Eastern Railroad Discussion > Around Central MD & Northeast WV

The e/b CSXT Q216 rolls through Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia, 10/30/19.  There’s more from around here at:

https://gjptrains.wordpress.com/category/home/

Gerry

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Gerry,

I found your 10/28/19 photo of the sign taped to a boxcar on Q413 quite interesting. I wonder if the sign is a "remnant", i.e. someone forgot to remove it after treatment. It's hard to believe the car would be released back into service before fumigation was complete. Also makes me wonder just what a boxcar had been carrying that it required fumigation in the first place.

The "placard" you shot is a little different from the one that would normally be seen on a railcar (attached), and that railcar would normally be a covered hopper.

The Spokane address would be that of a certified applicator. Degesch's U.S. manufacturing and distribution HQ isn't all that far away from you, in the Shenandoah Valley (Weyers Cave, VA).

Phosphine is pretty nasty stuff. Suffice it to say...it won't be me that's the first to open the door. The actual pesticide is usually aluminum phosphide, which, upon exposure to atomospheric moisture, generates phosphine.

/Ted
 

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Yes, Ted, I agree it's interesting.  The fumigant was applied 10/15/19 in Spokane and the fumigaion completed 10/20/19.  Does the car move during fumigation?  There were two adjacent boxcars in the train with this sign.  I (a chemist) also agree that it's not a good idea to mess with phosphine.  Gerry