Yes, the best way I know of to protect myself is doing things like inspections. I am sure that no thinking person wants to be caught up in any type of oversight investigation. A more common risk we face involves NARs - Non Accidental Releases, which is when a hazmat car leaks while enroute. It is now mandatory that any leaking hazmat car must be sided until an FRA agent comes on site to begin an investigation. Their investigation will involve the carrier, the shipper and the car manufacturer. Since I cannot afford to keep a skilled lawyer on permanent retainer, nor do I have some powerful union or corporation to hide behind, my best defense is consistent and documented proof that I follow all known requirements to the best of my ability. It is my hope that this video helps others to protect themselves, especially if their name is on any paperwork. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, they come with a small amount of yellow sealant. It seems to work well even after removing and reinstalling them a few times, but once the yellow wears off a few drops of blue Loctite is necessary. You certainly could apply new Loctite every time they get reinstalled. Hope this helps.

They had proper grounding and surge protectors in the electrical room. The lightning strike just overwhelmed what they had.

Thank you for sharing.

If you are referring to the black box on the inside of the door that connects to the keypad, I think it is called the keypad interrupter. They tried to briefly explain it to me, it limits keypad access once the loading procedure starts if I remember right. Thanks for sharing.

That's funny, thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for sharing that.

The company who owns the yard wanted the derail installed this way. After this company completed some work on their property last year, I was able to swap its direction. Thanks for asking.

Thanks for sharing.

Challenge not accepted! Thanks

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

Thanks for letting me know you liked this. I do address your questions in a few videos but have not done a single video covering them. I'll see about doing a short office video to answer your questions. The only thing I do not deal with is pricing, I made it a condition for hiring on that I don't want to know any of the pricing. I find it a distraction. Interesting trivia for you, next time you get a can of spray paint read the ingredients. Most contain propane along with butane and/or propylene. Propane, unodorized of course, is used a a propellant. It replaced CFC's many years ago.

@@mypropaneinsights6074 wow! Did not know that, very interesting tidbit. I could see how the price of the product could be a bit of a distraction might start worrying about the numbers more than the safety of you or your men, like a lot of companies are doing nowadays. I work on the utility side of chemical plants/refineries down here, I’ve always had a curiosity about the products being made and transported at these facilities. Appreciate your response, much love from Louisiana!

The man, the myth, the legend.

I address this in video 27 at the 20:20 mark. I also address this is several comment replies.

Well, if an 8 point works for square headed plugs, it might be helpful for some of these rounded off hex head plugs. Thanks for sharing.

If they make an 8 point impact socket it would be even better than a regular 8 point

I address this in video 27 at the 20:20 mark. I also address this in several comment replies.

Only cars carrying hazardous materials are required to be placarded. Empty hazmat cars are still considered "Residue" cars and have to stay placarded. Only when a hazmat car is empty and purged of all traces of its former contents is it no longer placarded. Most tank cars are built to handle a variety of commodities and are built with placard holders straight from the factory since it is cheaper to do so in the beginning and no one knows what the car will carry in its life span. In my area I see a lot of food grade oils, syrups, etc. along with Ag supplies roll by with no needed placards, just a commodity/shipping name. Hope this helps, thanks.

Non-hazardous material in tank cars doesn't need a placard, and there's a lot of non-hazardous stuff that gets carried, too.

Yes

Your assumption about baffles is a good one, yet these cars have none. We use two liquid hoses to speed up the process. My nitrogen is supplied by "T" sized cylinders that hold about 300 square cubic feet of nitrogen. I use the nitrogen to open and close the stingers (ESVs) that I thread into the car valves and connect my hoses to. The nitrogen keeps the stringer open while in use, and in an emergency my system will automatically cutoff the flow of nitrogen which causes the stingers to slam shut. Yes, the cars leave my place with about 5-20 psi, less pressure in the winter and more in summer. For shipping purposes the cars' status is changed from loaded to residue. You are correct about the VFDs, they prevent a lot of problems. Hope this helps, thanks for sharing.

Finland! Wow what a treat! I am glad you found something positive in one of my videos. Thank you for sharing.

You are kind to say so, thank you.

Thank you for sharing about your work.

Yes, in my opinion it would be possible. The car was a low pressure one, so once they vented it , transferring like they did should work. Wasn't it Methylamine they stole? If so, it is highly flammable and can be toxic, much like almost everything else used to make meth. I do not know if something similar has ever happened, but I am very sure it has and the authorities did not want to make it public.

@@mypropaneinsights6074 ....wow.. I always wondered if they got the details essentially correct. What about all their talk about the Feds monitoring the exact location of trains carrying that stuff etc. Do you think that the producers must have consulted with actual train people to nail down the details? That whole show blew my mind. How carefully do you guys actually weight the train cars when they arrive and compare the numbers to see if stuff is missing?

@@Coleen-Love Please keep in mind that I can only share what I know, so my responses will probably be less that 100% accurate. Does the government track hazmat shipments? Yes, through the required reporting of rail carriers. Do they actively track all shipments? Only through the rail carriers as they have reporting requirements. Keep in my that there are not enough DOT/FRA employees to actively monitor 24/7. That said, some commodities are deemed higher risk than others. My cars, along with virtually every car, are weighed either before or at switching yards, since rail carriers have weight restrictions for tracks plus they charge shipping based in part on total car weights. Twice I have had issues with cars that did not fully empty out at my terminal, so we had them scaled before returning to a refinery so we could compare gross and tares weights to determine how much was left in the cars. I have no doubt that highly restricted/regulated commodities do get scaled prior to offload to ensure BOL accuracy. Hope this helps, thanks.

@@mypropaneinsights6074 ....wow.. that episode was epic and raised so many issues. I think people loved Breaking Bad because it just seemed realistic while at the same time being enjoyable to watch. Gotta watch it again!

Time is a luxury that I have as most of my cars stay on site for a few days before shipping out. Thanks for sharing.

You are welcome.

Thank you for sharing that.

Yes, that driver did safe that load.

True enough, thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing about your work.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

I'm a valve technician for railroad and this is a great video. Have rebuilt and replaced dozens of those valves. And bubble leak tested. Thanks for posting.

Glad to hear that you found this useful. Thanks for letting me know.

Thank you for saying so.

Thanks

You're welcome, glad you got something positive from this.

Thanks for sharing.

This ain't his first rodeo. One your first day, do you (a) figure it out yourself, (b) ask the guy who started yesterday, or (c) listen to the guy who's been doing this shit for 30 years? (I betting you're an "a" person.)

As I mention in the video, improvements like this happen over time, especially in a facility like this that we built from the ground up. We are forced by time and circumstances to prioritize things, and these bottles were a great example. I could have easily edited out the original bottles I was using and only shown the labeled ones. I did not think it honest to do so as leaving it in and explaining why was a good learning/sharing topic.Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing. This century, although last century was only 24.5 years ago. Time flies.

Keep it simple. No need to over engineer it.

Thank you for saying so.

@@mypropaneinsights6074 You are welcome.