Holy Bulging Box Cars Batman!

[dharmon]

The other day I was driving along and noticed a group of cars sitting on a siding. Several older Railbox type boxcars had roofs that looked like someone had over-inflated the car with air. The roofs were bulging up irregularly at least 8 to 12 inches in places. Over the past few days I started to notices it on more cars..all older, all of the Railbox style 50 footers. What gives? Are overzealous forklift drivers beating them up (literally!)? Or does heat build up in them cause the roofs to pop up? The roofs don't really look like something hit them, more like they were pushed up from below.

[Randy Stahl]

Did you notice if they had shackles and or manacles inside ?
Randy

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl

Did you notice if they had shackles and or manacles inside ?
Randy

UH, If they had those inside;wouldn't they be 'caved in',not raised up?[}:)][:D]

[Mookie]

Warm Beer and a rough ride!

[Randy Stahl]

QUOTE: Originally posted by locomutt

QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl

Did you notice if they had shackles and or manacles inside ?
Randy

UH, If they had those inside;wouldn't they be 'caved in',not raised up?[}:)][:D]

Assuming they are hanging political dissidents by meathooks...yes .
Randy

[dharmon]

The doors were closed, so the screaming was pretty hard to hear at first. It was marked Plate PP which I believe is Politcial Prisoner ...and with the RNC going on and all those demonstrators arrested who knows.....I thought the Pullman Standard cars had manacles and the Gunderson cars had shackles.

[Randy Stahl]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Warm Beer and a rough ride!

You would hear belching... not screaming.

[Junctionfan]

Does any of the ammunition industries take boxcars for the transport of their finnished products?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Warm Beer and a rough ride!

You would hear belching... not screaming.

Those damn Canadian mice got at the Molsons again...LOL

LC

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Does any of the ammunition industries take boxcars for the transport of their finnished products?

The roofs are still there...along with downtown San Diego.

[Anonymous]

I've noticed this bulging on these cars as well--perhaps they were purposely shoved up some to increase capacity??? The ones I noticed were being loaded with bales of scrap paper. Anyone know for sure?

[edblysard]

Dan has the answer...the forklift driver wasn't paying attention...

Note the doors have both door height and width clearances marked, and the inside height clearance of the boxcar noted right on the door...

Weirdest one I have seen so far not only had the forklift bulge, but, for reasons unknown, a pile of dirt on top of the bump, with grass growing in it...


Ed[:D]

[Junctionfan]

I not talking about howitzer stuff. Good god man, I hope they would use box cars like that. I was thinking about bullets or something like that for hunting rifles and handguns.

[espeefoamer]

An ammo boxcar would be red and have a large bulls eye painted on the side and would explode into 5 or 6 pieces when hit by a missile launched from a rocket fireing flatcar[;)]!

[UPTRAIN]

Hope no middle easterners are looking at this forum....(the ones that want to get us, not the friendly muslim).

[mudchicken]

Whut the? Ya mean that industries don't take care of revenue cars like they were their own?[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

[corwinda]

I have seen the roof bulges in lots of boxcars; but I seem to notice it more on SP cars.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Whut the? Ya mean that industries don't take care of revenue cars like they were their own?[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

Oh, no, they always treat the equipment like gold...FOFLMAO....

"Honest, that ladder was all torn up when we got it. No, nevermid that paiint transfer on our front end loader..."

"We never use it to move the cars..."

LC

[Junctionfan]

Doesn't ammunition trains have a caboose on it for security crews? I would hate to think what would happen if that thing was hijacked.

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Limitedclear

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Whut the? Ya mean that industries don't take care of revenue cars like they were their own?[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

Oh, no, they always treat the equipment like gold...FOFLMAO....

"Honest, that ladder was all torn up when we got it. No, nevermid that paiint transfer on our front end loader..."

"We never use it to move the cars..."

LC

...and then they complain the loudest to the car distributor / mobile agent/ logistics guy that they get such crappy pool cars to serve them![}:)][}:)][}:] [;)][;)][;)]

[locomutt]

OH,I got it;
You mean the "THe Battle of New Orleans" by Johnny Horton"(the alligator)
"put a cannonball in it's mouth,and powdered its behind"
That might raise the roof on anything[:D]

[Anonymous]

Do RR need special permits/permissions from each state to carry stuff like that? Do they need to inform states before they cross state lines?

[mudchicken]

nope

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard

Dan has the answer...the forklift driver wasn't paying attention...

Note the doors have both door height and width clearances marked, and the inside height clearance of the boxcar noted right on the door...

Weirdest one I have seen so far not only had the forklift bulge, but, for reasons unknown, a pile of dirt on top of the bump, with grass growing in it...


Ed[:D] I had a mental picture of this and had to quit reading for a couple of minutes while I wiped the tears out of my eyes!

Mook

[Mookie]

Mudchix or anyone else - a few years back - didn't some states have to give permission to haul spent nuclear fuel across the state boarders? Seem to remember we had a stink here in Nebraska about that. Refresh my memory.....

Mookie

[Anonymous]

Are dead aliens considered hazmat? How would these cars be marked?

[Randy Stahl]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jruppert

Are dead aliens considered hazmat? How would these cars be marked?

DO NOT HUMP !!!

[Junctionfan]

If they haven't had a shower in a long time they might be marked inhalation hazard.

[Overmod]

OK, this has been a hoot, but nobody seems to have figured out the situation.

I thought I knew the answer right away, but additional confirmation came from a later post that noted what was being loaded into these cars.

If a boxcar is loaded full of a commodity that will swell if it gets wet, and then gets a roof leak, the commodity will expand. Transverse loading like this will rapidly bulge out, and eventually break, flat surfaces... both roof and side... on boxcars. (There were some very good pictures of this in Trains many years ago... for some reason I remember 1971 as the year).

Bulges in the roof only would imply that the car was full of something that swelled fairly quickly in response to a leak in the roof material or seams... but that kept water away from material 'lower down' in the car once it had done so. Also that the material lower down was fairly dense in compression.

Scrap paper, especially if 'bundled' using one of the presses commonly in use, would be a prime candidate for this kind of problem imho.

[Randy Stahl]

If you look inside the cars you can see the scrapes from forklifts... The bulging is almost always near the doors. I'll bet that some of it is deliberate by the forklift drivers, Iv'e seen some major damage the the roof panels. Of course thats AFTER they pull the car around for spotting by the hand brake wheel , or use a front end loader to push on the stirrups, or pull the doors open (off ) with a monster truck, and don't forget if you have a loaded gondola to load the scrap iron while the metal is still molten so you soften the metal carbody and burn all the paint off !
Randy