Rail Car 101

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Rail Car 101
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Objective

• Upon the completion of this module, participants
  will be able to describe rail transport of
  hazardous materials, focusing on denatured fuel
  ethanol.

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General Railroad Statistics

• Hundreds of operating railroads in the U.S.
• Tens of millions of railcar shipments each year
• Over a hundred thousand miles of track in U.S.
• Over a million railcars in service
• Over a hundred thousand employees

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Railroad Statistics for Hazmat

• Over a million loads of hazardous materials are
  shipped via rail
• Ethanol is over a quarter of total number of
  hazmat shipments
• About three-quarters of the transportation of
  ethanol is conducted via rail
• Ethanol is over one percent of all railroad
  shipments

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Initial Noticeable Characteristics
http//www.phmsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/PHMSA/Downloa
dableFiles/Files/Hazmat/ERG2012.pdf
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Tank Car Body Stencil
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Tank Car End Stencil
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Bottom Outlet Stencil
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Placard Example

• Key characteristics
• Placard color
• Hazard class
• UN number

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Ethanol Placarding
Ethanol Concentration Preferred Proper Shipping Name
E1 to E10 Gasohol, UN 1203 or Gasoline, UN 1203
E11 to E94 Ethanol and Gasoline mixture, UN 3475
E95 to E99 Denatured Alcohol, NA 1987 or Alcohols n.o.s., UN 1987
E100 Ethanol, UN 1170 or Ethyl Alcohol, UN 1170
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Brakes

• Hand
• Holds the car in place
• Prevents the tank car from moving and possibly
  causing further damage at incident site or harm
  to a responder
• Air
• If there is an incident, potential for a rapid
  release of air causing the hose and fittings to
  strike a responder

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Hand Brake
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Air Brake
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Brake Cylinder
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Double-Shelf Couplers
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Coupler
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Tank Car Wheels Separated from Tank Car
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Valves
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Vacuum Relief
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Top Operated Bottom Outlet Valve
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Bottom Outlet Valve
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Butterfly
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Manway
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Top Ethanol NAR Causes/Issues

• Manway
• Loose bolts
• Gasket deteriorated/wrong type
• Gasket misaligned
• Gasket missing
• Bottom outlet valve
• Cap loose Valve open
• Cap loose Valve closed

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Manway Without Bolts
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Manway Loose Bolts
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Additional Resources

• Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
  Administration (PHMSA)
• www.phmsa.dot.gov
• Federal Railway Administration (FRA)
• www.fra.dot.gov
• Association of American Rail Roads (AAR)
• www.aar.org
• Non-Accident Release Reduction Program (NAR)
• www.nar.aar.com