Rail Cars

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Permalink Reply by Shawn McKERRY on October 23, 2008 at 11:47pm

I have no idea on what is traveling in our trains here, my district in home for one of the major cross Canada tracks, lucky everything has to be placarded and some chemicals have to have have there name stenciled on the cars. But then again if you can see them for identification during a hazmat incident may be another story. I believe there can be 50% of a trains cargo can be hazmats, atleast where i am at... CN Rail here in Canada has 1000 to 1500 derailments a year, but take in account a single wheel coming off the track in a rail yard is considered a derailment, Compared to these 1000-1500 derailments, they on have on average 10 incidents that involve a release of a hazmat...

So the question then is how can we prepare for the unknown, just stay up to date on our practices and our techniques and just be ready of an incident, everyone knows it is not if it happens, it is when. Us here with my county fire service will likely never really get involved, our priority is life safety so we will evac and then stage to assist at limits the CN Dangerous Goods Staff and contracted hazardous material clean up workers.

The pictures I have attached are from a derailment in Payton Saskatchewan Canada, the Black railcars were carrying a resin , I can't remember the specific name. The White cars were carrying 70% Hydrogen Peroxide.... it released, if your not aware 70% concentrations of Hydrogen Peroxide changes to Hydrogen and 02, the problem is... it does this at an immense rate generating a exothermic reaction bursting any organic material into flames... really neat stuff.. the coolest part in my mind is that after the leek and the reaction takes place, there is no traces of the material just 02 and Hydrogen... kinda neat. I was on scene at this derailment and took part in chemical transfers of the Hydrogen Peroxide and the Resin..

Attachments:

• DSC01960.JPG, 3 MB
• DSC01962.JPG, 3 MB
• DSC02160.JPG, 2.8 MB

Permalink Reply by Leslie Pederson on October 29, 2008 at 1:54pm

I worked in an oil refinery for 10 years, and one of my jobs was to load and unload railcars. In fact, I lost my pinky to a packing nut failure on the gauging rod!
Don't always trust the placards! This is usually a entry level position, and it depends on the quality of training, on whether the placards are correct or up to date before being shipped out. There is a train that travels the country, and goes to conferences and refineries for training. It is definitely worth your time, the one I saw was the BP Oil Safety Train.
The real thought on railcars is, evacuate and isolate, and let it burn if you can. Sounds nasty, but you can place unmanned monitors, and get away, far away! Every rail car has a number on it, that is correct, it is sometimes very hard to see, but it will give you all of the information on that car; who owns it, where it was built, when it was built, how much the water capacity is, and more. It can also tell you where it came from, what the last load was, and if it is empty or not. The rail company also has the information, it is just that the rail workers are trained to run away from the scene immediately, and report when they are at least a half mile away. So, that resource could be slow coming.

Permalink Reply by Todd McKee on October 29, 2008 at 8:13pm

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