were made of sterner stuff and accepted dangerous materials as part of living and in some cases part of warfighting.
I recall some recent hazmat loads ive hauled and frankly the sun is up, over and gone by the time the fussing over the containers, pallets, paperwork placcarding etc etc etc etc… was finished.
In those 50’s days they would have just thumped the stuff into the boxcar and was gone by lunch time.
But there were rules about handling dangerous materials, and special procedures. IIRC, during World War II, cars carrying explosives were marked and given special handling. Tank cars carrying flammable substances had to be separated from both the caboose and the locomotive.
I for one would be interested in finding out just what rules governed hazardous materials during the late steam era, including what markings, if any, needed to be applied to both freight cars and containers such as drums and tanks.
It would seem to me that the small quantities used by a service station would be shipped from distributors by local truck rather than by rail. I could see bulk oil depot receiving tank cars of oil from refineries and shipping drums and smaller quantities to service stations and repair shops. If the station was affiliated with a national chain, packaged quantities would be handled through their own distribution system.
I would imagine welding gasses would be obtained from dealers in industrial gasses.
I remember reading that the C&A shops in Bloomington, Illinois received chemical cakes that, when dissolved in water, generated acetyline gas, and that the gas was piped from a central location to those placed where it was used by the shopmen.
My grandfather owned a fuel oil distributor in California in the 50’s. My father says they regularly received boxcars with propane cylinders and 55 gallon oil drums. The boxcars went back with the empties. This was a distributor which supplied gasoline, kerosene and fuel oil to the various service stations and businesses in the area. The propane cylinders were largely sold to residents for cooking.
I managed to buy a mack tanker just for that purpose in my railroad town’s depot. Keep in mind also that coal dealers were doing brisk business as well.
I too am interested in hazmat stuff during the steam era as well. I would like to learn so it can be done right… even if it was a boxcar of something.
Hi, is is my understanding that in the 1950’s that when “dangerous” cargo was being shipped through cities and towns via the highway by truck that about the only percaution was shipping the item at night and in some cases with an escort of sorts - pilot vehicles before and after the carrier vehicle. If the items were being shipped by rail there were on odd occassions special trains for the item (i.e dynamite)
There was no such thing as Hazmat, back in the day. The only thing I recall were red FLAMABLE placards on tank cars, and they had to be separated from the engine and caboose.
The common placards were FLAMMABLE, COMBUSTIBLE, CORROSIVE, and DANGEROUS. The difference between Flammable and Combustible was the flash point of the liquid - I’m not sure, but Flammable had a flash point below 100F (gasoline, for instance) and Combustible was 100F to 140F (diesel,#2 fuel oil). Corrosive was any acids or strong caustic materials. Dangerous indicated a mixed cargo containing a number of hazardous materials in different classes. There was also EXPLOSIVE. At that timeframe, there was little or no emphasis on what the actual chemical was. There was no Chemtrec or Poison Control Center to call if there was an accident.
Heck, I recall reading about when they started hauling yellowcake in the 40’s out of the San Juans of Colorado on the narrow gauge Rio Grande Southern.
For those unfamiliar, yellowcake is concerntrated uranium oxide.
Yellowcake was shipped in standard wooden 30’ D&RGW 3000-series boxcars. The only “special” treatment it got was armed guards on the trains and a government automobile escort.
The yellowcake eventually made it to Oak Ridge where it was refined into weapons-grade U235. Later, in August 1945, Rio Grande Southern personel found out what that yellowcake had been used for when news of Hiroshima made it back to the States.
I wonder how much yellowcake dust was inhaled as these guys loaded the boxcars.
I remember even in the early sixties finding dynamite sticks under some ties where an old rail line had been abandoned due to erosion along a riverbank.
I left them alone and authorities were contacted.
But it shows the relative difference in handling such materials then and now.