Does liquid creosote have to be heated before emptying the tank car?
creosote in a chimney is normally quite thick and gummy, like honey at zero degrees
I do not like creosote.
For preserving wood maybe.
It was in the water tables in St Louis Park Minnesota where I grew up before my parents bought the resort in northern Minnesota. That could have been what saved me.
Soaked into the ground for many years from the treatment faculty.
A lot of people I knew, friends and family died of cancer from it.
The bridge by the Chocolate Factory smelled nice with the mixture of it with the chocolate in the air before people died. I do remember that when I was young.
John
Here's a link to a thread in here, Sept, 2012, about tanks cars with the SOEX reporting marks, may you can dig further, and find what you need.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/p/210146/2300762.aspx#top
Mike.
My You Tube
Mountain River RRDoes liquid creosote have to be heated before emptying the tank car?
I'll bet in cold weather it does. Same as molases.
I looked in the 1940 Car Builder's Cyclopedia and found that cars in asphalt and coal tar service had heater coils and heavy insulation. Plus steam-jacketed outlet valves.
I think it is a safe bet that cars in [coal tar] creosote service would have steam-heat coils as well. This car is stenciled "This tank equipped with heater pipes":
8903 001 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr
I would consider that a yes.
Good Luck, Ed
After doing a little more digging around, I would go with yes, as to steam pipes, and modern equipment could even be fitted with an air mixing system, that moves the product around while heating.
Creosote is a hazardous material, the UN number 1s 1994, placarded as a flammable liquid although it is very thick. Basically like asphault. As I understand it, it is heated and forced into wood under pressure to act as a preservative. Bugs do not like it.
Caldreamer
My father left me part of a gallon of creosote oil. It can easily be painted with a brush at almost any sensible temperature, although I suspect that at 0 deg F it might be a bit of a chore. The stuff you see left in gobs on older railroad ties is much thicker, like pitch or tar, and must be heated to about the boiling point of water in order to treat wooden ties.
I know it's unsafe to use if it one's skin is likely to make contact with it, and about as dangerous to breathe as gasoline. BTW, used crankcase oil is also demonstrably carcinogenic. If you drain and refill your own, be wise about it.
Everyone is kinda fastidious about creosote these days. In 9th grade, our school bus drove us right through the local facility, the Monon's tie treating plant at the south end of McDoel Yard on the south side of Bloomington. This was circa 1971. Wish I had a good camera and film back then. There were all kinds of tramway trackage, including road crossings on the road our bus took that paased through the plant. There were long circular cylinders whose ends had hinged doors that allowed the cars holding the wood to be switched in and out that treated the wood under high pressure and heat. Lots of stacks of untreated and treated ties and timbers. All of it gone and cleaned up.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
This might help bring back some memories, Mike. I really like the smell of creosote (and coal smoke) myself.
SantaFe-ties by Edmund, on Flickr
Jack Delano, LOC, March 1943, Albuquerque, NM
When my dad built our backyard railroad he soaked all the ties in creosote. I still have a gallon of it. Like anything, it is safe when handled carefully but there's always those careless twits that mess things up for everybody.
THIS is an interesting story, too:
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/norfolk-southern-sues-over-millions-rail-ties-it-calls-defective
Do anything to make them look black, the boss says!
Cheers, Ed
I would say it's the end of days for BoatRight.
I've been around my share of creosote treated lumber. The electric railroad here in town, back in the late 50's, during it's freight hayday, interchanged traffic with the SOO for 4 major industries in town, kept neatly stacks of freshly treated ties in their small yard, right on my path to grade school and back.
They were great for climbing on.
So, I guess to answer the OP's question, we can all agree the tank cars were fitted with steam pipes, and maybe even air mixing plumbing.
Some other Shell reporting marks: SCCX, SCMX,and SOEX.
Ed, thanks for the pic. Those cars loaded with ties in what looks like a circular stack pattern look all but identical to the system the Monon used.
One of the videos that's part of the Canadian Canyon project talks about the tie treating plant they modeled for the layout, along with pictures from the prototype.