We usually don’t look at trains as they go by but today as I was doing my daily bike ride, I had to wait at a train crossing as a super long freight train roared past. As I waited I looked at the different tanker cars going by on the rails. To tell the truth it was a little bit frightening. There were tanker cars filled with very corrosive pure hydrogen peroxide, some filled with hydrogen chloride (hydro-chloric acid) and some filled with chlorine gas. Inter-disperced among them were tankers filled with liquified petroleum gas (propane). The train was going through the West Island with all its housing and people. In fact right close to the tracks, not far from where I was, is an old folk’s home. Now what would happen if ever the train derailed? It would probably wipe out a good percentage of the people living near the tracks. The propane could leak and possibly explode, the chlorine tanks could rupture and release a gas that was used as a chemical agent during WW1, highly toxic hydrogen peroxide would mix with the hydro-chloric acid giving us god knows what. I’m kind of glad I don’t live near the tracks. Mind you it is probably just as bad on the highways with trucks filled with the same type of chemicals. I guess in this case, it is better not to know too much since there is nothing that can be done about it.
5 comments:
*shudder* it's the sort of thing that it's best not to think about too much
Funny how our thought processes are so different. When I've been caught at tracks I look at the grafitti and wonder about the kids that did it and where they live.
Truly it's better not to know, or to think too much about it, as Choochoo suggests. On the other hand, I'd rather have that evil stuff on the rails than on the highways.
I'm surprised its allowed to run through areas with housing with such hazardous cargo.
Same thing here in the states. It does make you shudder.
Post a Comment