Western Railroad Discussion > Question about DOT-111 tank cars.

Coverage of the Lac-Mégantic derailment has again brought up the danger of DOT-111 tank cars, which the NTSB says are "subject to damage and catastrophic loss of hazardous materials."

Looking at my photos, I found these two cars are labeled DOT111. One is older and placarded for ethanol; the other was built this year and is placarded for crude.

An ARR slideshow I found says:

Post Accident AAR Actions
•All new DOT-111 for ethanol and crude
oil service beginning October 1, 2011:
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Increase head and shell thickness
–
Normalized steel
–
½-inch thick head shield
–
Top fitting protection|

Based on that, I am wondering - is there a head shield on the new car? (Is it in the carbody itself?) Or have I misidentified it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/13 19:07 by inCHI.

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Head sheld is the plate that had started showing up on the outside of tanks. That said I was looking at some tanks built this year at work earlier that had no visable sheild. Some makers must be going with external and others under the shell.

Posted from Android

Potent question. Most of the newer 286k GWR cars have an obvious head shield, but he DRPA car does not, but looks to me to be a new 286k car. anyone on this board really qualified to explain?

The extra protection for the top fittings is the plainly visible extra covering on top of the car. Note the difference in the appearance of the roof appliances.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/13 05:35 by toledopatch.

Here's a new STAX car with the shield clearly visible. It looks to be a steel shield running from just above the top of the coupler to about midway up the tank. I don't know if the tank is double hull, some new cars have it, others don't.

Taken at Elkhart IN a few weeks ago on an NS train. Many of the tank cars were in close numerical order.

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