Begin forwarded message:

From: "jason turcyn via " <jasonturcyn@...>

Subject: [letarc] Fw: [fayettegaares] Tuesday ARES Forum

Date: March 7, 2023 at 22:17:59 CST

To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>

Reply-To: [email protected],jasonturcyn@...

Hey y'all!

In Fayette County GA, they were discussing some things that we as ARES members can do in the case of any kind of railroad incident should occur. I worked for the railroad for 21 years in safety. I had some good pointers to offer them and I wanted to also share them with LETARC as well. Here in East Texas we have Union Pacific, BNSF and about a half dozen short line and industrial carriers. Outside of that, the info is pretty mainstream.

Please keep this info in your pocket, under your hat or wherever you store your Emergency response info.

73's

Jason KE4CPC

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: jason turcyn via <jasonturcyn@...>

To: [email protected] <[email protected]>

Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at 10:12:26 PM CST

Subject: Re: [fayettegaares] Tuesday ARES Forum

Have the Railroad Emergency Dispatcher numbers on your phone. Know the difference between CSX, Norfolk Southern and any industrial railroad not affiliated with either.
CSX is 1-800-232-0144.
Norfolk Southern is 800-946-4744 or 800-453-2530.

Every railroad crossing in the country has an Emergency Contact placard that looks like this:

Even private roads have this placard. When reporting any incident to the dispatcher, the Crossing ID "234567-X" is beneficial because it refers uniquely to that crossing's location. The dispatcher even has Lat/Lon coordinates for that crossing on their database in case there's ever any confusion about which of the 7 railroad crossings are on Lake Ave. over the course of 2-6 miles. These crossings are landmarks that both the Railroad and First Responders can coordinate on. While emergency responders are looking for a street name and nearest cross street, the railroad will use a Milepost and decimal to ID the crossing.

When referring to a train, it's beneficial to know which way the train was going. In Georgia, all railroads refer to the traffic as going "Timetable North" or "Timetable South" even if the rails are going East and West. But that's not what you need to know. All you need to be able to do is identify whether the train was going "Right to Left" or Left to Right" when you are facing the tracks at the crossing, and on which side of the tracks you are on. If you can give that description to the person taking your call, they will be able to determine the direction of travel of your train. If there are multiple tracks, it's also beneficial to be able to describe whether it was the track closest to you, furthest away, in the middle, etc.

Every railcar and locomotive has a unique Identifier called a Reporting Mark. These help the railroad identify and track each car as they pass through the railroad network. A reporting mark has 2 to 4 alpha letters and from 1 to 6 numbers. They are located on the left sides of the cars facing their sides and on the top left corners of the ends of the cars. Every train is required to have a list of their cars and the order that they are in. So if you are reporting NDYX 163482 the railroad company will be able to see that car is 67th from the locomotives at the front. The car next to that is EEC 16 and they will see that it is 66th from the front. And so on... (Of course this is assuming it's not painted over with graffiti)

And then finally, HAZMAT cars are equipped with placards on the right side and at the ends of each railcar that contains a HAZMAT or a residue. Not all railcars, especially tanks, contain hazardous materials. For instance, on the line I was working for, we got 6-8 tank cars of sweetener (corn syrup) every week for a beverage company and 15-20 tanks a week full of food grade cooking oil for a plant that bottled it for retail use. A lot of tank cars have their products stenciled on the side but unless there's a HAZMAT placard accompanying it, then the contents are not hazardous, even? if it sounds hazardous, like "Di-Hydrogen Oxide."

When these HAZMAT placards are present, that means the commodity is deemed hazardous even if the car is empty and is carrying a residue. Not all hazardous materials are flammable either. some may be caustic, poisonous, or other-chemical reactive. The Placards are Red, Green, Yellow, Black or White depending on their reactivity. Each placard will have a 4-digit UN code identifying the commodity and giving the railroad and emergency responders a guide on how to respond to a spill or leak. Every couple years or so, NFPA comes out with a new HAZMAT Emergency Response Guide and it's a handy little book to have if you are a first responder. The 4-digit codes were not meant to hide or disguise the commodity but rather to shorten the ID down to just 4 digits so that first responders would be able to easily identify the commodity and react appropriately to it. It's much easier to look up UN-1987 than it is to try to find "Poly-Ethyl BadShhtuff" especially in the ERG.

The railroad has strict guidelines on where they can place HAZMAT cars in their train. For instance, most placarded loaded tank cars cannot be less than 5 cars from the locomotive unless there are not enough non-HAZMAT cars in the train to be used as a buffer. But in no case may the locomotive be coupled directly to the placarded tanks. So there must always be at least one buffer car in the case where they have a unit commodity train such as an Ethanol or Crude Oil train. Also placarded cars may not be next to a running refrigerator car or a car carrying a shiftable load, such as a Flatcar with pipes, or a scrap tub full of scrap metal, etc. Certain commodities may not be placed next to each other.

This was my career for 21 years, working in Railroad safety both as a train crew and as safety and compliance. If you folks have any questions that I might be able to answer, please feel free to ask away!

73's

Jason - KE4CPC