After over 26 years in military police work before this current life began, including running armories and caring for lots of munitions, I agree that any "demonstration" detonation of track torpedoes is not only dangerous but a downright foolish exercise of judgement. Please call your local police or fire officials and tell them what you have. We've found these in a donated caboose as well as among material long ago donated and just loose in the bottom of a cardboard box no one had looked in for 10 years. Just be sure you say railroad torpedoes, as they will likely assume you have something fired out of a submarine. We had that happen until the bomb squad guy got involved. The others never heard of the railroad type.

Museum of Transportation
rdgoldfede@aol.com

I'll throw in my two cents (Or higher due to cost of living). The best way is, indeed to turn them over to the local law enforcement people, the other choice would be to bury them in the back yard. They will decompose and not be a problem. Some can be rated as high as a 1/4 stick or a M-80 firecracker. Just don't do what I've seen some sellers on Ebay do, sell a flag kit with flares & torps and send it through the mail! In this day and age I believe that the Postal Servive would find no humor in this!!
Bob N

rrnut@22prodigy.net

>DOT regulations prohibit
carrying them in railroad trucks.<
I found the instructions for how "Signals,
Railway Track, Explosive (railway torpedoes)
must be packaged when offered for transport,
and also the exception in Code of Federal
regulations Title 49, Part 174.5: "The
requirements of this subchapter do not apply to
railway torpedoes or fusees when carried in
engines or railcars. Railway torpedoes must be
in closed metal boxes when not in use." "This
subchapter" is the Hazardous Material
Regulations!
This implies that the open-top coffee can on the
caboose table that can also be used as an ashtray
won't do.
Can someone help me find the prohibition on
transport in "railway trucks"? What about other
kinds of trucks? Tyburn Railroad will soon have
to buy another box of torpedoes, and we are
wondering how to legally get them shipped!
Thanks for any help.



104577.651@compuserve.com

> There is an old expression in the military
> that when one assumes one makes an ass (of)
> u (&) me.

Funny you say this, really i just a college student at virginia tech, not a vermont resident.

Any way you make it pretty clear that the Good Lord looks after fools and idots. When I first got the ones in my flag box, I scraped the crystalization off of several of them before I decided to leave them alone, also i droped the box once or twice. I even tried to set one off once, I straped it to the make shift iron rail I have for my push car, and roled it back and forth over it a few times till it had cut it in half. good thing it didn't go off because I was standing over it as I rolled the wheels back and forth!!

Any way in our orginaztion, we have both a former dealer of explosives, and a fire cheif, both of whom will be in this weekend, and I'll turn this over to them.

Thanks for everyone's help,
Now my question is, since you can't save the old ones for display does any one make any repo's that are unarmed?? I think any flag box or motor car is lacking with out one.

Ben

Grandad (B&O MoW) used to break bits off them and put the bits off on the street with a lawn tamper on the 4th of July. Big BOOM, big grins from all the kids, neighbors mostly just grinned too (this was in a small town 15-20 years ago, your mileage may vary).

A word of caution tho, my uncle tried a whole one once and broke the weld that held the head on the lawn tamper - it then proceeded to "levitate" to about chest high.

Please Note: I wasn't recommending anyone actually TRY the above in this day and age, but you asked what people HAD done with them, and it IS a fond memory of another age.

> Can someone help me find the prohibition on
> transport in "railway trucks"?
> What about other
> kinds of trucks? Tyburn Railroad will soon
> have
> to buy another box of torpedoes, and we are
> wondering how to legally get them shipped!
> Thanks for any help.

Try contacting the folks at Orion, who manufactures railway fusees and torpedos, and they might be able to help. They would probably know more about shipping the material than anyone else.

Back when I was employed by CR, they used to issue a Hazmat sheet covering fusees to train service employees, so we could legally possess them in the course of duty... including transporting them in a flagging kit via automobile if required. I would assume there must be a similar type of handling process available for torpedos...


Orion Safety Products
Fiv4HghStk@aol.com

Message from Orion to TYBR about torpedoes 7/8/3:
>We do have some information available, such as
an msds, and proper storage and handling
instructions. However, we have not manufactured
these items for quite some time.<

104577.651@compuserve.com

> Message from Orion to TYBR about torpedoes
> 7/8/3:
> an msds, and proper storage and handling
> instructions. However, we have not
> manufactured
> these items for quite some time.<

Hmmmm... interesting, because they specifically mention torpedos on their website. I suspect, given nearly all of the Class 1's discontinued use of the torpedeos, that they will become tougher and tougher to find.

Fiv4HghStk@aol.com

> interesting, because they
> specifically mention torpedos on their
> website.
Hi,

I sent them an E-mail because I couldn't find torpedoes on their Web site.
Maybe they just recently dropped them. Now,
I'll have to find another supplier.
Thanks for your help,

104577.651@compuserve.com

> Hmmmm... interesting, because they
> specifically mention torpedos on their
> website. I suspect, given nearly all of the
> Class 1's discontinued use of the torpedeos,
> that they will become tougher and tougher to
> find.

CSX still carries torpedoes on their locomotives.

lumpy72@msn.com

> CSX still carries torpedoes on their
> locomotives.
Bill,

As of July 1, 2003, by bulletin order, they are to be removed from all CSX equipment and disposed. Problem is, not all terminals have been provided with a disposal procedure yet. The CSX rule was the only reason MARC Train Service still carried them on locos and cab cars.

Steve Zuiderveen

SZuidervee@aol.com