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One of those annoying "What is it?" threads

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One of those annoying "What is it?" threads
Posted by edblysard on Monday, August 20, 2007 9:20 PM

Carl knows, Mudchicken knows, and I am pretty sure LC knows...even ericsp probably knows...but who can guess what this car carries?

Sorry about the odd shot, it snuck up one me while I was headed to the grocery store and I shot out the car window while driving...sometimes ya just take what ya can get.

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Posted by Ted Marshall on Monday, August 20, 2007 9:32 PM
What is "carbon black" Alex?
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Posted by edblysard on Monday, August 20, 2007 9:41 PM

Wow, your quick...

Pick you next catagory for $200...Big Smile [:D]

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Posted by ericsp on Monday, August 20, 2007 9:42 PM

 Ted Marshall wrote:
What is "carbon black" Alex?

We have a winner. It is owned by, or on long term lease to, Cabot Corporation. We get those coming through here occasionally.

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Posted by samuelpc on Monday, August 20, 2007 9:51 PM

 

carbor black ???  A process  compound used to color tires and many other Black colored of

Life necesities, also used to make carbon brushes for all the motors that make life easy;

One of life's needed items; 1000 and 1 uses and counting

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Posted by CNW 6000 on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 12:10 AM

I was gonna guess plastic pellets or concrete...

I was waaay off!  Oops [oops]  But then I don't work for the RRs!

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Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:45 AM

Wonder if that came out of Hickock/Ryus, KS...right next to the helium plants.

Laundress would want to kill me any time I had to work in that really black hole place in the West Kansas wheatfields....

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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:50 AM

Can someone enlighten me about the ingredients in carbon black?  Is it a petroleum product?  Is it liquid, solid, powder? 

(I know - google it, but google has never been as much fun as this forum!)

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Posted by JonathanS on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:10 AM
 Mookie wrote:

Can someone enlighten me about the ingredients in carbon black?  Is it a petroleum product?  Is it liquid, solid, powder? 

(I know - google it, but google has never been as much fun as this forum!)

It is a powder and is basically just carbon.  You might get a clue on how it is made from its old name.  "Lamp Black" from the soot inside the glass chimney on a kerosene lamp.  They make it by burning oil, natural gas, waste oils, etc. and preventing the combustion from completing.  Many years ago they made the flames hit the bottoms of steel channels which moved back and forth.  The carbon would build up on the steel and be scraped off as the channel moved.  They might still make it that way but it has been several decades since I have been in one of those plants.

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Posted by Mookie on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:17 AM

Thank you!  And I bet I am not the only one that was wondering, so thank you from them too!

Mook

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Posted by Steam Is King on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 3:37 PM

Years ago, some companies mixed carbon black with parafin wax and other compinds to produce black shoe polish.

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Posted by espeefoamer on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:10 PM
I knew right away what that car carried.Back in the 70s there were always several strings of carbon black hoppers south of Mojave,near the old railroad scrapyard. I assumed there was a carbon black plant nearby and wondered what it did.
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Posted by Steam Is King on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:17 PM
 Steam Is King wrote:

Years ago, some companies mixed carbon black with parafin wax and other compinds to produce black shoe polish.

Chico

also found this;

"The most common use [70%] of carbon black is as a pigment and reinforcing phase in automobile tires. Carbon black also helps conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, reducing thermal damage and increasing tire life. Carbon black particles are also employed in some radar absorbent materials and in printer toner.

Total production is about 8.1 million tonnes (2006)[1]. About 20% of world production goes into belts, hoses, and other rubber goods. The balance is used in inks and as a pigment for products other than tires.

Carbon black from vegetable origin is used as a food coloring, in Europe known as additive E153"

Chico

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Posted by Steam Is King on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:18 PM
 Steam Is King wrote:

Years ago, some companies mixed carbon black with parafin wax and other compinds to produce black shoe polish.

Chico

also found this;

"The most common use [70%] of carbon black is as a pigment and reinforcing phase in automobile tires. Carbon black also helps conduct heat away from the tread and belt area of the tire, reducing thermal damage and increasing tire life. Carbon black particles are also employed in some radar absorbent materials and in printer toner.

Total production is about 8.1 million tonnes (2006)[1]. About 20% of world production goes into belts, hoses, and other rubber goods. The balance is used in inks and as a pigment for products other than tires.

Carbon black from vegetable origin is used as a food coloring, in Europe known as additive E153

Carbon black (Colour Index International, PBL-7) is the name of a common black pigment, traditionally produced from charring organic materials such as wood or bone. It consists of pure elemental carbon, and it appears black because it reflects almost no light in the visible part of the spectrum. It is known by a variety of names, each of which reflects a traditional method for producing carbon black:

  • Ivory black was traditionally produced by charring ivory or animal bones (see bone char).
  • Vine black was traditionally produced by charring desiccated grape vines and stems.
  • Lamp black was traditionally produced by collecting soot, also known as lampblack, from oil lamps.

Newer methods of producing carbon black have superseded these traditional sources, although some materials are still produced using traditional methods, for artisanal purposes"

Chico

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Posted by spokyone on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:20 PM
 samuelpc wrote:

 

carbor black ???  A process  compound used to color tires and many other Black colored of

Life necesities, also used to make carbon brushes for all the motors that make life easy;

One of life's needed items; 1000 and 1 uses and counting

Is it carbon black that is used in EDM machines that burn metal to a desired shape by arcing?
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Posted by edblysard on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 7:12 PM

Mookie,

You know the black powder in the printer cartridges that seems to get on every thing in the office when you have to change one...(which is why everyone smacks the printer a few times first, because they don't want to mess with changing the nasty thing)?

 

The cars are painted black because they will end up that color anyway...I have a few sample bottles I boosted off the end of one of these cars...guess the lab techs forgot where they stacked them...it makes a great pigment when mixed with lindseed oil in home made stains.

When we have one of these cars in our train, and it is near the point where we have to ride, I will ride the car ahead of it, even a auto rack, before I get on one of these...you have to wash your cloths separate from everything else after that, and wash them a few times before you get it all out.

I have even rode the car behind these guys, instead of getting on them, its that messy.

 

Oh, the car is a hopper, even though it looks like a boxcar...it has discharge chutes on the bottom and hatches in the roof.

Guess I have to find something a little harder for the next round?

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Posted by Ted Marshall on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:10 PM
 edblysard wrote:

Guess I have to find something a little harder for the next round?

Bring it on. I know all of them

 

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Posted by edblysard on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:17 PM

 

Not the car, or the flat, but whats on the flatcar...

Ok, kinda cheating, but you said...Big Smile [:D]

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Posted by Ted Marshall on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:47 PM
I think that's an EMD G8. Good one.
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Posted by edblysard on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:06 PM
Ok, where is it from?Smile [:)]

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Posted by Ted Marshall on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:09 PM
I believe they're from the Korean National Railway.
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Posted by edblysard on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:10 PM
Cool...

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Posted by Ted Marshall on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:14 PM

That photo appears to have been taken on BNSF's Cuba subdivision in Missouri. Am I correct?

 

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Posted by blhanel on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:16 PM
Not with Ed's Dodge Magnum in the shot...Big Smile [:D]
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Posted by Ted Marshall on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:42 PM

 If my research is correct, there were six of these that were destined for Chile. #'s 3050, 3019, 3014, 3052, 3039 and 3046.

These units departed from Silvis, IL on 11/24/04 and were picked up at Barstow, IL by the M-NSIGAL1-23. They left barstow with the NS 6790-NS 9657-NREX 5070, then the 5 flats right behind the power. There was a sixth engine, #3046 on flatcar OTTX 93477, but was set out because the conductor could not get the correct paperwork for it. These particular engines sat in Silvis for several years. They originally arrived on the UP and were handed over to the IAIS at Des Moines for the trip east into Silvis.

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Posted by ericsp on Tuesday, August 21, 2007 10:13 PM

 espeefoamer wrote:
I knew right away what that car carried.Back in the 70s there were always several strings of carbon black hoppers south of Mojave,near the old railroad scrapyard. I assumed there was a carbon black plant nearby and wondered what it did.

According to http://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/search.asp?cmd=search&reporttype=SSF&hidept=True&status=&reporttitle=Senate+District+18&senate=18&export_excel=True there used to be three carbon black plants in Kern County.

Columbia Chemical was at 12701 United Street, south of Mojave.

Continental Carbon was where the Buttonwillow Branch crosses the Stockdale Highway, east of Bakersfield.

Great Lakes Carbon was at 1050 Sierra Highway, south of Rosamond.

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Posted by edblysard on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 4:56 AM

Ted,

Would you care to guess again?

Missouri?

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Posted by Randy Stahl on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 5:24 AM
Ummm .. I guess .. somewhere in Texas , perhaps in a swamp someplace ??
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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 6:51 AM

There are also some KNR RS8's (repowered with EMD engines) sitting at NRE in Dixmoor.  The RS8 would be the Alco model comparable to the G8.

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Posted by KCSfan on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 4:43 PM

Hi Ed,

A lot of people beat me to the first "what is it". I've seen a lot of those cars carrying carbon black on former T&P lines in south Louisiana where there are several plants that make the stuff. I also see them from time to time on the KCS here at Shreveport. To the best of my knowledge they are all privately owned cars and some have one of the owner/manufacturers name, CABOT, painted in bold letters on their sides. I'm open to correction but think carbon black is the product of incomplete combustion of hydro cardons (petroleum or natural gas) which explains the concentration of its manufacture in the chemical belt of south LA.

With respect to that crap on the flats, I suspect it is bound for Mexico or overseas but don't have a clue as to who it formerly belonged to.

Mark

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