Containers?

[alangj]

Several times a week, I see full-length TTX flats carrying stacks of small containers operating on the CSX (ex-B&OCT) track across the street on the south side of Chicago. An acquaintance at work says that he's seen similar containers on the UP (ex-C&NW) in the northern suburbs, too.

The containers look to be 20' long and about 3' tall, with what looks like a canvas or tarp across their tops. Essentially, they look like small dump-truck bodies, and are carried in four stacks on a typical flat, a three-high stack on each end of the car, and two two-high stacks in the center of the car.

Does anyone know what sort of material(s) are these containers used for? They don't seem like they'd be used for transfer to ocean vessels, because of the "soft" tops on them, so I'm assuming that they have a more domestic usage.

Alan
Evergreen Park, IL

[CShaveRR]

They're usually used for contaminated dirt (sometimes mildly radioactive) en route to a disposition area. The ones that are stacked two high on the flat cars may be carying garbage, or something presumably less dense than dirt.

There is a major reclamation project underway in Oak Park; a park built on the site of an old gas plant is being cleaned up...the old dirt is shipped to Michigan, and new dirt is being brought in. Those are probably the cars you see on CSX.

We get some moves of these boxes on through freights (from east of Chicago to west of North Platte), but I don't have (or want) the precise details.

[alangj]

Carl,

Makes perfect sense to me! (I've been seeing the newspaper writeups about that park reclamation project for the last several months.) The CSXT line that I see across the street from our house is the one that comes from their intermodal yard near 79th & Western on the south side of Chicago, which is also their interconnection with the BRC about two miles east of the Clearing Yard. Going to the south, this CSXT line heads down to their Barr Yard in Riverdale, then heads east to Indiana and "points east." That would certainly make this a logical routing for hauling that "stuff" (you're right - don't know, don't want to know) over to Michigan. Usually, the containers that I see are loaded 10 to the flat, in a 3-2-2-3 stacking configuration. Even the 3-high stacks at each end of the car only look a bit taller that a standard container.
Through my job, I (unfortunately) know what an environmental mess the cleanup of the old "town gas" sites can be, what with all of the nasty coal tar and sludge that generally was dumped into some sort of pond or basin "right out back" of the plant. Hopefully, they'll be able to (re)clean the park and return it to some sort of community usage for Oak Park. Thanks again!

Alan
Evergreen Park, IL

[alangj]

Spotted another bunch of similar (but not identical) containers Thursday afternoon on the line through Bedford Park/Bridgeview. These looked to be a bit taller (but not too much so) and were stacked six to a flatcar in a 2-1-1-2 configuration. They were all solid battleship gray, with the word "EPIC" on the side of each one in dark maroon letters. Each one had the canvas (tarp?) covering like the smaller ones I've seen here from home. The train was standing underneath an overpass that I went across, so I don't know which direction (N or S) they were headed.

Alan

[Anonymous]

O.K. guys, I live in Michigan, and Carl said that this contaminated soil is being sent up here. I'm not an environmental "nut", but I am curious as to what is being sent here, and where exactly it is ending up. We have such a pretty state here, is "big-corporate-greed" ruining yet another pristine area in the interests of the stockholders?
Please give me some info.
Todd C.

[dknelson]

I can't assist with where the stuff is going in Mich. but there was recently a high profile lawsuit here in Wisconsin concerning the site of a former gas plant. Evidently an integral part of the gas processing back in the old days involved cyanide-laced wood chips, which were often just piled and dumped and buried in the ground. A different era (we hope) ....

[oltmannd]

Those containers have also been used to transport dried sewage sludge.

[CShaveRR]

Hey, Todd, I'm a Michigan native, too.

I wouldn't panic too much about the soil...it's extensively treated before it even leaves the site (most of the contamination I heard about was from coal tar compounds). I'm sure I've seen a more precise location, but I think it's somewhere below the Thumb.