# Buffer Cars



## CSXfoamer1997 (Apr 13, 2016)

Buffer Cars are commonly seen on certain trains such as ethanol trains, crude oil trains, sulfur trains, and other certain unit trains. They are sandwiched in between the locomotive(s) and the first car, and sometimes seen on the end of the train. The most common buffer cars used are either covered hoppers or boxcars.

Why are Buffer Cars often used on trains with tankers or some other cars? And what are they often loaded with (as they say "Do Not Load")? And when did this become an FRA requirement?


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## CCC1007 (Apr 13, 2016)

Protection for the crew in case of explosions is one reason, but the MRL gas local uses a company box car that carries cleanup gear in case of derailment so as to protect the rivers and other environmental assets that it travels through.


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## CSXfoamer1997 (Apr 13, 2016)

CCC1007 said:


> Protection for the crew in case of explosions is one reason, but the MRL gas local uses a company box car that carries cleanup gear in case of derailment so as to protect the rivers and other environmental assets that it travels through.


Oh, I see.


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## CCC1007 (Apr 13, 2016)

Here is a photo of a typical train, credit to Flickr user MRL 390.


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## Devil's Advocate (Apr 13, 2016)

CCC1007 said:


> Protection for the crew in case of explosions is one reason, but the MRL gas local uses a company box car that carries cleanup gear in case of derailment so as to protect the rivers and other environmental assets that it travels through.


Cleanup is what you do _after_ all your protections have failed. In many cases conventional remediation involves collecting polluted soil/water from a popular/visible/connected area before transporting it to a less popular/visible/connected area over a very long timeframe at an exceptionally high cost. In the long run it would likely be cheaper and easier to mandate substantially improved tanker car designs and operational restrictions. Hopefully the US will eventually follow Canada's lead on this matter, but I doubt it.


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## CSXfoamer1997 (Apr 13, 2016)

CCC1007 said:


> Here is a photo of a typical train, credit to Flickr user MRL 390.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's a very good example of what I referred to!


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## GG-1 (Apr 13, 2016)

Aloha

There is a list of car order when Hazardis material is in a train. So long ago I took a class about this. There are even rules that apply to the location of Live stock in a train


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## Bob Dylan (Apr 13, 2016)

GG-1 said:


> Aloha
> 
> There is a list of car order when Hazardis material is in a train. So long ago I took a class about this. There are even rules that apply to the location of Live stock in a train


Best place for Livestock on a Train is being served for Dinner in tbe Diner!


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## Acela150 (Apr 13, 2016)

Foamer. This is another topic easily answered on Google.

Now here is what Google won't tell you. A Buffer Car is defined as a "Non Placarded Car". It can be a tank car that carries a Non Dangerous product. Such as Corn Syrup or water.


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## cirdan (Apr 14, 2016)

In the UK there used to be rules on what position explosives cars may occupy in a train. In the days of steam engines this was about sparks from the engine and the rules mandated a certain minimum distance.


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## jebr (Apr 14, 2016)

We've hidden a few posts that are under review, as some on the moderating team believe they contain personal attacks or were engaging them.


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## Devil's Advocate (Apr 14, 2016)

jebr said:


> We've hidden a few posts that are under review, as some on the moderating team believe they contain personal attacks or were engaging them.


I'm not part of whatever happened, and honestly I don't have a dog in the fight, but I just wanted to commend the staff on a couple items that are important to me. First, I want to thank you for not locking the entire thread over a personal spat. Second, I want to thank the staff for alerting everyone to the removal/hiding of posts. This kind of moderating is exactly what I felt was previously missing and I'm glad to see it being addressed.


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## Ryan (Apr 14, 2016)

Steve posted the highly complicated Google search (railroad buffer car) that lead him to the exact answer sought by our resident Googlephobe.


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## jebr (Apr 14, 2016)

We've had this discussion (about asking questions that are easy to Google, among other things) numerous times. There's even a thread in Random Discussions about it. I will say that the moderating team does sometimes address recurring issues via PM as well.

Again, we have hidden posts that, by at least some of our moderating team, have either contained personal attacks or engaged them. (For the record, there was a post before Steve's post that CSXfoamer1997 posted that we hid as well.) Not every post that was hidden had a personal attack, but we did hide posts that were irrelevant without them.

Any further off-topic posts in this thread will be hidden. If there's a question posted that anyone does not want to answer, for whatever reason (including "it's so simple a web search will find the answer,") simply don't answer the question.


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## CCC1007 (Apr 15, 2016)

Devil's Advocate said:


> CCC1007 said:
> 
> 
> > Protection for the crew in case of explosions is one reason, but the MRL gas local uses a company box car that carries cleanup gear in case of derailment so as to protect the rivers and other environmental assets that it travels through.
> ...


In the 20+ years that MRL has run this train, twice per day, there has been only one incident that I know of. In that incident, a runaway car not associated with the train sideswiped the buffer car of the train before the locomotives were attached. This caused the entire string of cars, some 25+, to derail and roll over. Luckily the tank cars were empty, and their tight lock shelf type couplers worked flawlessly. Not a single car uncoupled from the adjacent cars, even when tipping over.


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## NW cannonball (Apr 17, 2016)

GG-1 said:


> Aloha
> 
> There is a list of car order when Hazardis material is in a train. So long ago I took a class about this. There are even rules that apply to the location of Live stock in a train


Yeah, I kinda remember that there's many many hazmat rules about spacing between dangerous loads, not just the one buffer car we see between the motors and the oil cans.

Like, how many non-haz cars between, say, a load of rocket motors and a load of ethanol, or butadiene, on the same train. Not much livestock on freight trains these days, but yeah.


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## Acela150 (Apr 17, 2016)

Yes. The rules on where Dangerous shipments are placed come from the Feds. That was half a day of haz mat training at NS.


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## Palmetto (Apr 18, 2016)

In railroad parlance, these trains are referred to as "key trains", and the definition of them varies somewhat from one railroad to the next.


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## CCC1007 (Apr 18, 2016)

Palmetto said:


> In railroad parlance, these trains are referred to as "key trains", and the definition of them varies somewhat from one railroad to the next.


I have never heard this term, and thought that they were called, at least on BNSF, "unit trains."


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## Palmetto (Apr 18, 2016)

CCC1007 said:


> Palmetto said:
> 
> 
> > In railroad parlance, these trains are referred to as "key trains", and the definition of them varies somewhat from one railroad to the next.
> ...


A key train can be a unit train, or a manifest train if the manifest meets the railroad's definition of a key train.


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