The weather was good last week which gave me a chance to do some railfanning.
A typical unit coal train
A newer typer of unit train - all tank cars except for 2 cars at the front which I believe are required by operating rules. Tank cars a placarded 1987-flammable and I believe you can;t have the coupled to a locomotive.
Unit trains are in my plans of my now building layout, nothing much to show, working on equipment phase. I just have some test loops to work kinks out.
1950’s coal drags on the N&W interchanging to several other lines.
UN 1987 is various alcohols / denatured alcohol. These fall into “Placard Group 3”.
Placard Group 3, for tank cars:
When train length permits, placarded cars may not be nearer then the sixth car from the engine or occupied caboose.
When train length does not permit, placarded cars must be placed near the middle of the train, but not nearer then the second car from an engine or occupied caboose.
A placarded car may not be placed next to an open-top car when any of the lading of the open-top car protudes behond the car ends, or if the lading shifted, would protrude beyond the ar ends.
A placarded car may not be placed neext to a loaded flat car except closed TOFC/COFC equipment, auto carriers and other specially equipped cars with tie-down devices for securing vehicles. Permanent bulkhead flat cars are considered the same as open-top cars.
A placarded car may not be placed next to any transport vehicle or freight container having an internal combustion engine or an opene-flame device in operation.
Placarded cars may not be placed next to each other based on the following:
Class 3 - Cannot be placed next to Placard Group 1, Group 2, Group 4.
Also, from 49 CFR Part 174.85
(a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section, the position in a train of each loaded placarded car, transport vehicle, freight container and bulk pacakging must conform to the provisions in this section.
(b) A card placarded “RADIOACTIVE” must comply with train psoition requirements of paragraph (d) of this section and must be speerated from a locomtovie, occupied caboose, or car lo
Let’s add trash trains to the list.
Those should be in another section of HazMat… as…
“DO NOT WANT IN YOUR TRAIN”
[:-^]
We run unit coal trains that just travel over the railroad and coal drags made up from several load-outs drilled along the way.
Most loaded trains also get pushers. Coal accounts for right about 95%+ of the traffic on the section we model.
I dont know when the official designation “unit train” was invented. B&O would assemble loads of coal at Grafton and run the whole mess up to Fairport with no classification during the era i model (1948).
Trains going east to tidewater would be classified at Keyser, but would then move to the coast as one solid block. Empties returned to Keyser in the same fashion.
Does that qualify as a unit train? Or is “unit train” a designation that implies something relatively modern?
I have yet to figure out how to post pictures on this thing so just close your eyes and picture this in your head. 27-55ton coal hoppers and a caboose behind 2 ex-N&W Y3’s, all Santa Fe of course. And my favorite, 25-40’ reefers and a caboose with 2- BLI 2-10-2’s pulling and 1- BLI 2-10-2 pushing, again all Santa Fe.
Dick
Texas Chief
Unit coal drags are in the works for my B&M revival layout, which as of now is in the planning stages. I have about 9 Conrail and NS hoppers for run-through coal drags and I might add a few more CR cars. The prototype coal drags where I live run on Guilford trackage to local power plants and have seen run-through power from NS, CSX, Conrail, BNSF, UP, SP, and P&W. It gives me an excuse to purchase more modern power in the future to run along with my ex-Guilford rolling museum pieces. I’m also planning an intermodal train, and have already started building a Walthers spine car kit.
A unit train is a train that moves on a single waybill. Railroads didn’t start doing that until the 1960’s.
The 1948 solid coal trains were NOT unit trains. Each car was a separate individual shipment with its own waybill.
Dave H.
Ah, no wonder the term is associated with more modern times. Interesting Dave, thanks.
jktrains, reference your tank unit:
Ethanol! AKA Your tax dollars at work.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
