As you watch that mixed manifest roll by, you can’t help but to read the contents of tank cars. I’m just curious to know what are the scariest, most dangerous, diabolical, or “unpronounceable” contents you have ever seen in these “hotdogs” on wheels?
Mine are:
5.) Hydrogen Peroxide (Not your brown bottle stuff! Trust me!)
4.) Molten Sulfur (The stench would be unbearable.)
3.) Liquified Petroleum Gas (Does it really need an explanation?)
2.) Hexachlorocyclopentadiene (Don’t know what it is, but I bit my tongue trying to say it.)
1.) Liquified Propane Gas (The other LPG. This stuff just rides and hangs along the ground until it reaches an ignition source…then…"WHOOM!!..Top story on the six o’clock news.)
I guess I should have titled this: “The scariest, most dangerous, diabolical, or unpronouncable contents you’ve seen in a tank car” but that would be too long. [:D]
When I worked the hump we would see just about ever tank you can imagine.Youd see ones like you said ( how do you pronounce that and what will it do if it leaks?)sail over the hump and then a few seonds later “Kerbang”.We always had those graveyard shift attitudesof" well if it ruptures and doesnt kill us at least we get an early quit"
I look at it this way…with the exception of some food products, if it is in a tank car, it needs to stay in the tank car because it probaly explodes, is a pollutant or is caustic, sometimes all three at once.
Although you can have fun with the argon tanks, and the carbon dioxide tanks when they vent right as they hit a grade crossing!
Not in the mix today, something quite prevelant in years gone by, is gasoline!
But I will point out that I much rather see those placards on railroad tank cars than the truck in front of me or behind me or next to me on the Interstate!
I think the scariest-looking stuff as it undergoes transport is ethylene. Those cryogenic tank cars require special handling, without being detached from power. And wasn’t it loads of ethylene that took out N&W’s Decatur yard in the 1970s?
Ed’s hydrocyanic acid is something that isn’t seen around here, thankfully.
We still see a few loads of gasoline from time to time.
Ed, the carbon dioxide still works on less-knowledgeable railroad employees, too! [;)]
But basically, we handle all hazardous-material cars the way we’re supposed to. And we haven’t had a tank-car mishap in our yard in at least 37 years (we lit up the sky one night with spillover from a load of phosphorus). There’s no reason for panic if everyone does his/her job.
Decatur in the 1970’s was LPG, I do not remember whether it was propane or butane. Some switch forman got PO’ed about something and kicked a cut way too hard punctured the head of one of them which dropped the whole 30,000 gallons of liquid which vaporized into 280 volumes of vapor which found an ignition source.
We had a “thermos bottle” one of them glass lined jobs that was MTY on the hump, now we all know they dont get humped. Well as we were asking for permission to pulle back off the hump and set it out we get" Send it its an MTY" You sure about that hump??? 'Yeah positive let it go!“Okie dokie soon as it hit the throat I hear " Whoa crap” over the intercom he just realized what that car was and its out of the retarders" hehehehe it was funny. Didnt damage anything but still it was funny.
Had an old head say that they dumped some cars one night and knew right away they had their tanks involved.Big Pwooof and a fireball.Ahh the good old days before shelf couplers.
How about cyanide? NS handles them ocassionally- always the last car in the train, always stored on an otherwise empty track, shipped in a white tanker with a wide red stripe around its’ girth.
Chlorine and Anhydrous Ammonia are no fun either. They may not explode, but you certainly don’t want to inhale them. Chlorine gas is quite a bit heavier than air so will tend to stay at ground level where you are.
In Canada a fluke prevented what would possibly have been a massive tragedy in 1979. A derailment in Mississauga, a heavily populated suburb of Toronto, Ontario, resulted (among other problems) in a punctured chlorine tankcar. Three LPG tankcars BLEVE’d and others, plus Styrene and Toluene tankcars were on fire preventing any close approach for a couple of days. About 218,000 people had to be evacuated, some for nearly a week. Probably the saving miracle here was the LPG, where either the BLEVEs or the fires created enough updraft to pull most of the chlorine several thousand feet into the air.
The derailment was caused by a hotbox on a friction bearing car, and probably speeded up the move to shelf couplers and the like on cars carrying hazardous goods. An ironic twist is that marshalling rules in Canada were subsequently revised to prohibit placing chlorine cars next to LPG cars. Although in this case the fires prevented any close approach to the punctured chlorine car, so nothing could be done about it, the possible alternative is unthinkable.
Always fun to have available - the “Orange Book”, officially known as the Emergency Response Guidebook, or ERG. Tells you everything you need to know about how to handle the first 10 minutes of a hazmat emergency. Like how far to run and in which direction.
In hazmat training, however, we frequently dispense with such official names as have been presented here, referring instead to “methyl ethyl awful” and “methyl ethyl death.”
Acrylonotrile is extremly nsaty stuff. Flammable liquid, poison and will explode. Reacts with just about anything that it comes in contact with. If it burns it releases hydrogen cyanide and oxide of nitrogen funes. Would not want to be around if that stuff started to leak.
I agree with Carl. Ethylene is the nastiest stuff that comes through the yard. Or maybe the Anhyrdious (sp) Ammonia cars. [xx(] [|)] I haven’t seen a Chlorine car is ages. Thank goodness. [angel]
The CO2 cars are fun. Especially with the new guys. [}:)]
It seems that the manufacture of modern conveniences that we enjoy entails the use of all sorts of compounds that we want to avoid. Take computer chips, for example. Their manufacture requires the use of arsenic (as arsine), phosphorus (as phosphine), hydrofluoric acid (bone eater), sulfuric acid, silane (crack the valve on a tank of silane, and you get a fire immediately), and a few other chemicals that you would prefer not dealing with without good protection.
Here is an extract from the official report into a derailment in Britain in 1975, which details some of the special procedures then in force for the hydrocyanic acid (HCN) traffic between ICI plants at Grangemouth and Haverton Hill:
"When acid tank wagons are included in freight trains they travel as a group, including two barrier wagons at each end, in the ‘fitted head’. A maximum of five tank wagons are permitted loaded or unladen. It was also agreed that services between Haverton Hill and Millerhill Yard should include a number of wagons, the minimum length of which provided 15 ‘Standard Length Units’ (15 standard wagons) between the rearmost tank wagon and the brake van. Although the trains are fully fitted it was decided to provide brake vans in rear so that the guard could protect the lines in rear in case of an accident.Instructions wer
Acrylonotrile is used in the manufacture of plastics, synthetic rubber, acrylic fibers and pesticides… ff it contacts strong oxydizers, acids, allyli or amines it undergo an explosive polymerization. Contact with the skin witll cause reddening and blistering. As stated above if it catches fire it will release hydrogen cyanide and oxides of nitrogen funes. It is a know n carcer causing chemicl I consider this more dangerous then ethylene??
The most dangerous substance shipped in tank cars today is corn syrup. It is responsible for the expansion of many of the waist lines in America.[(-D]
Seriously, I believe any of the substances named that do not dissipate in the atmosphere but stay close to the ground would be the most dangerous. Even CO2 is deadly in certain concentrations.
From my experiences, I think there may be a misunderstanding about sulfur. I have been by molten sulfur tankcars and piles of sulfur. I have also applied 90% sulfur to vegetation. I have not noticed a stench. There is a slight smell and I doubt that there will ever be a sulfur scented perfume, but the smell is not near as bad as some people seem to think. I think you may be confusing sulfur with hydrogen sulfide.
True, demand is down, but that’s not the only reason production of tank cars is down right now. I can’t and don’t want to give a whole lot away just yet, but there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes regarding improving tank car safety and hazmat shipping by rail altogether. Frankly, the downturn in traffic has given the industry a little breathing room to conduct studies by extending the useful life of existing tank cars through storage.
Check out the Technology Column in the January issue. I’ll have more details in there.
Carbon dioxide doesn’t scare me. Mix it with corn syrup and cocaine and you get “Coca-Cola”. Very dangerous!!! Just go to Wal-Mart and see the rusults!
I am very wary of anhydrous ammonia. I got overcome by it, once, while planting barley with an air seeder. Very scary, indeed. If we have an “incident” here, I’ll head for the hills! Past haste!