Maintenance Technology August 2014 - (Page 6)
FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
Oil On the Tracks
Rick Carter
Executive Editor
I
f railroad tank cars carrying oil or volatile chemicals
play a role in your operation-or even if they pass
close to your plant-the time has come to view
them as the potential safety hazards they are. A
long-expected proposal from the Department of Transportation last month addresses the safety issue with rules
that would phase out tens of thousands of old-design,
unpressurized tank cars that are considered inadequate
to handle the increasing amounts of oil and chemicals
they're being tasked to carry. With the nation's fracking
boom, more oil than ever is traveling in the older (30-40
years old is not uncommon) cars called DOT-111s that
are seen as too likely to puncture in an accident. Other
issues the proposed rules address concern the need for
updated braking systems and new regulations about
permissible speeds for oil-car trains.
When a thermographer pointed
his infrared camera at the bearing
boxes of a passing oil-car train
recently, he was alarmed to
see the excessive temperature
differences in most passing cars.
Details of the rules are expected by year's end, after
a period of public and industry comment. But the
impetus for their acceptance is strong. Since 2008,
10 significant oil-train derailments have occurred
in the U.S. and Canada. The worst of these remains
the 2013 Lac-Megantic, Quebec, disaster that killed
47 people.
According to an Associated Press report, oil
shipments by rail are increasing dramatically, from
a few thousand carloads a decade ago to 434,000
carloads last year. The government says the danger
of the process is magnified by what it contends is
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MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY
the greater volatility of oil from the Bakken region
of North Dakota and Montana. Oil producers have
challenged this view, but may find it only a subplot
to the larger issue of the need to establish new standards for oil-car construction and operation.
Interestingly, the topic of railroad oil-car safety
arose at this year's IR/INFO event, an annual
conference for professional thermographers. One
presenter told how, out of curiosity, he pointed his
infrared camera at the bearing boxes of a passing
oil-car train. He was alarmed to see images that
showed excessive levels of temperature differences
in the bearing boxes of most cars-a sure sign of
potential bearing failure, as any maintenance professional knows. Could this be a contributing factor to
oil-car safety?
The IR/INFO presenter looked into that question and suggested the possibility that the cars are
not only outdated (and, for various reasons, are
not being replaced fast enough), but that routine
maintenance is lacking. While his observation does
not constitute damning proof, it suggests that if
overheated bearings were the norm on the train he
imaged, they probably are on others-and could be
a factor in some of the accidents that have caught the
government's attention.
For the railroads, the non-stop (and growing) flow
of oil in North America presents an extraordinary
business opportunity. In the absence of adequate
pipelines, tank cars are the only practical way to ship
oil from remote areas to other parts of the continent.
Naturally, the railroads are striving to meet this
demand and get paid for the service. In doing so,
however, they may have also created an untenable
safety issue by running poorly maintained, outdated
cars too long. It seems a good thing the DOT has
taken the matter in hand.
How does this affect you? To my original point,
it has to do with your plant's proximity to passing
oil-tank cars. Your safety team may have a plan
for dealing with a derailment or oil/chemical spill
from trains that run on-or near-plant property. If
not, it's time to put one in place. A review of recent
accidents and the enormous devastation they have
caused should be enough to convince anyone of
the need. MT
rcarter@atpnetwork.com
AUGUST 2014
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Maintenance Technology August 2014
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