A freight car mystery....

[edblysard]

At the end users facility large debris, like rat and rodent carcasses are removed when the grain is screened prior to use.

Because a lot of insects are smaller than the grain, they can pass through the screening machine along with the grain...it is up to the end user as to how "clean" he makes his raw material before use.

There are several systems in use that remove the bug carcasses, most use compressed air to blow the dead bugs out of the grain before it is processed.

They use phosgine gas...

Boxcars and hoppers are sealed, and just prior to closing them up, a give amount of phosgine gas is added...it dissipates quickly into the atmosphere when the cars are opened...if you look closely, you can see the warning tags on the boxcar doors and there are tags on the hopper roof hatches warning to not enter until the car has been ventilated for X number of minutes.

Small concentrations are not harmful to humans...at the volume used in railcars, it can be lethal, both to humans and to pest bugs...but it still leaves the dead bugs in the grain...the FDA allows a given part per million of insect parts in most food products.

 

Phosgine has been around since WW1...one of those gases like mustard gas.

or the elevator is having weighing or sampling or conveying or bug problems. 

And this brings up a question I just realized reading this:  How do elevators and even railroads deal with the rodent/bugs problem?

And the rats and mice and anything else that I don't seem to find in my breakfast cereal?

[Anonymous]

or the elevator is having weighing or sampling or conveying or bug problems. 

And this brings up a question I just realized reading this:  How do elevators and even railroads deal with the rodent/bugs problem?

Every feed mill I ever spotted cars to had at least one cat that hung out there, and he always looked healthy.

[Murphy Siding]

They use phosgine gas...

Boxcars and hoppers are sealed, and just prior to closing them up, a give amount of phosgine gas is added...it dissipates quickly into the atmosphere when the cars are opened...if you look closely, you can see the warning tags on the boxcar doors and there are tags on the hopper roof hatches warning to not enter until the car has been ventilated for X number of minutes.

Small concentrations are not harmful to humans...at the volume used in railcars, it can be lethal, both to humans and to pest bugs...but it still leaves the dead bugs in the grain...the FDA allows a given part per million of insect parts in most food products.

 

Phosgine has been around since WW1...one of those gases like mustard gas.

or the elevator is having weighing or sampling or conveying or bug problems. 

And this brings up a question I just realized reading this:  How do elevators and even railroads deal with the rodent/bugs problem?

And the rats and mice and anything else that I don't seem to find in my breakfast cereal?

     Come to think of it, I always wondered what those chewy things in my Luck Charms were

[Mookie]

They use phosgine gas...

Boxcars and hoppers are sealed, and just prior to closing them up, a give amount of phosgine gas is added...it dissipates quickly into the atmosphere when the cars are opened...if you look closely, you can see the warning tags on the boxcar doors and there are tags on the hopper roof hatches warning to not enter until the car has been ventilated for X number of minutes.

Small concentrations are not harmful to humans...at the volume used in railcars, it can be lethal, both to humans and to pest bugs...but it still leaves the dead bugs in the grain...the FDA allows a given part per million of insect parts in most food products.

 

Phosgine has been around since WW1...one of those gases like mustard gas.

or the elevator is having weighing or sampling or conveying or bug problems. 

And this brings up a question I just realized reading this:  How do elevators and even railroads deal with the rodent/bugs problem?

And the rats and mice and anything else that I don't seem to find in my breakfast cereal?

[gopherstate]

BNSF parked a large number of empty grain cars on this stretch of track about 7 or 8 years ago.  They sat there about 4 months if my memory serves correct.  They all had private markings.  When I worked for the DM&E we stored certain private cars first because the leases only had to be paid when the cars were in use.  I am not sure how common leases set up that way are these days.  We also stored cars for lease companies at $1 per day.  Matt

[edblysard]

They use phosgine gas...

Boxcars and hoppers are sealed, and just prior to closing them up, a give amount of phosgine gas is added...it dissipates quickly into the atmosphere when the cars are opened...if you look closely, you can see the warning tags on the boxcar doors and there are tags on the hopper roof hatches warning to not enter until the car has been ventilated for X number of minutes.

Small concentrations are not harmful to humans...at the volume used in railcars, it can be lethal, both to humans and to pest bugs...but it still leaves the dead bugs in the grain...the FDA allows a given part per million of insect parts in most food products.

 

Phosgine has been around since WW1...one of those gases like mustard gas.

or the elevator is having weighing or sampling or conveying or bug problems. 

And this brings up a question I just realized reading this:  How do elevators and even railroads deal with the rodent/bugs problem?

[grampaw pettibone]

The FDA has put limits on how many bugs are allowed in a jar of peanut butter. I think it is 5.

[WP 3020]

Vegetarians need to get protein from somewhere.

[Murphy Siding]

The bugs get weighed and shipped with the grain, Think about that when you eat your cornflakes at breakfast tommorow!!!!!! Yummy

   Pish tosh!  Nothing fazes me anymore.  I worked in a small retail bakery in high school.  Those bugs may have been some the better ingredients in  our doughnuts.

[gradyo54]

The bugs get weighed and shipped with the grain, Think about that when you eat your cornflakes at breakfast tommorow!!!!!! Yummy

[Murphy Siding]

Where did they put them Murphy? On that stretch that runs through the Fairgrounds and dead ends at Pam Oil?

     Actually, they went the other way.  They are parked along Rice Street, out past Great Bear Recreation Area, just beyond where E&E crosses BNSF.  This is the old CNW (Omaha Road ) line, that went east into Minnesota.  I figure they had to send in workers with pith helmets and machetes to clear the weeds and brush before shoving the cars in there.

[Mookie]

or the elevator is having weighing or sampling or conveying or bug problems. 

And this brings up a question I just realized reading this:  How do elevators and even railroads deal with the rodent/bugs problem?

[gopherstate]

I believe the track is still in place to Ellis, although I don't imagine it's in great condition.  I wonder how many cars they stored and how far from Sioux Falls they shoved them?

[tregurtha]

FURX, I believe is First Union Rail, which leases cars and locomotives...

 

Ross

[ButchKnouse]

Where did they put them Murphy? On that stretch that runs through the Fairgrounds and dead ends at Pam Oil?

[ericsp]

FURX 843000 series cars usually haul grains.

[Murphy Siding]

     If the answers to life's questions were all short and definate, we wouldn't learn much.

[Railway Man]

If an elevator is sitting on the cars, then most likely it is paying demurrage.  If the railroad put the cars there on its own account, it might be paying per diem or it might just be paying the monthly lease charges as it would normally.  If a leasing company had them put there, it's paying its interest and principle to the bank.  The short line might or might not be getting paid storage for the cars; depends upon their arrangement with the Class I.

Sorry to be so indefinite!

RWM

[Murphy Siding]

     That makes good sense.  I can't recall seeing any cars on that stretch of line in 10+ years.  In the case of an elevator, as described above, is someone paying a per diem, to have those cars patiently waiting?  I presume BNSF is paying *rent* to Ellis & Eastern, the shortline who owns the track?

[Railway Man]

Most likely they ARE grain hoppers, ordered in by an elevator that doesn't yet either have the grain to fill them, or over-ordered in the premature expectation that a contract would mature, or ordered because to wait a week would mean none at all for a long time, or the elevator is having weighing or sampling or conveying or bug problems.  Or the railroad anticipates there will be an order for them, and has put them there because they don't want to incur hundreds of deadhead miles to haul them off someplace then haul them back.

Where ELSE do you put empty cars?  Not in the yard -- that clogs it up.  Not on a siding -- makes it hard to make meets there.  Sounds like a great place to put them to me.

RWM 

[Murphy Siding]

   A couple of weeks ago, BNSF(?) parked 30 or 40 covered hoppers on an out of the way, dead end line.  In fact, the line belongs to someone else.  How would a person find out what these cars usually haul, in order to guess why they are parked there?  We've seen a lot of grain trains recently, so I can't picture them being parked grain hoppers.(?)

     A car # I caught while driving by on the highway was: FURX 843557.  Any guesses?

  ( To beat some to the punch:  no outward signs of shackles!