Rail cars

Documents

• The train consist A document showing the current positions within a train of cars carrying hazardous materials.. This document is carried by the train crew, and also should be in the company's computer system. It lists all cars in the train and the current positions of cars carrying hazardous materials.

• Waybills. A waybill is issued for each rail car. It lists the shipper, consignee, and car contents. Waybills should be kept by the conductor.

Markings

• Stenciling. For certain chemicals, the name of the hazardous material in the rail car is stenciled on both sides. Example:

  As the stenciled name shows, this tank car carries liquified petroleum gas, or LPG.

• Placards.  Placards on the rail car indicate the substance's main hazard and also display the UN/NA number United Nations-North America number. (Also UN Number or DOT Number.) Four-digit number identifying an individual chemical or group of chemicals with similar characteristics. Required on shipping papers; often shown on placards or labels. Often preceded by "UN": e.g., "UN1219.". Example: Note that placards may be missing, and rail cars may be incorrectly placarded.  Where to look for placards:

  The DOT placard with UN/NA number United Nations-North America number. (Also UN Number or DOT Number.) Four-digit number identifying an individual chemical or group of chemicals with similar characteristics. Required on shipping papers; often shown on placards or labels. Often preceded by "UN": e.g., "UN1219." (1824) is visible on this derailed tankcar.

  

  1. Look for identical diamond-shaped placards on the front, rear, and both sides of the rail car.

  1. On the placard, look for the UN/NA number United Nations-North America number. (Also UN Number or DOT Number.) Four-digit number identifying an individual chemical or group of chemicals with similar characteristics. Required on shipping papers; often shown on placards or labels. Often preceded by "UN": e.g., "UN1219.". (Some placards display only the substance's hazard class One of 9 categories of hazardous materials. The hazard class indicates the most important hazard of a given material (e.g., "Explosives," "Poison Gas"). While some materials meet the criteria for more than one class, each material is assigned just one class or division label, not the UN/NA number. When UN/NA numbers are not on placards, check shipping papers or container labels.)

  2. Look up the UN/NA number in CAMEO Chemicals or in the Emergency Response Guidebook to learn the substance's name and see response recommendations.
      

   

• Reporting marks. Each rail car is identified by a unique reporting mark: a combination of letters followed by numbers that is stenciled on both sides and both ends of the car. The sequence of letters identifies the railroad or company that owns the car, and the sequence of numbers identifies the car. As you face the side of the car, the reporting mark is to your left. You can call a car's reporting marks into CHEMTREC (800) 424-9300) to identify the car's owner and, eventually, its contents. Example reporting mark:

  

• DOT Tank car specification markings. These markings, on both sides of the car, identify the class of tank car, which tells you what it could be carrying. Decoding a specification marking:

  The first sequence of numbers (111 in the example below) tells you the car's class: non-pressure, pressure, high pressure, or cryogenic.

  

Use as many information sources as you can! Why and how?

Once you've found identifiers Names, ID numbers, and other information used to identify a chemical for the commodity, you can look up its data sheet in CAMEO Chemicals (opens in new window).