The backup of freight around here (NS has the mainline which was once the Erie and Erie/Lackawanna) was horrible in the last few months of 2022. Not enough crews to move the trains. I have attended both the CP and NS First Responder training. I am scared to death of a derailment in our “Hamlet” due to the fact that the mainline runs directly through a mixed residential and commercial area. Although I am retired from the volunteer fire service, I keep current on this stuff. We do have an occasional ethanol train go through. We have hazmat materials on most of the manifest (mixed freight) trains…
HAZMAT is on almost every one of those trains, in some form or fashion.
Just look for the black, oblong cars(designed to roll in a derailment). There are things on those trains that can ONLY be transported by train per DOT rules.
Kingsport, Tenn is one giant plant. They hate CSX. It takes too long to get their products to the port in Charleston because of all the rules. But hardly any of it is allowed to be transported by truck.
Some of the stuff that’s on those trains is scary.