Railroaders' Nostalgia > Tank Car Slosh

I'm sure you all have handled those older tank cars w/o the baffles! Now that is a unque experience.That stuff(fluid) would slosh around in those tanks long after you stopped.
You could feel it in the seat of your pants! Not only that, if you didn't have the jam applied fully, those cars could move your power. You could feel it pushing against you and then
pulling against you. I'm sure the trainmen over the years had some close calls with those cars moving when they thought everything was stationary. Sometimes it went on for minutes
after coming to a stop. Better chock those wheels good!
I wonder if there were any recorded run-a-ways due to the Slosh?

No runaways but it was sure unusual to see a tank car sit still for seconds when move five or six feet one way, then a few seconds later five or six feet the other. Unfortunately, it got a switchman coupled up at Santa Fe's Hobart yard many years ago.
JB

Baffles or no baffles, there's still sloshers. Makes lacing up airhoses a lot of fun.

Car of molasses making hard joint and you end up a candy apple with ants crawling all over you

Same sensation on a plane waiting to take off. The fuel in the wings rocking the plane

When handling a tankcar, know what's in it and the cars capacity. Check the Bill of Lading and reporting marks.

A fully loaded tank will not slosh, but a half load of the same stuff may slosh for several minutes.

Even a partial load of water can be challenge.

-LD

Sulfuric acid was the worst for me. I caught an acid train once from Waycross toBaldwin, slack ran out in unusual places and ran in at unusual places. When you stopped be well short of thesignal, and make a full service. I would guess ethanol and crude trains are about the same.

Sam

Knew a fellow that got coupled up about 10 years ago. Left a wife and 3 kids at home. Tank car snuck up on him when he was in adjusting the knuckle. I wish I could have worked more jobs with him and maybe if I could have told him how I handled tanks in that situation that night might have turned out different.

A bad day.

Regards

Posted from iPhone

I recall a tank car load of acid sludge sloshing at the Santa Fe yard in Richmond, CA when I was working as a yard clerk in 1965.  To this day I remember the car initial and number, ROX 207.

I handle fully loaded cars of ethanol and corn oil at work,,corn oil is way heavier. Always tell my new hires wait a minute after establishing red zone before going inbetween, they both slosh pretty good.
JC

Posted from Android

Anybody ever have a sloshing tank car knock a pin down? Good times..... :) 

How about get a knuckle? I switched a lot of sufuric acid cars in Arizona. Before the air was made you could definitely get that "whoah feeling", never got one however.

ApproachCircuit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm sure you all have handled those older tank
> cars w/o the baffles! Now that is a unque
> experience.That stuff(fluid) would slosh around in
> those tanks long after you stopped.
> You could feel it in the seat of your pants! Not
> only that, if you didn't have the jam applied
> fully, those cars could move your power. You could
> feel it pushing against you and then
> pulling against you. I'm sure the trainmen over
> the years had some close calls with those cars
> moving when they thought everything was
> stationary. Sometimes it went on for minutes
> after coming to a stop. Better chock those wheels
> good!
> I wonder if there were any recorded run-a-ways due
> to the Slosh?

I heard about an incident with a yard crew who kicked a cut of tank cars into a track, they went in the clear, made a joint with what was in there, and then pulled the track back out to foul. I’m guessing they ended up getting cornered or something or I wouldn’t have heard about it.

Posted from iPhone

> I heard about an incident with a yard crew who
> kicked a cut of tank cars into a track, they went
> in the clear, made a joint with what was in there,
> and then pulled the track back out to foul. I’m
> guessing they ended up getting cornered or
> something or I wouldn’t have heard about it.

Been there, done that.

-LD

Saw the same thing happen with a refrigerated car loaded with sides of beef hanging inside on hooks.   The car would actually roll, then stop, and repeat until the beef inside quit swinging back and forth.

Swinging meet is the worst thing a truck can haul.

Here's a report from 2005 on tank car slosh on a steep grade-

Date: 06/26/05 01:00
Re: A question for hogheads
Author: SteamjockyWhen I use to catch the Oil Train (BKDOU) out of Bakersfield in the 80's, I would always worry about the slosh. Like SLOCONDR says, they don't slosh too bad. I just know that the first set of the airbrakes is like spittin' in the air in regards to braking power. You don't have any! 

Usually about a 8-9 pound total reduction with 4 6-axle units would balance the grade down the hill. If you only had 3 dynamics then a little more air was required even though by this time you exceeded the "Tons per Axle of Dynamic Braking" and were supposed to set pops (retainers) to go down the hill.  

If you got stopped at DIKE or CANYON on the Mojave Sub, the train would usually start to creep. You just hoped that the DS would hurry and give you the signal to get down to the bottom of the hill. 

When you did get a signal, all you had to do was just ease off of the independent brake and the train would start you rolling. One thing you NEVER wanted to do (unless you absolutely had to) was to release the train brakes to get going. If you did that you'd be up to your maximum speed before your brake pipe pressure was charged and before you could give me the definition of restricted speed backwards. It could be like an "E" ticket ride at Disneyland. Yee-Haw! 
steamjocky

The rest of the thread here, including beef on hooks-  https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,5722901

trainjunkie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Baffles or no baffles, there's still sloshers.
> Makes lacing up airhoses a lot of fun.

   We used to havethis issue when switching the oil spur at Fleta on the Mojave oil cans.  Our regular engineers would make a good hard set before we'd go in to make the air after making a joint, but sometimes, it was a bit difficult to get this concept through the heads of certain extra board engineers who shall remain nameless.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO.

Interesting from Steamjockey. We were good friends and he was a damn fine Hoghead... Man I miss him!

In dairy country, a partially loaded milk tanker truck is widely known as a dangerous slosher.  Milk tanks are not allowed to have baffles (baffles make it harder to clean and disinfect the car).  And a truck making pickups from multiple farms will by definition be partially full for much of the morning.