October 12, 2015
Leo - I regret taking nearly a week to answer back, but I'll make it up to
you with the attached image. Some years ago, I posted my memories of part-owning
and operating a 45-ton Baldwin logging 2-6-2 switch engine at Pinto Island
Metals Company in Mobile, AL, during the mid-1970s. The attached image
shows ex-Alger Sullivan Lumber Co. (Escambia Railroad) No. 100 being used in May
1976 as a portable boiler to "steam" tank cars full of a mix of Bunker C fuel
oil and water (slops, as we called it) that had been pumped out of the
double bottom tanks of scrapped Liberty Ships. During winter months, the
oil would congeal into a tar like substance and the tank cars would have to be
steam heated to thin the slops to the point where they could be pumped out
into a waiting tank truck. The slops were then either sold to a local
paper company to burn in their boilers or to land owners to spread on
their dirt roads to keep the dust down (perfectly legal some 40 years ago). For
tank cars without steam coils, the yard had fabricated one out of pipe
that stuck down into the car from its opening on top. The tank car in
front was a conventional GATX car sold to Pinto Island Metals for scrap and
the one in back was rubber lined (I forget what company had sold it to the
yard). The scrap yard had at any one time about 20 such cars to store slops
in. When the cars were eventually pumped out, then they would be switched
back to the sidings at the ship wrecking haul out ways to be loaded
with more slops. This went on for some years until Pinto Island Metals ran
out of ships to scrap and the yard closed. Eventually, the yard site was
remediated and capped with a layer of spent blasting sand. from a ship yard.
Today, a steel import terminal sits atop the site on a huge concrete pad.
Getting back to your question on how we scrapped tank cars, here is
what I recollect some 40 years later. As I said earlier, we didn't want rubber
lined cars and only accepted them at no value. But, since they still
showed-up at the front gate (there were many major chemical plants and paper
mills in the Mobile area that used such tank cars), rubber lined cars
usually ended-up being used for slop storage. Or, we sold the tanks to
industries for storing liquids and scrapped the frame and trucks. When more such
cars arrived than could be used for slops, the tanks were filled with water
to the brim. Then, a skilled burner would cut against the water and burn
out large holes in each end to ventilate the tanks. Following,
railroad ties, drift wood, trash, whatever was placed in the tanks and set
on fire to burn as much as possible of the rubber lining out of the
tank. When the tanks cooled down, then they would be cut-up. Hand torches
fed by underground gas lines were used to cut scrap steel into panels that would
be fed by magnet cranes into a large hydraulic stationary shear that would
further reduce the scrap to sellable size. This was long before
tracked hydraulic cutters as you commonly see moving around in scrap yards
today. Pinto Island Metals exported almost all of their prepared scrap
overseas and we had a long pier out into the river where ships would tie-up
to be loaded with a gantry crane. Scrap in that era was sold to Mexico,
Turkey and Europe.
As for conventional non-lined tank cars, in the rare event when cars
arrived that had been steam cleaned, we first had a marine chemist "sniff" the
tanks for hazardous fumes. If the tanks were free of fumes and the
chemist certified them as being safe to cut, then burners would cut them
up. If the chemist found fumes, then they were filled to the brim with water and
had their ends cut out first. Then, ventilated, they would be cut-up. The
yard also occasionally sold cleaned tanks to industries and they brought a
premium price. Property owners additionally purchased other cars with their
ends cut out to use as road culverts. In rare events, some tanks cars with
a little bit of life still left in them were sold to Mobile area industries
to be used in non-interchange business within their plants. Some of those
cars are, believe it or not, still in existence. One small area
private tank car line also would be in the market for "small" clean tanks
cars that could still be interchanged for use in transporting naval
stores. As for what happened to all the untold thousands of gallons of water
that drained out of the tank cars that were cut up, well it all went onto
the ground and it made for a muddy mess at times to walk around in the scrap
yard. Smoke, dust, mud and noise, that was life in a scrap yard in those long
gone days. Best Regards -
Louis
In a message dated 10/6/2015 9:04:41 A.M. Central Daylight Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
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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