Eastern Railroad Discussion > PA: a closer look at the Pittsburgh NS derailment

The Post-Gazette takes a closer look, and sees there are a lot of  safety recommendations which have been ignored as the heat of the 2015 Lac Megantic explosion and fire have receded.   The paper notes that just two minutes earlier and the container train would have tumbled onto a light rail train.  haz-mat trips.The industry notes that reportable incidents (not derailments) happen less than 0.01% of all, and the rate continues to improve.

The recommendation that oil and trains with haz-mat be limited to 35 mph in urban areas has gone nowhere.  But, the DOT-111 cars have been phased out, and the DOT-1232 cars are supposed to be removed by 2020. Many cars now in use have double hulled containers.


http://www.post-gazette.com/business/pittsburgh-company-news/2018/08/10/Train-derailment-Station-Square-pittsburgh-crude-oil-hazardous-materials-railroad-norfolk-southern/stories/201808080176

How fast was this train going ?

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> The recommendation that oil and trains with
> haz-mat be limited to 35 mph in urban areas has
> gone nowhere.  But, the DOT-111 cars have been
> phased out, and the DOT-1232 cars are supposed to
> be removed by 2020. Many cars now in use have
> double hulled containers.

In certain urban areas, crude oil, ethanol, trains containing poison inhalation hazard and trains with 20 or more loaded hazmat are restricted to 40mph.  IIRC, Homeland Security designated the speed restricted areas.  40 isn't 35, but speed restrictions have been imposed.

The issue with the oil trains was always the amount of volitile compounds being allowed at the dtill site.  It was never a rail safety problem, it was a different type of oil that was much more flammable than normal resulting in explosions after run of the mill derailments.

mbrotzman Wrote:
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> The issue with the oil trains was always the
> amount of volitile compounds being allowed at the
> dtill site.  It was never a rail safety problem,
> it was a different type of oil that was much more
> flammable than normal resulting in explosions
> after run of the mill derailments.

Bakken oil has widely varying degrees of volatility, too.  Prior to Lac Megantic, maybe just after the Lynchburg fire, North Dakota  imposed a maximum volatility for oil loaded within the state.  I believe one of the pipe companies also imposed a lower max volatility test, which antagonized the shippers.  Might have been Enbridge, we had a thread at the time.

The E&P guys didn't want to do that additional step.  Let the refiners do it. If something happened to the rail crew, unloading crew, or nearby towns, well, that's unfortunate...