Why the cars were “burned”
From a Facebook post HERE by a retired Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Operating Practices inspector, Kenneth B. Jamin. He is anything but an apologist for the Feds. He wrote, Train Wreck: Inside the Federal Railroad Administration (2023), on Amazon HERE.
Before any more "experts" weigh in with misinformation, please allow me to clarify what was done at the NS derailment site to prevent an explosion. First of all, no cars were "blown up." Permit me to explain the two alternatives the decision-makers were faced with, then judge for yourself which one you would have chosen if you were in charge.
BLEVE stands for Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion. A BLEVE can happen if a container, such as a tank car, in is a flame impingement for an extended period. The liquid product inside the car serves to keep the shell of the tank relatively cool. However, as the liquid begins boiling away and is vented of through a safety valve, the liquid level in the tank gets lower until it is below the level of the flame impingement and can no longer protect the shell from the heat.
The shell of the tank is softened by the heat of the fire until if finally explodes. A tank car that has BLEVEd can go airborne nearly a mile! THAT is a much worse scenario that the controlled “vent and burn” that was conducted to prevent them from a BLEVE. A vent and burn involves the following steps. First a large (swimming pool size) trench was dug with heavy equipment next to the car to be vented and burned. Then two explosive devices called "breaching charges," were set on the car. Breaching charges use a relatively small explosive charge to blow a hole in the tank. One charge is set on the top, to provide a vent, and the other is set at the bottom of the car so the product inside can flow out. A third device, which is an incendiary, is set in the trench to ignite the product as if flows out. All three charges are detonated simultaneously from a safe distance, allowing the product to "vent and burn" and preventing a BLEVE. It was definitely the lesser of two evils.
Trains, Derailments, Disasters
A repost from Larry Schweikart’s Substack HERE, February 24.
Fallout, literally and figuratively, from the train derailment and subsequent toxification of a substantial part of Ohio that resulted from it is still being measured. One writer suggested that a highly dangerous dioxin might travel eastward as far as 1,200 miles. Others have gone to East Palestine to publicly drink the water. Cincinnati’s water utility cut off intake from the Ohio River for about three or four days.
Let me state categorically that it is not beyond the realm of reason that an administration so demonic and evil as that of the Rutabaga with his so-called “Transportation Secretary” Buttplugs would have any problem whatsoever in not only allowing such an accident to occur, but in, shall we say, “encouraging” it (the same way the police on Patriot Day, who ostensibly were there to prevent protesters from calmly walking into Congress, opened doors and invited them in). Put nothing past these gidgetflippers. What damage they do not do is by accident and incompetence. They want to harm America in every way they can.
That said, when people point to multiple fires, explosions, train derailments, or trucks accidents, are they in fact pointing out a conspiracy?
I don’t think so. The simple fact is that historically crap happens. The difference today is that we all have cell phones and the internet, and whatever crap is happening is instantly viewed all over the country.
Think of it this way. There were railroads in the 1850s, and not all that safe. More than a few trains collided when put on the same track going opposite directions. Thousands died. For the most part, train catastrophes in the mid- to late-1800s were the result of poor management and control of the lines, not greed. Railroads grew so large no one man, especially with the communications of telegraph only, could begin to keep track of where trains were, how fast they were going, and whether there was a siding they could take as another train passed. From 1850 to the 1880s that was remedied by the “Managerial Revolution” and train disasters grew fewer at a steady rate, but even as late as 1887, there were seven major train accidents in as many years.
Even so, say the East Palestine derailment occurred in 1850. Who would have known? In all likelihood, ordinary citizens beyond Cincinnati and Dayton would not have even heard of it. The governor might have gotten word, but typically it was not viewed as government’s job to do much, and he would not have sent teams. Indeed, with the Johnstown flood, state assistance was offered a day after the flood waters receded and the townspeople politely told the governor to piss off. They had it under control.
Certainly no American outside of about a 50-mile radius would have even heard about the derailment and explosion.
Trains, however, were vastly safer than the “auto” of the day, the stagecoach. Until coaches got to the flatlands of the western prairies, they were dangerous affairs. Every coach rider on almost any trip of more than a day could expect his coach to overturn at least once. One traveler from Cincy to New York City had his coach overturn nine times.
Boat accidents? Commonplace. America’s worst sea disaster occurred on the Mississippi River when a steamboat carrying more than 2,000 Union soldiers back home after the war ended blew up, killing about 3/4 of the passengers.
Prior to the 1750s, kids were routinely swept off London streets and shipped to Barbados as slaves. There was no “homelessness” anywhere because “vagrants” were arrested and put to work or shipped off to a colony such as Australia.
Problems have not changed, so much as our awareness has changed. We rightly think of evil jackal-smackers such as Lenin, Stalin, and Mao as horrible murderers. But in the 750s B.C., in China, the Lushan rebellion saw an estimated 36 million go missing. Folks, that’s before modern weapons. The death toll in the Congo Free State was put in the range of 10 million.
None of this is to downplay some of these modern fires, explosions, or other tragedies. Nor is it to say—-as I stated at the top—-that there “might” be other explanations. It is only to say that other explanations would be unusual, given that these kinds of events are, well, usual. The difference today from then is that today we know about them instantly.
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