Wreck Salvage-Coal/Autos etc

As I understand it, manufactured goods are insured, and are reimbursed to the shipper, and are destroyed so no lawsuits can come of anything defective. Coal? That's a good question. If anyone know what happens to bulk loads, I'd like to know.

Bill:

I guess the best answer to your question is "it depends".  I am in the chemical business and whether we attempt salvage of product from derailments depends on whether the product has touched the ground.  We ship both liquid and crystalline chemical products.  If the car is too damaged to move and the tank has been breached, we will pump liquid products from the tank car into tank trailers and attempt to re-process the product at our nearest production site that handles that particular product.  If the tank of the railcar has not been breached, we will ordinarily just transfer the product to another car and send it on its way to a customer.  The same is true of crystalline products except those we normally transfer to super sacks which are then trucked back to a plant site.  Any crystalline product that has touched the ground is likely to have been contaminated and will be properly packaged and disposed of by the railroad's derailment contractor.  Once product has been reprocessed, we will file a claim against the railroad for our costs associated with the recovery of the product from the railcar, trucking back to one of our plant sites and reprocessing of the product.  Normally we will work very closely with the railroad's derailment contractor to minimize the loss and to ensure that all products are handled in the safest manner possible.

My only knowledge of how a derailment involving autos was handled comes from my younger sister who, years ago, worked for a salvage operator in central Pennsylvania.  Conrail had a derailment in the area that involved a number of autoracks carrying new Cadillacs.  As she explained it to me, Conrail paid GM for their loss.  Conrail's insurance carrier then had the Cadillacs transported to the salvage yard where a representative from the insurance company recorded the VIN number for each vehicle before he witnessed every one of them being crushed.

I can only guess at coal, but would imagine that what reached the ground is run through a screen of some sort to remove dirt, organic matter and so on, washed and then reloaded for shipment.  I would imagine that this process would most likely take place at a coal washing facility or at a mine that was equipped to do the cleaning.  The owner of the coal would then file a claim against the railroad for his out of pocket costs along with the loss associated with any coal that was not salvageable.   

Curt

I remember that back in the early 70's a boxcar carrying beer tipped over right by the dormitories of a large Michigan university.  The scene afterwards can be imagined, and a lot of people were absent from class for the next day or two.

John

John:

When I worked in Houston back in the late '70's, the HBT switched the Budweiser brewery.  On occasion, as the train was headed back toward Settegast Yard with boxcars full of beer, some of the locals would throw car tires under the wheels of the slow moving train to derail a car or two.  Once the train was stopped, it was open season on the beer until the HPD and the "cinder dicks" had a chance to get there.

Curt

Now either that is an amazing coincidence or there was a bit of vandalism perpetrated by some students.  Hmm...Must have been MSU.  Ann Arbor students would *never* stoop so low...

Not all cars are scrapped. sometimes the autos are reclaimed by the car company and parted out for reusable parts. It is a win, win situation for both the RR and car company.

Gene