MMA Crude Train Derails and Explodes

[Racer]

Wonder if this will effect Van's in Walker on the MQT, since at least the boxes are often MMA

Why? As long as they aren't getting loaded in Canada on the MMA, they'll continue to roll. Even if they shift the ownership of the cars to a different paper company, they'll still roll until stenciled.

Cars going to the normal interchange points for the MMA will just start backing up there until they secure the insurance to resume operations.

Practice Safe CSX

IDK if they come for Canada or not, that is why I brought it up

Just because an industry receives boxcars owned by a certain railroad doesn't mean the car originates from that same railroad. They are assigned into a "pool". If they did, you'd be seeing autorack trains with the same road name on all the cars.

[Saturnalia]

Just because an industry receives boxcars owned by a certain railroad doesn't mean the car originates from that same railroad. They are assigned into a "pool". If they did, you'd be seeing autorack trains with the same road name on all the cars.

Could be, but because the cars a) belong to a shortline, not class I, and b) Vans recieves only TTX and MMA boxes, not other misc roads, means there is a very good chance they are loaded on the MMA, and not just from a pool. Chances are if they were in a pool we'd see lots of other reporting marks than just MMA.

Again, nothing is certain, so therefore I ask

[Mr. Tops]

Just because an industry receives boxcars owned by a certain railroad doesn't mean the car originates from that same railroad. They are assigned into a "pool". If they did, you'd be seeing autorack trains with the same road name on all the cars.

Could be, but because the cars a) belong to a shortline, not class I, and b) Vans recieves only TTX and MMA boxes, not other misc roads, means there is a very good chance they are loaded on the MMA, and not just from a pool. Chances are if they were in a pool we'd see lots of other reporting marks than just MMA.

Again, nothing is certain, so therefore I ask

Well, obviously the TTX boxes are pool boxes, there's no question there. I too have no clue as to a definitive answer in this matter, but it is very possible MMA leases the boxcars to other railroads, just like UP leases GP60's to CSX. If your not using them, someone will pay you to use them. The same way a leasing firm like Helm makes money, only MMA is not specifically an equipment leasing company. Just another way to make money; buy boxcars and people will pay to use them. Like I said, I have no idea if that's what actually happening in this scenario or not.

A boxcar owned by "Company A" in New York could be loaded there and shipped to "Company B" in Florida. There, it could be emptied, loaded again, and shipped to "Company C" in Texas. From there, it is once again emptied, reloaded and then shipped to "Company D" in California. The car will eventually make it's way back to it's owner, but it was at least several times, loaded and unloaded on a foreign railroad.

Think of it as a private trucking company. If Jim Bob loads his truck in Michigan, with a load of cherries for Florida, he is not going to empty his cargo and come back to Michigan with an empty trailer (ie not making any money). He may make several backhauls before he finally gets one that brings him back to Michigan, or at least close enough. Under the routing rules that were in effect in the 1970s, cars owned outright by railroads were supposed to be routed back to their home road as soon as possible or the host road would have to pay demurrage charges. This caused a shortage of available cars as empty cars would be routed back instead of being loaded with cargo that took them farther from their home road.

[CSX_CO]

Well, obviously the TTX boxes are pool boxes, there's no question there. I too have no clue as to a definitive answer in this matter, but it is very possible MMA leases the boxcars to other railroads, just like UP leases GP60's to CSX.

I believe the GP60's are on 'loan' from UP to repay the huge difference in HP hours owed by UP to CSX. I don't think they're 'leased' by CSX per se, at least not like the HLCX units running around.

A boxcar owned by "Company A" in New York could be loaded there and shipped to "Company B" in Florida. There, it could be emptied, loaded again, and shipped to "Company C" in Texas. From there, it is once again emptied, reloaded and then shipped to "Company D" in California. The car will eventually make it's way back to it's owner, but it was at least several times, loaded and unloaded on a foreign railroad.

In theory, that is possible. Usually the cars keep the same cycle from beginning to end point and return. Makes logistics much much easier. Plus, that way you don't have a box that was in scrap paper service showing up at a guy who wants to load refrigerators, and its not cleaned out to their liking.

Under the routing rules that were in effect in the 1970s, cars owned outright by railroads were supposed to be routed back to their home road as soon as possible or the host road would have to pay demurrage charges. This caused a shortage of available cars as empty cars would be routed back instead of being loaded with cargo that took them farther from their home road.

Unless rebilled, empty cars are still to return to the 'load point' on the reverse routing. That goes for 'home road' cars, leased cars, and dedicated cars. That is automatic and built into the waybills. The 'empty return' is a free move to the customer, and the railroads do it 'free' because its going to need to go back to origin for loading anyway. If the loading customer doesn't request the cars, or the empties returning are over and above what they're requesting, then the car billing can be changed enroute to the origin for another shipper. Otherwise, for ease of routing, billing, and car hire, empty cars are just routed back to the origin load point to make sure there is an adequate supply of empties headed to the customer doing the loading. This also applies to tank cars, and especially plastic pellet cars. That's why if you see the same traffic enough (like I do) you'll see the same cars making the same trips repeatedly.

Now, in the case of some cars that aren't going to be loaded again, there will be a fee charged to get the cars to a storage location of the owners choosing. On CSX, these cars show up in "F" status on paperwork. Car is making a 'revenue' move, but it isn't necessarily loaded or empty. Helps for billing purposes.

Just because a railroad owns cars, doesn't mean they're loading on their railroad. IBCX was "Indiana Box Car" and was just a little short line. Yet their cars would show up all over the place in leased service. Ditto for the LNAC, Louisville New Albany and Corydon Railroad. They had so many leased box cars, it was joked if they all returned to home road, they wouldn't have enough track to store them all!

Practice Safe CSX

[Mr. Tops]

So, bottom line, and what I was trying to say (albeit with a few poor analogies) is the MMA boxes weren't necessarily loaded on the MMA.

[AARR]

From DickDV at MIRR.com

The latest Railway Age issue mentions that there were NO propane cars involved in the accident. They are studying the composition of the crude oil suspecting that it was blended with diesel fuel or other more volatile materials. All of this to explain why there was an explosion generally not expected from pure crude oil.

[Saturnalia]

Thankfully, this one happened in the middle of nowhere, not a town:

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/saf ... channel=60\

Definitely give the right for more regulation more persuasiveness...

[bctrainfan]

I hope that the reporter on that was mistaken about his quote "“Don Hartley, regional coordinator for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency, said the tank cars originated in North Dakota. Three cars had a “‘bleve’—where pressure builds up and blows a hole.’ That started the fire, he said." There has to be a fire first, which then may cause a BLEVE. This new accident (wasn't there another one on CN in western Canada somewhere recently?) is definitely gonna cause greater headaches for the RR's doing CBR. Glad no one was hurt in this one.

[SCrailfan2995]

Here's the simulation of the Lac-Megantic derailment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlxJzI8j2r4

[Saturnalia]

Here's the simulation of the Lac-Megantic derailment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlxJzI8j2r4

Thanks for posting. Gives a good idea of what happened besides the written description.

[railfan speculation]

With this one, the other one in Ala, plus the AAR recommendation, it looks like we're getting pretty close to new tankcar mandates including new safety features. Then again, the railroads themselves won't be the ones who have to make many modifications to the tank car fleet.

[/railfan speculation]

[Saturnalia]

If true, this sounds big:

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/saf ... channel=60

[CSX_CO]

If true, this sounds big:

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/saf ... channel=60

Which would also explain why the crude 'exploded' like it did. Something a lot of people who know about transporting haz-mat stuff knew wasn't normal behavior for that classification of crude oil.

Practice Safe CSX

[CAT345C]

Here is an update from the CBC 5/13/2014, they have arrested the trains engineer and charged him with 47 counts of criminal negligence. There are some good video clip links to the article.
http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/#!/content/1.2640654