Article about storing old tank cars in the Adirondacks (NY)

I would suspect the cost of cleaning/decontaminating the cars exceeds the scrap value.

 

Rusty

The price of scrap steel is depressed currently and likely to stay there when one considers how many of these cars will have to be retired.

I've no idea exactly how many ethanol tank cars fall into this category but, it has to be well into the thousands.  Many of these cars were built during the ethanol boom in 2005-2007 and are without jacketing.  This makes them pretty much useless for any other product.  These unjacketed cars may only be used another two years before they must be removed from service.  They will almost certainly be scrapped as it would not be economically feasible to retrofit them to the point they could handle other products.

I should also note they will have to be emptied of any residue and cleaned before they could be sold as scrap.

Curt

Would these unjacketed cars actually been used to carry oil or any other toxic substances?

If they only carried ethanol what is the danger? I can understand them being an eyesore but how many people are going to see them. This railroad has dozens on unrestored passenger cars sitting on similar sidings you can barely see them from the road. 

 

Pete

Residue hazmat empties, including crude oil and ethanol, would still have to display placards and those would give you an indication what product service the cars had been in.  Of course both crude oil and ethanol would carry flammable placards so you'd never really know for sure just by looking at the exterior.

I'd speculate unjacketed cars would most likely have been in ethanol service if the build dates were in the 2005-2008 time frame though.

Curt

"Many of these cars were built during the ethanol boom in 2005-2007 and are without jacketing.  This makes them pretty much useless for any other product."

 

WATER!  Don't laugh. I predict water trains to high crop value drought farming areas soon.  Injection irrigation, like they use in Israel, will make this practical.

And just were would that water come from in order to be shipped to California?

Stored there, at least, they won't become overgrown with kudzu, although, maybe that

would be a good thing, to camoflage their presence.

There are many rivers in the north that, even during this drought period, are dumping billions of gallons of fresh water into the ocean 24 hours a day.  Not practical for normal water systems being too small to dam and with convenient access near sea level. Diverting into recycled tank cars near sea level at peak ebb tide - no problem. You can not believe the amount of fresh water that passes into the lower SF bay area and than out to the ocean during ebb currents. 

 

 

The problem is not the water, it is getting acceptance of non-flooding irrigation systems and higher priced foods. 

Well, it's fairly clear from reading the article that dealing with the hazmat residuals would be the reason for storage rather than immediate scrapping. Additives in ethanol to make it undrinkable, Bakken crude with extra chemicals and regular crude are all fairly nasty.

 

Another unintended consequence of rapid regulation changes in the name of public safety and political posturing. Slightly safer new tankers and retired tankers that are a difficult (and expensive) problem to address with a lot of service life left. 

The scrapping of 500 tank cars would be a easy process. There are tank wash facilities that are designed to do just that. The scrapping of the metal would also be an easy project.

Here is a operator cutting up a above ground tank at a facility that I used to operate.

All three tanks were cleaned then cut up and put into a metal dumpster and transported to a metal recycler. The backhoe with the cutting head claw can go thru anything.

I'm sure they are storing the tank cars until they find the right buyer either for scrap or reuse.

franktrain