How to tell an oil train in Oregon apart from others: photo guide

The Oregonian ^ | March 31, 2014 | Rob Davis

[Rodamala]

My inbox has been full of questions from readers wanting to know whether a train they've seen moving through Oregon was carrying oil. Not every train moving big black tank cars is hauling oil.

Here's a quick guide to tell whether you're looking at an oil train or not and whether its cars are newer models or outdated ones.

First, check the placard on the train car. Every car moving hazardous materials has a placard identifying what's in it. Crude oil is shipped in cars with placard No. 1267.

Here's what the placard looks like:

Rob Davis/The Oregonian

These small signs are posted on the end of a car and also on the side.

Here's where to look for the crude oil placard as a train passes you:

Rob Davis/The Oregonian

Readers have also wanted to know how to tell an older, less safe model of tank car from newer, safer ones. The rail industry voluntarily increased safety standards in 2011 and cars built since then have had steel shields added on each end.

Here's an old car without shields. It was built years ago by a local manufacturer, The Greenbrier Cos. (The company doesn't build cars without shields any more.)

Courtesy of Greenbrier Cos.

Below is a car with a shield at the oil train terminal in Oregon, just north of Clatskanie. The officials who run that terminal say most of the cars unloaded there are newer models. This car has what's known as a half-height shield, covering the bottom half of each end. Federal regulators are currently considering whether half- or full-height shields should be required on all cars.

Rob Davis/The Oregonian

This is what an oil unit train looks like.

[AP photo redacted]

Trains moving along the Interstate 5 corridor through Salem and Eugene and on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge move oil and other goods. In railroad parlance, they are manifest or mixed-freight trains. This video shows you what a mixed-freight oil train looks like./b>

[Rodamala]

What could possibly go wrong? I soooo wanted to put in my own photos of BLEVE type LPG cars blowing up... and replace the video at the end of the manifest freight with one of those old time state fair staged "cornfield meet" train wrecks... but I kept it straight.

I just hope that after all that html layout work, The Oregonian isn't on the banned list, or someone just posted this 2 minutes before me. Enjoy.

[Repeal The 17th]

Union Pacific 8438 leads QPDRV at Salem, Oregon 6.2.13
-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0E1q8fAydU

[Star Traveler]

Thanks, I’ll look for some of those trains around here, just out of curiosity.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Will crude oil BLEVE?

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[UB355]

Google 1267 msds

[Paladin2]

Events in Lac Megantic say YES!

[HiTech RedNeck]

I ‘bleve’ so

[Cyber Liberty]

I just hope that after all that html layout work, The Oregonian isn't on the banned list, or someone just posted this 2 minutes before me.

Already Posted.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

If the flash on the crude is above 200 F, does the car need this placard ?

[HiTech RedNeck]

Oh, april fool.

[HiTech RedNeck]

This stuff apparently isn’t like motor oil. It has a goodly proportion of volatile flammables in it.

[Smokin' Joe]

1267 os a populat placard number around these parts, on trucks as well as rail cars.

[Smokin' Joe]

Events in Lac Megantic were the result of leaving an unattended train on a grade with the brakes bleeding off because the engine which was running to keep them pressured up had caught fire and was shut down. When the pressure bled off, the train freewheeled into town.

Lac Megantic would have been a disaster with virtually any train load of cargo, but believe it or not, it could have been worse. Suppose the rail cars had been filled with chlorine or anhydrous ammonia?

[njslim]

Hmmm..... How to tell oil train from another...?

Lying on sides and on fire after derailing.......

[thackney]

Crude Oil:

Petroleum crude oil, UN 1267, is specifically listed in the HMT as a Class 3, in Packing Groups I, II, or III.

Note: The flash point and initial boiling point of crude oil can vary depending on the various hydrocarbons that make up the specific crude oil. As a result, depending on flash point, crude oil may be classed as a Combustible Liquid, Packing Group III.

Petroleum sour crude, oil, flammable, toxic, UN 3494, is specifically listed in the HMT as a Class 3, Packing Groups 1 and III.

More information at:

http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/portal/site/PHMSA/menuitem.6f23687cf7b00b0f22e4c6962d9c8789/?vgnextoid=4821ec1c60f23410VgnVCM100000d2c97898RCRD&vgnextchannel=d248724dd7d6c010VgnVCM10000080e8a8c0RCRD&vgnextfmt=print

[Veggie Todd]

[dfwgator]

[Rodamala]

1267 placards rock my world... The Trains Magazine from 2 months ago that is down on the breakroom table at the office shows a map with every crude-by-rail transload terminal in the continental US...

There is a certain amount of pride I took in knowing that 2 of them I was personally responsible for the design, field layout, and construction of...

I can’t describe the feeling of accomplishment in finishing the final inspection of the track and turnouts at these terminals, and then watching the 70 car unit trains being pulled out of the terminal with 3 SD-90MAC locomotives.

[Organic Panic]

That’s a great sign. I travel frequently to Europe. My favorite place is to visit friends in Czech Republic. There is a nuclear power plant south CR near the Austrian border. The Austrian college just across always finds a bunch of dopes to protest the power plant (which sells most of the electricity to Austria). The running joke of the Czechs is “We don’t need nuclear electricity, we get our electricity from the plug in the wall.”