Making Train Watching More Interesting

MSDS placard UN2078  (Toluene diisocyanate)
White indicates an inhalation hazard or poison
2078 identifies the chemical Toluene diisocyanate
and the 6 in the lower triangle indicates poison/toxic solids and liquids,infectious materials



The placard is at eye level just before the front wheels. It must be posted on all four sides one time.


How many times have you been sitting at a rail crossing as an ever-so-slowly train creeps by.  You  found yourself and your mind somewhere between  Uranus or Jupiter and the deep dark voids of space while you waited for the crossing gates to go up. Well, there is a better way to remain sane, educate yourself and be better informed about the transportation industry; chemicals used to created the goods we use,or sometimes eat, and keep our self and family more safe.

A few months ago, there was a fire in a Waxahachie,Texas firm that mixed compounds for the manufacturing industry. While watching the aerial view from a Dallas television station, suddenly, one could see liquid running out of one side of the building down toward a fire truck. Within seconds, flames followed the liquid and it was a mad scramble for the firemen to get off and out of the truck before it was totally engulfed in fire and eventually,totally lost. As in most situations such as this, fire departments have MSDS or Material Safety Data Sheets on hand. During the reporting of the story, it became rather amusing for me to note that the reporters knew very little about MSDS sheets, if they knew what MSDS sheets were at all. In other words, here is a major story and while you can't know everything about everything.....you should be at lease informed in the basics of industry in the area where you work and live. In this case a rail spur to the plant passed between the plant and an elementary school (which was evacuated eventually). On that spur was parked nearly a dozen tank cars of chemicals used inside that plant with fire burning ever more close to the cars.

Yesterday,while waiting for a slow moving and very long train, this post began to take shape. My camera was on the passenger seat of the car, as it always is when I leave the house. This particular train was going to the only siding that I know that can park such a long train all in one piece until it is broken up and reassembled.later. So, I headed in that direction. Sure enough. There sat the train on a two mile lone siding.

Hazardous Material Placards are required to be on all four sides of a tank car, covered hopper,gondola,box or inter modal container by the Department of Transportation. Placards are Red,green,yellow,blue,white,black and white,red and white,red and white dangerous,orange,white and black stripe. Each differently colored placard identifies the cargo (i.e., red -flammable;green,non-flammable;yellow,oxidizer;blue,dangerous when wet;white,inhalation hazard and poison;black and white,corrosive (acid and caustic);red and white,flammable solid or spontaneous combustible;white and yellow,RADIO ACTIVE  or radiation ;orange,Explosives;white and black strip,Misc. Hazards).

So, watch for the placards as trains go by,note a number or color and when you get home, check it out with the DOT ERG or Department of Transportation Emergency Guidebook, which you can download on the web. You will be amazed, or  minimally amused, at what hazardous chemicals are in your own backyard.  And, if you are one of the young reporters at a major market television station, take one of those Saturday afternoons that isn't to good weather wise and go look around your town where the closest Starbucks is six miles in the other direction. You might get picked up by the networks more quickly than your co-worker. Look at Bob Orr, from WCMH in Columbus,Ohio. His knowledge of the prison system landed him a full time network reporter job for the big CBS eye because he knew what he was talking about when the big story broke!
This posting is heading toward a project for the winter months. The project will be to identify and post as many chemical hazards in the Dallas area as possible. Now, all I have to do is talk my editors into publishing all the placards that I photograph over the winter months.