Louis,
Here's the Pielet story as related to me by a former employee. They had an
operation at Joliet that supplied scrap to USS nearby. After the AAR banned
riveted tanks from interchange service
(I believe it was very early 1970s) they started flowing into the yard in large
numbers. The torch cutters could not keep up. One employee had been a
demolitions man during the war. So he volunteered to speed up the processing.
He was sure he could put just the right amount of dynamite in a tank to blow
out the rivets and then the cutters could work on the plates on the ground.
Well..... He not only managed to blow out the rivets but he also sent them
flying all over the adjacent neighborhood into buildings and houses !
As a side story, the Q/BN kept the 181000 series 16,000 gallon riveted tanks in
service beyond the AAR deadline as they were kept online in fuel service. One
night were were pulling a string of them out of Standard Oils pipeline terminal
at Rochelle. I noticed one of them leaking at a rivet. We were told to set it
back in. It sat there for a couple days leaking away.
Rubber linings:
Removing rubber linings from tank cars is expensive but necessary as usually
about 10-12 years is the maximum life span. A few go longer,but very few. In
recent decades removal is done by water blasting or a specialized form of
scraping it off the tank shell. Back in the day it was accomplished much
simpler.
The rubber linings need periodic inspections to insure they are still viable.
At my former job shops started sending me lining and tank inspection reports
with cars that had sagging top center tanks. So I would talk with the
inspectors and ask if there was impact damage at the strikers as usually a
buckled tank was caused by excessive coupling force. But in some cases they
advised there was no striker or end of car indications of overspeed coupling.
So what's causing the top center of the tank shells to sag ?
That's when I learned that,like your oil and rubber lined scrapping method, at
least some pre EPA
shops had an easy way to remove a lining. Near dusk an employee would climb up
the car and drop a few oil soaked journal pads into the car. Start them on fire
and go home. Next morning the cars rubber lining had been "Removed" and car was
ready for a relining. Years later the heat damage to the tank shell would
appear as a sagging tank shell that required a major and expensive tank shell
insert.
Just as a point of clarification to readers who aren't familiar with today's
rail car scrapping requirements. Today and for a long time all cars must be
cleaned. Most scrap yards will not accept a car w/o a certified cleaning
certificate. While torching still goes on, most cars are sheared by mobile or
stationary shears. Some are even cut in large sections and sent through an
automobile shredder. All scrap yards are heavily monitored by state and federal
EPAs and must meet intensive air and water runoff requirements. As Louis
mentioned they took all the fun out of car cutting. Even the occasional wood
floor from a box car must be removed and land filled,not burned. All the
various insulation types in tank cars must be removed and disposed.
As to rubber linings they are not burned out but generally come into a scrap
yard already removed.
If not one method I have been told about is to keep a steady spray of water on
a tank car end(called the head) while a torch man goes around it cutting it
off. Then laborers are sent into the open car with what look like ice scrapers
to peel the lining off. By the way only a very minor percent of the tank car
fleet is rubber lined.
Leo
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Posted by: qutlx1@aol.com
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