[CBQ] RE: Spacer Car Question

[<runextra@gmail.com>]

>I do not believe the spacer car practice existed in pre 1990s railroading...

That is certainly not true.

When I hired out as fireman on the Penn Central in 1968 the railroad HazMat regs were almost the same as today.  I just now dug out my Penn Central 1968 "Hazardous Materials Regulations" booklet.It is a red colored 103 page booklet.

On page 13 it says..

"171.2 Act Of Congress. (a) Section 833, Title 18 of the United States Code approved Sept 6, 1960 (Public Law 710, 86th Congress) which amended the act approved June 25, 1948 (Public Law 722, 80th Congress) provides that... "

and it continues on from there about violations, placarding, classifications, and handling. I haven't re-read thru the whole book and its been over 40 years since I operated under those rules but skimming thru it appears to be pretty close to the HazMat regs I operated under on the BNSF when I retired 5 years ago.

I see that crude oil and gasoline were to be classified as Flamable Liquids and placarded Dangerous. This PC booklet has the usual car placement restrictions (not next to engine or caboose, etc) as the modern regs.

However it also has the usual exception in that if the train is entirely placarded cars of this type (in other words what we now call a unit train) then no buffer cars are required. But if there are other cars that could be used as buffers then they must be used as buffers.

So it appears that this stuff has been around for quite a while.

---In cbq@yahoogroups.com, <qutlx1@...> wrote:

I do not believe the spacer car practice existed in pre 1990s railroading

Leo Phillipp

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 5, 2013, at 3:13 PM, "John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@...> wrote:

 

It is more likely that those boxcars contained "package products", from the refinery. Those were such things as grease buckets, canned motor oil, and other lubricates in five gallon cans. I remember, as a boy,  seeing the Q switch the refinery at Hartford, Illinois. There was always a long line of tank cars for gasoline, diesel fuel, etc. with few boxcars for package products.

From: Nelson Moyer <ku0a@...>
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 5, 2013 2:55 PM
Subject: [CBQ] Spacer Car Question

 

The tank car train in the photo Dave Lotz posted appears to have one or two boxcar behind the FT ABBA set. What was the crew protection rule for spacer cars when transporting explosives and flammables? Were spacers used in front of the waycar and behind the locomotive/tender?

 

Nelson Moyer

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