One of those things that 'just happens'.
Whoopsie...
Google ‘hopper car’ and you’ll see they are unloaded by opening the bottom. Sounds like they dumped these pellets on the track.
Since it was in a hopper car, more likely it hopped out...
“So 30 tons just ‘fell’ from the rail car.
One of those things that ‘just happens’.”
Actually it does. lol
Most of those hopper cars are almost a hundred years old and worn out. The hopper doors in the bottom are so worn out and loose they can open a little every little bump they hit.
As kids we used to go out and walk down the line and pick up Glass marbles and chunks of coal that had fell out of the bottom hopper doors. It was nothing to collect a pick up load of coal that fell out every 5 miles of track. Of course it was not all from one car, but it does happen and that car of Ammonium Nitrate came a long way leaky.
Maybe there was a little hole in the bottom. I wonder if the police checked that.
Why do I have to think of everything?
Got lost/fell from a rail car in the desert? Does anyone know where Walt and Jesse were...