(The following story by John Asbury appeared on The Press-Enterprise website on July 24.)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A 75-foot rail car maneuvered down Inland freeways and city streets Monday morning as the Riverside Fire Department added its newest resource in training for hazardous-materials situations.
The used chlorine tanker is expected to become part of an all-purpose regional training center to deal with railway spills and emergencies.
A flatbed truck took the 8-foot-wide tanker car from a rail yard in Colton to the Riverside Fire Training Center, located at the city’s corporation yard, about 11 a.m. Monday.
The Union Pacific railway company donated the graffiti-covered rail car to the Fire Department. It will be available at the training facility to agencies including the FBI, Riverside police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
More than 100 trains pass through Riverside daily, and many carry chemicals such as acids, propane and ammonia, said Division Chief Mike Fisher of the Riverside Fire Department.
The Riverside rail lines are part of the Alameda Corridor, which extends from the port at Long Beach through the rest of the country, he said.
“Any derailment that happens here is Riverside’s concern,” Fisher said.
Sean Wilde, a paramedic engineer for the Fire Department, agreed.
“We have a lot of rail traffic through the city. We recognize we didn’t have the ability to operate on rail cars,” Wilde said.
Fire officials and an independent railroad contractor hired by the city trucked the rail car along interstates 10 and 15 before exiting on Magnolia Avenue in Corona. Several intersections were closed briefly to allow the giant tanker to make wide turns on city streets.
A JimCo Railroad Contractors crew used 15-foot-tall front loaders to hoist the rail car into the air before it was placed on a set of rail wheels on tracks in the training facility.
Four domes on top of the rail car will be used as access panels through which chemicals would usually be loaded and unloaded into the tank.