I got to watch a close up parade of a BNSF unit train today. It was about a mile and a half long train of identical, covered hoppers, all in the same number series, like #495186. Seeing how this is corn, bean and ethanol country, I see about 2 of these a day, but usually from a half mile away, out my office window.
Up close, I noticed that all the cars had white stains on the top, some of the stains seeming to run down the sides a bit. If the grain is loaded down the center of the top of the car (at least I think it is, there aren’t specific, individual grain loading hatches on top are there?), and the grain is presumably dry when loaded, what is causing the white stains?
Stenciled neatly on each car is “ICE plate C”. As I recall, that’s a reference to the car meeting a certain template size for lineside and overhead clearances?
It generally takes fertilizer to grow crops - phosphates are a significant component of most fertilizers. Phosphate leaves a white stain on the cars the routinely haul to commodity, and it is hauled in unit train volumes.
I agree it is likely phosphates of some sort, but could be soybean meal, the Bloomington IL Cargill plant produces it for example, it has the consistency and color of flour, is used to make things like Hamburger Helper, and it may be produced along BNSF as well. Plate C refers to the overall dimensions of a car and what it will clear I believe.
Now that you mention fertilzer, there is an online fertilizer operation with a ballon track for unit trains about 20 miles down the way. Would phosphates and grain be hauled in the same cars, or are they usually kept segregated to the type of commodity hauled?
The car for which you gave the number has a capacity of over 5400 cubic feet, which is more typical for soybean meal than for grain (which cars usually are 5200 cubic feet or less).
I would assume that there is plenty of dust during the loading operations that would probably settle on, and perhaps adhere to, surfaces less than a given angle from the horizontal. A rain, or perhaps even a good heavy dew, would probably streak it as you describe.
Are you sure about that “ICE” above the “Plate C”? That doesn’t sound typical, nor does it show up on any of the photos I’ve seen of these cars. Plate C cars can be a little taller than Plate B cars (which don’t have any such markings on them). Plate B cars can go anywhere; Plate C can go almost anywhere.
By the way, forget about fertilizer, in this case. These are nearly new cars, built by the National Steel Car Corporation. Fertilizer is usually shipped in stuff that isn’t usually top-of-the-line any more.
We have a unit train that runs to Mosaic, (part of Cargill) filled with ammonia nitrate, they use fairly new BNSF hoppers, and most are in the red oxide color with the old BNSF Santa Fe style shield emblem on them.
They look like someone parked them under a tree full of pigeons for about a year, they are so streaked and covered in white residue it’s not funny…they smell pretty darn bad to.
First time we ran one I assumed it was a grain train, same hoppers and DP powered, all the goodies, so Murphy might be looking at a local version on one of these.
I will try and pull a car number for you, but it looks like these cars were new in service for just this train, the cars are almost completely numbered in sequence order.
Bingo! These cars had numbers that were almost in sequence. As I watched them pass, i was thinking “How many moves would it take for a switch crew to put them all in numerical order?”.
I’d venture to say grain dust. As grain falls down the chutes and into the hoppers, minuscule shavings form on the walls of that chute. Then it falls down in a powder form. Grain dust is highly explosive. This is why you see many “No Smoking” signs around elevators.
Dropped a dime on our trainmaster, asked what was in the Mosaic trains, he said depending on the train, either potash, or phosphate.
Not ammonia nitrate.
The potash train has older cars, it loads somewhere up state, Sweeny or close to it, the phosphate train comes from out of state, "up north somewhere, and it is a purpose built train with two dedicated sets of new cars, purchased just for this train.
The smelly one is the phosphate train."
Then he said “don’t bug me anymore tonight” ( really a little more graphic than that, but…[:$])and hung up.
Some peoples kids…
If we get one over the weekend, I will try and get Murphy a photo.
Amfo or Ammonia Nitrate wouuld be Placarded with an Orange Card labeled with a 1.5 Blasting Agents and also you do NOT want to get that stuff WET. Also they would not want to haul that in 15000K Trainloads because that make a LNG Propane train derailing a going off look like a fart in the wind. Remember this only 2K lbs of Amfo and Fuel oil took out the Murrah Building in OKC. Ammonia Nitrate is NOT SOMETHING TO SCREW WITH.
Now their is a Fertilizer Grade that has a chemical added to it that will make it impossible to explode but DOT and FMCSA regs still require the placard on it to ship it.
Remember the explosion at Texas City,Tx? April 16,1947. The SS Grandcamp exploded. Cargo was Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizer.
2300 tons of fertilizer on the Grandcamp, docked close by was another vessel with more Ammonium Nitrate (961 tons) and 1800 tons of sulphur. Apparently spontaneous combustion in the Grandcamp was the cause of the initial fire.
The resulting explosion reported killed about 580 to 590 people, and about 8500 folks fied suits claiming injuries and damages form the US Government.
linked here is information referencing the Fires and damages:
Sorry my ERG is from the 90’s and for the OTR side. We always carried it and labled the stuff when we hauled it dry as an Explosive since it was the Explosive grade. Looked up in my ERG the other grade is labled Oxidizer when wet and flammable at the same time in my Cira 99 ERG. That is what I have to go on.
We in the OTR side call it the Jesus Load. You are Praying to Jesus the entire time it Stays DRY and if it gets wet your going to SEE JESUS in one hell of a HURRY. Had one truck near me hauling it have an Idiot open his Manhole on one of his ak sections on a Peumatic tank load of that stuff. The only thing they found of the driver after it blew was his hands on the wheel. The rest was gone.
I’m doing this from memory. But as I remember it. Ammonium Nitrate is an oxidizer.
Explosives need to have both (chemically) an oxidizer and a flammable (something to burn) .
By the by to class a hazardous material you need the Hazardous Materials Guidebook(?). The Emergency Response Guide(ERG) tells you what to do in case of an emergency. IE you have an accident or an emergency. And what to do in an emergency, IE initial isolation distance what kind of fire extinguishing material to use. The ones to watch out for in the extinguishing column are"isolate and allow to burn".
or initial isolation distance 1 mile (ie run from it ).