A good rough guess. The specific gravity at standard temp. is 2.9; if you take a pint of water as being one pound, a gallon of bromine weighs 8 x 2.9, or 23.2 pounds. It flows quite easily, having a viscosity of 0.34 centistokes (distilled water has a viscosity of slightly over 1 centistoke) at standard temp. http://www.csgnetwork.com/sgvisc.html
I did, here.
Under Chemical and Physical Properties, in with a lot of other info, is “WT/GAL= 25.7 LB.”
5/26/11
Ed–
I’ve worked in the chemical business for years. We used bromine in drug preparation (antihistamine). Dow chemical was the main producer. It, along with another halogen, chlorine, are manufactured by processing brine from wells. Both are strong oxidizers and must be isolated from fuels. Bromine has a specific gravity about three timed heavier than chlorine thus the cars are much smaller and lower to the ground.
I use to watch both of them come out of the Dow plant in Ludington, MI. It was strange watching the larger chlorine tank cars followed by a tiny bromine car.
I have been trying to find an HO gauge bromine car but have failed to find it. I also use the Trainz game from Auran and have not found it there either. If I knew how to prepare rail cars on the Trainz game, I would do it for the many users of the game.
Hope that helps.
Walt
Could be chlorine cylinders or phosgene cylinders. Both are highly toxic.
Hope that helps.
Walt
Ed; ~~~ some years back there was flat cars with cylinders in a rack. They were painted black , the ends were silver paint . I don’t recall the contents. The cars and cylinders have vanished , do you know why?
Respectfully, Cannonball
Sounds like chlorine tanks to me. I remember seeing them occasionally on the IHB.
Uh, no. Read this thread, Clorine is shipped as a liquid under pressure, much like LP gas or guess what, bromine.
Pressurized cylinders, silver and black? Helium.
Paul The commute to work may be part of the daily grind, but I get two train rides a day out of it.
05/26/11
Years ago, I worked at a chemical plant in Ludington, MI. Dow Chemical had a plant below the hill from our facility. We used to watch the switch engine go down the hill and retrieve chlorine and bromine cars from Dow. It was a sight to watch the switch engine struggle up hill with the heavy load. The bromine car always looked so short and small compared to the chlorine cars. However, the bromine car even looked smaller and shorter than the one in the photo. The wheels looked mammoth compared to the tank. It was a strange sight.
Walt
Hmm. The helium that I handled came in aluminum, steel, or stainless steel cylinders painted brown around the top. Perhaps there was an official change between the sightings and my handling (grades 5.0, 5.5, and 6.0) which began in 1998 and continued through 2006.
Those small cylindrical containers, a single row of about eight of them, laid transverse to the length of the car, were definitely for chlorine or sulfur dioxide. I used to see those cars from time to time–they had a special AAR Mechanical Designation, TMU, before everything was converted to just “T”. The reaction I’d hear most often: “That’s a tank car?” Yup! The last ones were used by companies like Pennsalt (or Pennwalt) and Jones Chemicals, in the 1970s.
I’d seen the helium cars, too–those cylinders were skinnier, longer, and placed longitudinally on much taller cars.
Link to a photo (not mine) of a flat car - can’t discern any reporting marks, unfortunately - with about 15 transverse bluish-colored tanks/ cylinders - the caption says they’re chlorine:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=68667
Link to a pretty good photo (again, not mine) of a helium car - MHAX 1118 (darned odd place to paint the reporting marks, too!). Some of you might want to puzzle over the comment in the Description about its “Lt Wt”:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2468521
Link to the results of my search on that website for “helium” cars:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/srchThumbs.aspx?srch=helium&search=Search
Interesting captions/ comments/ builder’s data and good views on these 2 also (Pantex is where nuclear weapons were assembled):
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=894549
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1450973
UTLX 12867 Sulphuric Acid tank car: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2377479
Sulcom, Inc. ITDX 135212 Molten Sulphur Tank car: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1542618
Maybe more later, if I can find anything else interesting and relevant to this thread.
- Paul North.
Regardless of the appearance, Paul, that is a tank car of the type I was describing–“TMU”. I was wrong about the number of containers on those puppies…bad memory! I should have looked at an Equipment Register. Each of those 15 containers held one ton of chlorine. (In 1982, Jones Chemicals still had one of these cars, and Pennwalt had three.) They were specification DOT-106A-500.
The light weight–232800 pounds–has to include all of those cylinders, and perhaps some sort of pumping or refrigeration equipment on the cars. I’m more interested in the load limit, which appears to be only a four-digit number! The Equipment Register didn’t give a capacity for these cars, beyond saying that they held some six-figure-number cubic feet of helium at 14.7 PSI.
All,
The original car was carrying Bromine, that is elemental Bromine, not a salt. Bromine is one of the “halogen” group. Chlorine is the more common halogen. Bromine is very heavy and has lower vapor pressure than chlorine. Both are very reactive in their elemental state. Both travel in 105A300W or 500W single unit tank cars.
TMU or Ton Multiple Unit are tank cars. Paul’s first photo of 5/27 is typical flat car carrying 15, I did count, TANK CARS. Carl’s identification as Class DOT 106 is correct. I think there is also a class 110 that looks the same but my books are burried and I am too lazy to dig them out.
Class 106 and 110 are authorized for Chlorine, several poison gases, and a few other “bad guys”. The “ton” part of the name comes from the fact that they hold a ton of Chlorine. They have fusible plug safety devices and are hydrotested in a water jacket in the same way high pressure cylinders are, but they are tank cars by definition.
I have not seen any TMUs on the railroad since the 1970’s, which proves nothing. I suspect there are a lot of them still around as they are a handy size for mid sized water treatment plants. They would be moving by truck, of course, today.
Mac McCulloch - Former Bureau of Explosives Inspector
With the aid of Mac’s recollection and details - yes, "Class 106A (Similar to 110A Tanks) - here’s some further info I found:
See this manufacturer’s web page for more info on the “Ton Tanks” and what they carry, etc.:
http://www.cbco.com/dotcontainers.html
From “Silhouettes of Rail Cars, Tank Trucks and Chemical Tanks” - unfortunately, none of these are depicted - in “Hazardous Materials Guide for First Responders”, page 529 (5 of 21), at:
http://home.comcast.net/~pchristou/docs/silhoutes.pdf (21 pages, 692 KB in size)
A-4 — Class 106A (Similar to 110A Tanks)
DOT 106A500X
Multiple Unit with Removable Steel Uninsulated Tanks. Each Tank equipped with Loading and Discharge Valve & Safety Valve or Vent Set for Pressure not Exceeding 375 psi. Popular Name is “Ton Container”.
FWIW, bromine and mercury are the only two elements to be liquids at room temperature (though gallium melts around 84F and a eutectic mixture of sodium and potassium is liquid at room temperature). You are correct in that bromine has a lower vapor pressure than chlorine, since bromine exists as a liquid, the vapor pressure must be less than 1 atmosphere.
While bromine is reactive in its elemental state, it is less reactive than chlorine, which is less reactive than fluorine. Bromine is more reactive than iodine.
- Erik