If I saw this at a crossing I dont know if I’d experience a serious pucker action ripping the seat covering off my carseat or just simply loose all bowel control for fear of becoming a human BBQ if it somehow backflowed into the tank.[:0]
Optically deluded??[:-,][:-,]
HEY NO FAIR
I just figured it out, Wilmington…very funny Chad!
Actually Evanston, Wy but I know what you mean.
Certainly warrants a double-take.
Mike
ok - I am clueless in Lincoln. Someone want to “enlighten” me?
The fire is comming out of a refinery smokestack behind the tank cars. It’s a bit of trick photography.[swg]
Well Duh Me! I looked at the dark sky, saw the small flare, figured static electricity and well…
But - in my defense, dark clouds and refineries are scarce around this town!
Muffie the blonde…
[}:)] Good. That means my trickery worked. Muuahahaha[}:)]
You’re sure that isn’t a GE unit around the curve up ahead…
[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Oh wow, I can certainly see why initially that would have been a Malox moment!
What’s just as fun is to have you engineer stop, a little more hard than normal, with a argon tankcar right on a crossing…
Argon is a harmless gas that has to be kept cold, very, very cold to keep it a liquid, so the tank cars have refrigeration units on them, this stuff is well below 0 Fahrenheit.
When shaken, the liquid expands fast into a gas, so the car has a vent that blows the exhaust downward to keep the pressure from inside the tank exceeding the tanks tolerance limits.
It makes a huge whooshing sound, and you get this neat solid white blast of vapor slamming down into the ground, then disappearing.
Did this once by accident, and almost hurt myself laughing when the people at the crossing tried to back away from this tankcar that was “exploding” right in front of them…
But nice shot there Chad…I had to enlarge it to see the stack!
Ed
Interesting. I have never seen an AC unit on a tank car. Where is te unit located on the car? Underneath or on one end? Could you expand?
He could expand, but not nearly as fast as the gas!
Usually they’re underslung on one side of the car; the units have an exhaust pipe that goes up the side or end to the top of the car. I’ve seen some ethylene tanks with refrigeration units, but have never heard one running.
Carbon dioxide will occasionally vent like that, too–in fact, many tank cars for that stuff have lettering on the side to reassure folks that “venting is normal”.
In the days before we had lots of special handling for hazmat cars, I had a tank car of elemental phosphorus hit the car ahead of it a little hard (both were still rolling). Phosphorus is one of those things that is transported in water because it ignites when exposed to air. Well, we had a bit of a fireball go down into the track, but only the stuff that had come through the vent was involved, and it burned itself out in less than a minute. Caused a little panic (and I can still remember what music my radio was playing when it happened!).
Well don’t hold back Carl, what song was it?
Carl,
I’ve been near a CO2 tank car when it released through the exhaust valve but never the phosphorus (though I see them now and again).
The only time I’ve seen gas from an exhaust catch on fire was during a college prank.[:D]
Mike
Yeah, Carl…give it up!
Ed
I’m going to take a WILD guess as to Carl’s song,and say:
“Come On Baby Light My Fire” !!![:D][}:)]