The Railcars of East Palestine Train Derailment

The mixed freight rail cars of train 32N have a story to tell us, and it's not the story you're being told.

Writing this article has been a labor of love. I’m not a chemical engineer. I don’t know what happens when Polypylene Glycol, Petroleum Lube Oil, Polypropyl Glycol, Diethylene Glycol, Ethyhexyl Acrylate and Butyl Acrylates are mixed together and combust. I know enough to know it’s probably not a good idea, and I wish the “experts” in media and government would be a little honest and transparent with us here. When you have 232,000 gallons of it burning I’m not sure what can be done to put it out. With a background in Civil and Environmental Engineering, if it gets into the soil and water I know it’s a process to get it out. I’m not an expert on railroads, but there is enough information out there to obtain some level of competancy.

This is a massive ecological and environment disaster. Nearly a month later this accident has had massive impacts on the town of East Palestine and the surrounding areas. Here we’re trying to make sense of what railcars are what, what was inside of them and what did they spill. While the focus post accident has been on the five vinyl chloride cars, what about the rest of the tanker cars and hoppers filed with Polyvinyl?

The story begins the moment the cars begin to leave the rails. According to a preliminary investigation released by the NTSB on 2/14/23:

“On Feb. 3, at approximately 8:54 p.m., local time, eastbound Norfolk Southern Railway, general merchandise freight train 32N, derailed on main track 1 in East Palestine, Ohio. As a result of the derailment, 38 rail cars derailed and a fire ensued which damaged an additional 12 cars. There were 20 total hazardous material cars in the train consist—11 of which derailed. A list of what the derailed rail cars were carrying is available online. There were no reported fatalities or injuries. “

In addition to preliminary statements, NTSB released a freight manifest of the cars and their contents. The hopper cars (Line 25 & 26) appear to leave the tracks first, followed by empty tanker car. Behind the tanker car, 4 DOT 105J300W tanker cars filled with liquid vinyl chloride, (stored in these cars up to 300 PSI). Following the Vinyl Chloride cars, 5 more tanker cars. One Hopper loaded with Semolina, then one more tanker with ehtyl acrylate, two more hoppers load with polyvinyl, then 13 more tanker cars! Two more hoppers, another vinyl chloride tanker car, three box cars, three more tankers, three hoppers, autocar and finally a few box cars.

The hoppers came off first pulled the tankers along with them. The tankers began to pile up, they crumped and rolled and absorbed the impacts of the cars behind.

The majority of the tanker cars in the pileup are DOT 111A100W1 spec cars. These are tank cars have a design dating back to the 1960’s, and are scheduled to be phased out of rail service. They’re at the end of their life cycle with some have manufacturing dates in excess of 50 years ago! Their safety equipment is outdated, the construction standards of these are outdated, the derailment design of tank is outdated, and there is no rollover protection on the hoods (these are on the top of the tank cars containing equipment for filling, measuring and pressure releif vavles). The DOT111’s have a nasty habit of cracking open during a deraillment which of course can spill up to 29,000 gallons/ (up to 100 tons+/-) of liquid contents in the immediate area.

During the East Palestine deraillment, 6 out of 13 of the DOT 111A100W1 tankers lost their entire load, or lost partial load (I’m counting unknown amount as partial). The includes a tanker filled with Propylene Glycol, two filled with Petroleum Lube Oil, two with Diethylene Glycol, and the remain single cars with Polypropyl Glycol, and Butyl Acrylates. One car had a “partial loss of Petroleum Lube Oil”. So if my math is correct here, up to 58,000 gallons of Propylene Glycol, 58,000 gallons of Petroleum Lube Oil, 58,000 gallons of of Deithylene Glycol were spilled out into the right-of-way between the eastbound and westbound tracks. The remainder is 29,000 gallons of Propylene Glycol and up to 29000 gallons Buty Acrylates. The remaining Petroleum Lube Oil is unknown.

Additionally a two DOT111S100W1 tanker cars experianced a loss and breach. One of these tanker cars had unknown amount of Ethylene Glycol MonoButly Ether and the second has head breach of a tanker containing Ethylhexyl Acrylate losing unknown amount of product. Additionally a DOT211A100W1 losing entire load of Petroleum Lube Oil.

Up to 319,000 gallons of this mixture spilling out into the open right away between the eastbound and westbound tracks, approximately 25’ wide. The average capacity of swimming pool is 17,000 gallons, so approximately 18.7 swimming pools filled with a mixture of liquids with varies degrees of flammability and combustion. I don’t know what started the fire, but the the screenshot below shows the size of this flaming pool of chemicals. Approximate length of this pool is 1600’ x 25’ wide. What could local fire departments have in their arsenal to put something like this out?

Many of the local media began showing this drone footage the week following the accident. This gives us the true scale of the chemical mix catching fire. On the lower right of the screen the pool is approaching a crossing on N Pleasant Drive. The remainder of the chemical pool is coming from top left of photo near the first cars involved in the derailment over a 1/4 mile away from the crossing.

This Scaled Orthographic Image shows a shaded dark area to represent to approximate extents of mixed chemical pool that burned the evening of February 3rd 2023. General dimension are approximately 1600’ long x 25’ wide. Assuming the pool is 6” deep, this would be 20000 cubic feet or 149600 +/- gallons.

According to the manifest provided by Northfolk Southern, amongst the tanker cars were four hoppers filled with Polyvinyl. Hoppers vary in length and capacity, but for the time being we’ll assume they’re under 60 ft long with a 100 tons of material each. Potentially up to 400 tons of this product burned through the entire weekend following the derailment. The hoppers of most likely filled with ground up PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride). A material according to the IACHI that has the following two products of PVC combustion of particular concern:

• hydrogen chloride, which is a corrosive, highly toxic gas that can burn skin and cause severe, permanent respiratory damage; and

• dioxin, the most dangerous known man-made carcinogen, which will persist in the environment for a long period of time. PVC is the largest contributor to the world’s dioxin burden.

In addition to the Polyvinyl Hoppers, the two lead Polyethylene Hoppers also appear to burn continuously through their 200 tons of Polyethylene during the entire weekend following the derailment generating thick black smoke that can be seen in the photo below:

The screenshot above is obtained from drone footage taken during the afternoon Sunday February 5th. In this photo we can see the Polyethylenne hoppers burning as well as a flame coming from one of the vinyl chloride tanker cars

Complementing the burning PVC are the five vinyl chloride tanker cars. These allegedly were the troublesome cars that needed to undergo a “controlled burn” to “safely release the contents” on Monday afternoon Feburary 6th. Vinyl Chloride, just like PVC, also generates hydrogen chloride, phosgene and dioxin as a byproduct of poor combustion. While reviewing some of the drone footage present on online media platforms, we can see that the vinyl chloride cars also had some trouble during the weekend following the derailment. One drone pilot obtained amazing footage showcasing a timeline of the accident from Feb 3rd to 8th that can be found here. While watching the video, take notice of the two vinyl chloride cars with flames inside the hood of their PRD’s (Pressure Releif Device) around 2:10 minutes into the video. The filmaker then claims to heard a massive explosion to return to the cars around marker 3:15 to catch a massive flame shooting up from on the railcars. Keep in mind most of the railcars you’re seeing in this footage are around 65’ long. As he flies the drone closer we see a DOT105J300W tanker OCPX 80179 belching out a nearly 100’ long flame! A flamethrower fueled by 25,800 gals of highly pressurized vinyl chloride. The DOT105J300W are specialty tanker cars with the tank material typically manufactured from stainless steel wrapped in fiberglass insulation with a ceramic fiber blanket to transport chemicals like vinyl chloride at pressures up to 300 PSI. The only other DOT105J300W tanker car was line #49, NATX 35844, a tanker car containing Butyl Acrylates. Thankfully it appears it was not breached, however I’m sure if this one made it through the “controlled burn” at this point.

Subsequent drone footage from Sunday February 5th shows the flame has died down on OCPX 80179, and now tanker GATX 95098 has become a large vinyl chloride flame thrower which burned throughout the following Sunday. By Sunday afternoon NTSB obtained their B-Roll drone footage, and a flyover of the vinyl chloride cars shows they their flames inside the PRD hoods have nearly died out. The sequence of screenshots below show the timeline.

Above is a labeled screenshot taken from drone footage the morning of February 4th. At this time the chemical pool fire has extinguished. Inside the Hood of tanker cars GATX 95098 and OCPX 801179 with see flames most likely fueled by leaking vinyl chloride from the the pressure relief valve or other equipment.

Above is a labeled screenshot taken from drone footage the morning of February 4th. This screenshot was a few minutes after right capturing the fire inside the hoods of the vinyl chloride cars. Car #30, OCPX 80179 has a sudden release of pressurized liquid vinyl chloride creating a massive flame. For reference the diameter of the tank of these cars is just under 10’, and the length nearly 47.5’ long. Flame appears to be up to 100’ in length.

Above is a labeled screenshot taken from drone footage taken during February 5th. We see the flame from Car #30, OCPX 80179 has become much smaller, but is still putting out a plume of dark black smoke. Now Car #31, GATX 95098 has ignited and begun burning off it’s 25,800 gallon load of vinyl chloride into the atmosphere.

Last but not least is a screenshot from the B-Roll drone footage provided by the NTSB which appears to have been obtained the afternoon of Sunday February 5th. Here is we see the flame on GATX 95098 is nearly out as most of the flammable liquid is gone. OCPX is smoking still.

On Monday February 6th, the decision was made to due a controlled burn over the concern of the stability of the five tanker cars containing vinyl chloride. By February 7th, Norfolk Southern had stated the following on their website:

Both mainlines were restored to service on February 7 – after our Engineering team and contractors worked to quickly clear the site and lay down new infrastructure. Norfolk Southern continues to make progress in two key areas: addressing the backlog of traffic; and getting power and crews back in cycle. As we continue to do so, customers will see a positive reflection of these efforts in the status of their shipments.

“Controlled Burn”

Here are my questions.

-It’s very clear to me 2 out of the 5 vinyl chloride cars already burned off their product and didn’t explode. Was the controlled burn necessary? Which car had the rising temperature?

-If two of the five cars successfully vented their product, Wouldn’t the other cars also vent their product? If cars vented their product, could harmful pressures build up?

-Logistically, how many semi truck tanker trailers would be needed to offload vinyl chloride from a tanker car? With the product being under it’s high pressures, what would’ve made this a challenge? Did this sway the decision to conduct a controlled burn?

-What byproducts are there from Propylene Glycol, Petroleum Lube Oil, Polypropyl Glycol, Diethylene Glycol, Ethyhexyl Acrylate, and Butyl Acrylates are mixed together and then burning? How much of 232,000 gallons burned off and how much seeped into the aggregate form the bed for the railroad and into the soil and water beneath it?

-How much hydrogen chloride and dioxin is generated from burning 400 tons of polyvinyl, 50000 gallons on vinyl chloride throughout the Weekend, and the remaining 75000 gallons during controlled burn?

-With the vinyl chloride burning over the weekend, how would this impact dispersion?

Please feel free to leave comments below on feedback and anything you’d like me to go into on more detail.