For several months, I have noticed tank cars left on a spur in town and have wondered what they were doing there. On Thursday, I found out. The truck is from Cass City Oil and Gas, located a half hour away in a town that hasn't had rail service in years.
Wow! All the axles under that trailer, good to see they used rail service most or part of the way. And another reason we should not be so eager to rip rails up anywhere. No placards on the cars that I can see must be N9 shipments.
I'm also curious about what an N9 shipment is. As far as the number of axles on the trailer, that may be partly due to the truck operating in a rural area where a lot of the roads are not good for a high axle loading, especially at times of the year when frost laws are in force. Just a guess.
N9 shipments very basically means not hazmat. Typically has no train placement restrictions. I have seen N9 shipments that were Hot. But they should have HOT placards. There is a little rust on the wheels, so these cars may have been there a few days. I see no placards on the side of the trailer either.
I was initially thinking that the commodity might be heating oil, but could also be diesel for farm use. Are those classified as HazMat?
Diesel would be placarded as combustible with the number 1993. Isn't heating oil the same? I really don't know. This is really interesting. Another thing hazmat usually has some sort of spill containment burns, I just see some 5 gal buckets.
According to Wikipedia, this is what TARGRAY produces; Products Polysilicon, Biofuels, Refined Products, Li-ion Battery Materials, Solar PV Materials, Li-ion Cells, Solar Modules, Optical Disc Materials. Could be almost anything.
Biofuel, perhaps? Customer's website says they deal in diesel, gasoline, propane and various percentages of biodiesel, which they apparently blend themselves. Interesting.
Bio diesel is made up of, vegetable oil, used cooking oil, and the like, is not classed as a hazardous material. Yes, it will burn but requires a hot flame to set it off. There is a plant near me that collects cooking oil, used waste motor oil and such. They heat it strain solids out and sell it as bio fuel. Now if they or any other plant blend that crap with petroleum diesel to enhance its properties then YES it is classified as haz-mat and would fall under 49 Code of Federal Regulations and will require 4 placards with most likely 1993 UN number. I believe the # could vary based on properties (flash point) of the finished product. Also, I think that after the tank is unloaded the placard needs to be reversed and show "Residue 1993", not empty. It has been since 1996, when I retired, that I have worked with D.O.T 49CFR regulations and some of the rules have most likely changed. Tom - that french fry oil has,for sure, killed my boyish figure. Carl
Makes sense, as the flash temps seem to determine what UN classes, these commodities occupy. But I really want to see that/tractor trailer with all the wheels engaged.
Another view of that same black tank car: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4741668
Regarding the wheels on the trailer, Michigan has a grandfathered law where trucks can have a total weight of 164,000 lbs versus the federal standard of 80,000 lbs, thus the number of wheels on the trailer. You haven't lived until you had to pass a tandem of those two trailers in Michigan. We in Toledo had to allow those trucks access to the port site and they tore up the roads, and we did not get any of the use tax for repairs. When I lived in Alaska, the other Petroleum Wholesaler for Quaker State Products used to receive bulk oil in a tank car they would leave on a team track and unload as needed from the seven compartment tank car with various grades of oil. Rick Jesionowski
We have all seen the back of semi trailers that say "These vehicle pays $20,000.00 in road taxes every year" It should read, but this vehicle tears up 320,000.00 worth of roads a year. With apologies to my trucker friends, but some the roads around here are really getting tore up with too much tonnage on interstates and railroad tracks right next to them.
Mystery solved. Turns out we had it backwards. The Targray tank car left town today. I was able to talk to a Huron and Eastern employee who told me the tank car was actually loaded with biodiesel. The product was made at a large farm operation that has a biofuel plant and transported by Cass City Oil and Gas. The employee told me this car was consigned to CN at Battle Creek, MI and the previous carload had gone to Detroit and Mackinac successor Lake State Railway. He had inquired as to why it wasn't placarded as a flammable and was told it didn't need to be.
