I was watching some switching today in Neenah, Wi and noticed that there was a huge cut of tankers for the local paper industries. This is pretty much normal. Upon a closer look, a whole bunch of them had their orginal reporting marks “whited out” and replaced with KMNX (example car: KMNX 71040. The cars I seen were in the 69000-71000 series). The numbers were not affected. I am guessing that these cars orignally were UTLX. There was some JM Huber, old englehard tanks and just plain white colored tanks. These tanks carried clay slurry for the paper mills.
What is KMNX. Why would a major tank leasing firm release these cars or sell them? Just the basic questions.
KMNX is KaMin, L.L.C. This is a Georgia-based kaolin company, probably a successor to at least some of the J. M. Huber Corporation’s operations. The tank cars are, in fact, ex-JMHX.
As to the other part of your question, it does happen on occasion. The JMHX (now KMNX) 69000-series tank cars were originally UTLX, I believe. That doesn’t mean that Union Tank Car Company sold them to J. M. Huber. In fact, they’re likely still owned by Union Tank. They were probably leased to J. M. Huber when built as UTLX cars, then some sort of financing or other economic benefit to one company or the other dictated that it would be more advantageous to reletter them. So they did. This is by no means an isolated incident.
I see a LOT of tank cars, here in Shelby, MT. Most of them are to/from Canada on our BNSF ‘Sweetgrass Sub’. Some are stenciled “Ammonia Anhydrous”, “Liquified Petroleum Gas”, etc., and are placarded. Most, now, don’t give an indication of the contents, other than the random (?) placard numbers. Wouldn’t it help “First Responders” if the placards included the contents? What if a fireman didn’t have/couldn’t find a list of the DOT HAZMAT numbers? How 'bout a reversable placard that showed “Empty”, especially for “Hot” cars, and other non-lethal empties. Most of the “Corn Sweetener” tanks are conspicuiously labeled, but leakage might attract deadly wasps and bees…
I was stopped at a crossing the other night and watched the train pass. Numerous tank cars in the train with a smattering of other merchandise car types. Most of the tank cars had their weight statistics stated both in pounds and kilograms…since when have the weights been stated in kilograms on US equipment? I did not see the weights stated in kilograms on the non-tank cars.
Up until about a year ago, a major tank car builder was my largest account. I was in their plant 2-3 times weekly and we provided the decals for all cars.
What you have to remember about “US Equipment” is the tank cars often move internationally (NAFDA). All LD LMT/LT WT decals I provided had both pounds and kg designations.
The CN (ex GTW) runs thru town and there are a few of their trains, particularly 396 and 398 which have heavy originations from the petrochemical industries in Louisianna and Texas. These trains are destined for Toronto, so the KG weights are needed.
A.S., in the previous post, we get a lot of tank car traffic. Many of the cars belong to “PROCOR”, a huge Canadian outfit. Many belong to BNSF, bringing Diesel fuel in. All have capacities labeled in English and metric values. Living so close to the border, and having been stationed in Europe, plus visiting Canada a lot, one gets used to it. Of course, I don’t drive 110 mph in a 110 kph zone in Alberta, at least not very often. My Mustang GT hates me! As long as we don’t adopt the silly Celsius scale for temperatures, I have no complaints.
I’ve noticed the dual weight markings on tank cars as well. I suspect, as does Valpo Ed, that the cars that carry these markings are those used primarily in international service, probably carrying such commodities as chlorine, sulfuric acid, molten sulfur, anhydrous ammonia, and liquefied petroleum gas. These are the commodities that I often see on trains carrying cars that have come from, or will eventually go to, Canada. I will pay a little better attention to tanks to see whether the distinction in lettering practices is by commodity, common to hazmat only, or whatever. This may take a couple of weeks.
Notice that the volume (shown on the ends of the cars) is also stated in both gallons and liters–and, sometimes, in Imperial gallons–on these cars.
A firefighter should have a copy of the Emergency Response Guidebook. The number on the placard will tell the contents or give a general class for them. Empty haz-mat cars used to have residue placards.
