I was driving home from Bloomington IN, to Indianapolis IN last night and in about dead downtown Indy, I saw a train on CSX’s main. The second to last car on the train was a tanker. In about the center of the tanker car was a pipe that went down about 6 inches above the rails. There was a mist being strongly shot from this pipe as the train went through at about 30mph.
I had never seen anything like this before, and I was tempted to call the CSX dispatcher on my cell phone. I figured if it were normal, they would know and not take action. But, I decided not to, because I didn’t want to be a pest rail fan trying to play hero that ends up just being a pain.
I haven’t heard any bad news about a spill as of yet, so I suppose I made the right decision? What do you think?
Well not only you others must have seen & smelled also & took the same action as you! If no heads up anywhere to get of town/home I guess all is well. Yes? [:)][:D]
BTW look up your Missouri-Illinois thread I found some info in the Trains magazine & posted it for you [:o)][:D][:p]
I would have called. It’s not normal for leak anything.
I’ve called in before. The last car on a westbound train had very flat wheels. I was able to get thru to the dispatcher who called the train for an inspection of the car.
Bottom line being, you never know what kind, if any, hazardous material is being carried in this car.
Back in the dark ages, about 1976, well before cell phones were common I was driving along WI Hwy. 10 and along the old SOO Line main between Stevens Point and Marshfield and was pacing a frieight at about 50 per. I quickly noticed a journal box was smoking and suddenly I saw flames. I raced ahead and tried to flag the locomtive crew with no results, and the same when I pulled back and tried to alert the conductor in the caboose (remember them?). I ended up racing far ahead to the division point offices in Stevens Point and into the office where I alterted an office employee who seemed not to care. He thanked me and I went on my way knowing I had done all I could to help avert a disaster. P.S.: Later that afternoon I saw the units at the fuel racks and so guessed all had turned out OK. But we should all try our best to be good citizens whenever possible.
I did not see any hazmat signs, which contributed to my decision. But, I wonder if all cars are marked with hazmat signs now days?
I am surprised everyone is leaning so strongly toward calling. I would think most railroads would have to think if every rail fan called when they thought something was wrong, it would be a real pain. I even thought that some on here would criticize me for even thinking of calling it in.
Actually a story very very very similar to yours is what led me not to call. I remember reading in Trains that there was a rail fan looking at the SOO ling and noticed a hot box or something like that. He unsuccessfully tried to flag the train down, but the train wouldn’t stop. So he lit a flare on the tracks, and the train dutifully came to a stop. As it turns out the rail fan was wrong, and people were none too happy.
Just a few weeks back I was fanning the BNSF and saw a hotbox smoking like crazy. I jumped in the truck to race ahead and possibly tell the crew (though I don’t know what I would have done. Then the detector caught it. At this point I thought I might be able to help out and give the conductor a ride back (it was one of the last cars of a long intermodial). But instead of stopping it just slowed to a crawl and kept going. So I turned around and went back to my spot.
I’ve never called in regarding a moving train. Not sure how to identify “very flat wheels”. I’ve heard the steady pounding of flat spots on wheels from time to time, but never considered it to be an immediate hazard (except to your ears!)
Gabe…
There are several cars that “leak” on purpose…
Argon cars have a vent valve that vents to the atmosphere…when you shake the tank up and it has been filled to the capacity, it will vent the over pressure…
and they can vent at the weirdest time!
Or you might have seen the steam line from a food or tallow service car, maybe a sulfur car…they use steam to heat the product…these pipes extend down from the center of the tank, and have no caps on them…sometimes the steam condenses inside the pipes, and when you move the car, the water sprays out like a fog!
By the same token, a lot of cars have lading drains on the bottom also…most (not all) of the hazmat cars dont, they have all the plumbing on top, under a manway or inspection dome, to prevent damage in case of a derailment.
But, to follow up on Zardoz’s suggestion,when in doubt, take the safest route…
Next time, get the car number and call.
The worst than can happen is they ignore you.
The best is that you save a crew and a shipper a lot of grief!
Roadmasters consider it an imediate hazzard, especially if the car is a load and it is nicking the rail…every track inspector in the company will be tracing the route of that car looking for damaged rail. With those, it does not take much to start a series of broken rails,
Chad, the old universal signal for a hot box is (1) white flag, (2) one hand holding nose and the other pointing at the defect. The old heads will stop and look, the young pups will either laugh at you or get confused about the odd hand signal. All they know now is that those HBD’s every 20 miles can sure make life miserable.
One of the trains on Union Pacific’s coastline does not have any hazardous signs on it. It’s the loaded oil cans that travels from Wunpost, north of San Luis Obispo, to the Shell oil refinery at Sepluveda and Alameda in Los Angeles.
Last time I saw it (January) each car was placarded. The same was true when I saw it in 2000. The refinery is Tosco (ConocoPhillips) now. The Shell refinery is now what used to be the Texaco refinery.