15
May

May I have Molten Sulphur With My Vegetable Oil Please?

— by Tiffany in Tidbits

Yesterday I was delayed in my travels by a train. There are lots of trains that pass through my area so this is no big surprise but I was a little surprised by what I saw when the train went by.

I have gotten in the habit of reading the graffiti on the trains, often wondering how I will distract my kids in the future as trains go by, when they learn how to read. Yesterday though I concentrated on the actual print on the train cars. One of the first cars I saw go by had a food company brand name and said “Vegetable Oils”. Three cars down from that there was a car that holds liquid (not sure what those are called) but it said “liquified petrolium”. Two cars after that was another liquid carrying car that said “Molten Sulphur”. Gross! I certainly hope that consumable vegetable oils are not traveling to the consumer along side Molten Sulphur!

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Monday, May 15th, 2006

2 Comments

  • Tangle

    My concern is are they using the same container that they hall the vegetable oil on the next trip are they putting the molten sulphur without fulling cleaning out the vegetable oil and then are they hauling the vegetable oil after the molten sulphur without cleaning the car again and if the cleaning is only a rinse out.
    Thanks,
    Tangle

  • Allen Jenkins

    Hello Tiffany & Tangle, your interest on reading the reporting marks of railroad cars is important in that your kids will learn to accept the advent of a train occurring anytime at the crossing & will accept that fact of life as you teach them. Anytime Is Train Time!…See http://www.oli.org/for_kids/kids_overview.htm

    I happened to be doing research on the transportation of sulfur as a bulk liquid by tank car for a product load for my Auran TrainzSimulator.

    As a former truck driver that carried sulfur for years from port to plant in Central Florida(Mulberry) for the fertilizer industry, I can tell you the the Federal Department of Transportation(DOT) closely regulates the transportation of chemicals in edible/non-edible commodities. No product is allowed in a food-grade container or vehicle if it is classed as non-edible, hazardous, corrosive, poisonous, not fit for human-consumption, etc.

    The industries that consume these chemicals in bulk form are not generally associated with food-grade industries & if so have safety documentation that describes the product & handling codes that must be accounted for & the transportation entity is required to have documents on-hand for quick identification of the product in case of emergency.

    Yes, a vegetable oil tanker will be steam-cleaned on-site after unloading or before loading, as do many other commodities in whatever form of shipment is required(bulk liquid, bulk dry-granular, etc).

    I hope this information helps & thanks again for taking your time for safety at grade-crossings & watching trains!