Yesterday afternoon, a tank car carrying animal fat leaked it’s contents along a stretch of track between Elmhurst, and Lombard Illinois on the UP Geneva sub. It shut down METRA as well as freight traffic for a couple of hours while crews worked to clean the mess up. The substance was all over a couple of crossings causing a couple of minor traffic accidents as well. Wow, what a mess! According to the news, the whole area smelled like cooking oil. From Channel 7’s video footage, it looked like “oil dry” was spread about the places where it spilled on the road. The news story did not indicate the size of the tank car that leaked.
What other tank car commodity (besides hazardous chemicals, we all know the mess with those is a given) would you not want to see leak all over the place?
I would have to say, a car load of Corn Syrup leaking all over, would be alot less fun to clean up than the animal fat…
I was in Elmhurst yesterday watching the trains go by while eating lunch. I had my scanner with me and I left Elmhust @2:15pm after Metra scoot #50 went by. I went west on St Charles Rd and left the scanner on. As I approached Grace St. in Lombard I heard somebody come on the radio and say something about being stopped just east of Grace St. I could see the end of the freight that was stopped on main track #2. There was another radio call about something being ripped open and leaking. At the time there was no indication as to what or how bad it was. The final radio call that I heard as I continued west through Lombard were instructions to make an attempt to get the freight to Proviso Yard 9 and have the tank car inspected immediately. I guess they didn’t make it. Watching some video from local TV station CLTV I saw that Metra #50 made an extended stop at Elmhurst for inspection. Westbound Metra scoot #35 running a bit late didn’t seen to have any issues wit the disabled freight and was able to get by the incident at @2:30. I ended up pacing the scoot through the S curves between Glen Ellyn and College Ave. Also, according to the CLTV news report, Metra service was shut down for about two hours affecting afternoon express trains and there were delays up to an hour and a half after service was restored. Sand was poured on the areas where the car was leaking.
I have no idea which train had the leaking car, nor have I heard what may have caused the problem. The leak apparently began in Lombard, perhaps near the Metra station. Elizabeth Street crossing was uncontaminated, but Grace Street had the Oli-Dri or gravel spread over it–as did every other grade crossing between there and Proviso. (By the way, Chris, that doesn’t mean they “didn’t make it”–quite the contrary, though some people who have to smell that stuff may thing they shouldn’t have!)
Your typical tank car for such commodities has a capacity of 26,000 or 27,000 gallons, give or take.
Corn syrup might be stickier, but it also wouldn’t unload as quickly (and there wouldn’t be as much–about 19,000 gallons). I’m just assuming that the problem was with valves or discharge piping beneath the car, which, if true, would eliminate acids, ammonia, chlorine, LP gas, etc., from things to which the accident happened. Probably the most dangerous thing to which a valve problem like this could happen would be ethanol, or gasoline. Fuel oil and vegetable oils would be other possibilities.
The track was smelling pretty ripe through Lombard; I can’t imagine what it would be like in Villa Park where they stopped the train. I hope they do something to get rid of the stuff; I can’t imagine that this would be good for the roadbed, either.
I don’t know much about trains, but I live just north of the UP tracks in Elmhurst.
I arrived home about 3pm Friday and the train had passed into the Proviso yard direction by then. Apparently the train had stopped for a while with the leaker 1-1/2 blocks east of York St. The fat had apparently leaked down off the embankment and pooled in a commuter parking strip along First St. across from the 7-11 store. A fire engine, a city dump truck loaded with sand, several city workers and several police cars were there, and the street was closed for an hour or so.
About 8 pm, a large vacuum truck was escorted to the site by UP trucks, and some more cleanup was done for about an hour.
The railbed on the north track all through Elmhurst shows a darker color as a result of the leak. And with the winds coming form the south for the past few days, the odor has been noticeable for about half a block to the north all along the track. The smell reminds me of White Castle (I’m not a WC fan).
Does anyone know what this type of fat is? Where is coming from and going to, and for what uses? Would be interesting to understand. I often, while standing at one of the Elmhurst grade crossings waiting for a freight to pass by, wonder what varieties of stuff is behind the steel walls of the passing railcars.
Besides lending flavor to White Castle fries, the grease or tallow is often used in soapmaking (you’d be surprised how much Procter and Gamble gets, for example), and probably has other chemical uses. It comes from meat processing plants to the west–probably primarily Sioux City and Council Bluffs, Iowa, and a number of places in Nebraska (including a plant in Schuyler that seems to spill a bit on the wheels every so often).
Hope to see you around Elmhurst sometime. I’ll be the one with the bike and the nose plugs…
As pointed out, it is animal fat (tallow) from rendering plants and packing houses. The cars are usually stenciled on the ends “edible tallow”, “technical tallow” or “inedible tallow.” The ones I have seen on the UP west line are leased to Darling and Company and some of them carry a company logo.
Another exotic cargo that travels in tank cars is fish entrails, used in making dog food.
As pointed out, it is animal fat (tallow) from rendering plants and packing houses. The cars are usually stenciled on the ends “edible tallow”, “technical tallow” or “inedible tallow.” The ones I have seen on the UP west line are leased to Darling and Company and some of them carry a company logo.
Another exotic cargo that travels in tank cars is fish entrails, used in making dog food.
Just a quick FYI… My point of view for the reference, “didn’t make it” was that the freight that was leaking was trying to get to Proviso Yard 9 before the leak got any worse than it did. Based on a few descriptions it sounds like it was a big mess before they could get the train into the yard. Sorry about any confusion.
During the War, my mother would save the cooking fat in large tin cans–the kind orange juice used to come in. Every so often a truck would come by and pick it up along with that of our neighbors up and down the street. We were doing our patriotic duty. I suppose they extracted the glycerin from it.