Fred Wrote:
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> Dunno, last week, according to the scanner, a
> train passing thru town had to cut out, and leave
> on a siding, a tank car because the "top was
> open". The dude sent out from the car department
> wasn't able to fix the issue, and the car was left
> on the siding. Since no emergency/haz-mat issues
> were declared, I suppose it can be assumed that
> the contents were non-volatile. But, if a car can
> be shipped "with the top open"...


Just because a hatch on a tank car is open does not mean that it's contents are able to escape. Not all tank cars haul haz-mat. Most all tank cars have a hatch that just covers the valves that actually "open" the car.

A crew will still set a car out as a precaution anyway when a hatch cover is found to be open.