# Freight train carrying hot asphalt, molten sulfur plunges into Yellowstone River **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 25, 2023, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077 "2023-06-25T11:25:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/21 "2023-06-26T03:33:11Z")
> [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](#): > > Why can’t it ever be a train car full of ping pong balls or something that crashes, rather than cars full of hazardous materials? Why would there ever be a train car full of ping pong balls? Railroads are mainly used to transport heavy bulk commodities. Like Coal, iron ore, sand, oil, liquid chemicals, grain, etc. Not light, airy products. And where would there be a destination with enough demand for a whole train car of ping pong balls? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/22 "2023-06-26T06:13:16Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > And where would there be a destination with enough demand for a whole train car of ping pong balls? Pattaya? ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/23 "2023-06-26T10:27:20Z")
If you don’t know what this means, consider yourself lucky ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/24 "2023-06-26T13:36:44Z")
Couple thoughts to the OP’s rhetorical questions. 1. Train crashes happen nearly every day. Only the HazMat ones make the news. So you only hear about those, not the “boxcar full of boxed new dishwashers falls off the track near the factory.” 2. Road bridges are government property inspected by government inspectors which the government has immediate access to the records. Railroad bridges are private property maintained by the owning railroad according to its own processes, doubtless informed by at least some Federal Railroad Administration (“FRA”) regulations. But doubtful FRA has those inspection records available in real time. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/25 "2023-06-26T14:54:02Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Train crashes happen nearly every day. Only the HazMat ones make the news. So you only hear about those, not the “boxcar full of boxed new dishwashers falls off the track near the factory.” You also hear about the funny ones, like when a tanker full of maple syrup spills. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/26 "2023-06-26T15:08:29Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Truck Carrying Gaming Dice Spills Onto Highway, Rolls A Perfect 756,000](https://kotaku.com/truck-carrying-gaming-dice-spills-onto-highway-rolls-a-1838218869) Well, plus or minus 794 (though granted, the Central Limit Theorem is only an approximation). And did anyone else notice that 216,000 dice would be a perfect cube of perfect cubes? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/27 "2023-06-26T16:35:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > perfect cube of perfect cubes \sqrt[3]216000 = 60 Perfect cube, yes. But 60 is not a perfect cube. Still, I have to assume that particular estimate was chosen for the mathematical Easter egg it represents. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/28 "2023-06-26T16:44:49Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Perfect cube, yes. But 60 is not a perfect cube. 60 is not a perfect cube, but a d6 is. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/29 "2023-06-26T16:49:38Z")
🤦‍♂️ That’s what I get for being too literal. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/30 "2023-06-26T17:32:34Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > You also hear about the funny ones, like when a tanker full of maple syrup spills. Yup. Although once in awhile a sweet food spill isn’t so funny: > **[Great Molasses Flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood)** > > The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster,\[a\] was a disaster that occurred on Wednesday, January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. > A large storage tank filled with 2.3 million U.S. gallons (8,700 cubic meters) of molasses, weighing approximately\[b\] 13,000 short tons (12,000 metric tons), burst, and the resultant wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour), killing 21 people an... ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/31 "2023-06-26T18:20:35Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > And where would there be a destination with enough demand for a whole train car of ping pong balls? A shipwreck. > **[The Sunken Yacht](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sunken_Yacht)** > > "The Sunken Yacht" is a 10-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. Characters in the story include Donald Duck, his nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, Uncle Scrooge, an artist, and a boxer. The story was first published in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #104 (May 1949). The story has been reprinted several times since. > The story is about Donald's attempts to salvage Scrooge's sunken yacht for an exorbitant price. Donald raises the yacht by filling it with ping pong b... ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/32 "2023-06-26T18:21:45Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > “The solution to pollution, is dilution.” This is a well known industrial phrase. They aren’t going to be filtering anything out. To try and recover anything from the water will probably cause more harm than good. “Filtering”, maybe not, but there will probably be some great big chunks that they can just pick up and pull out. And they probably will, if for no other reason than that the material is worth more than the cost to do so: After all, it’s clearly valuable to someone, or they wouldn’t have been transporting it to begin with. Oh, and > [@gnoitall](#): > > Still, I have to assume that particular estimate was chosen for the mathematical Easter egg it represents. Eh, dice would be packed in some regular way into boxes, and those boxes probably into larger boxes, and those larger boxes into pallets. You’d expect a number with a lot of factors. I’d guess that the truck was carrying 432,000, and about half spilled out, so they estimated 216,000. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/33 "2023-06-26T20:37:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And they probably will, if for no other reason than that the material is worth more than the cost to do so: After all, it’s clearly valuable to someone, or they wouldn’t have been transporting it to begin with. Good idea in general. But depending on the downstream purity requirements the spilled stuff may need to be extensively reworked / cleaned / re-refined before it can be re-used. Which may eat into most of the spilled stuff’s potential salvage value. The molasses flood article I cited upthread mentioned local people simply shoveling it off the ground into buckets then bringing it home to eat / cook with. OTOH, the “purity” requirements after this little railroad _faux pax_ meant nothing was reusable except as scrap metal. **[Google Image Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=boeing+737+train+derailment&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&oq=boeing+737+derailment)** (Search safe for all audiences) ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/34 "2023-06-26T21:13:19Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The molasses flood article I cited upthread mentioned local people simply shoveling it off the ground into buckets then bringing it home to eat / cook with. Despite the fact that 21 people drowned in it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/35 "2023-06-26T21:19:36Z")
It was January in Boston. The stuff congealed to pretty darn hard. Once you warm the molasses back up, you can easily fish out the dead birds, plants, dogs, little kids, whatever was in the block you chopped out of the congealed mess over by the fish cannery. Easy peasy. And oh so yummy. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/36 "2023-06-26T21:51:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Once you warm the molasses back up, you can easily fish out the dead birds, plants, dogs, little kids, whatever was in the block you chopped out of the congealed mess over by the fish cannery. The bodies of little kids add a flavor of ‘hope’, that you just can’t get from Aunt Jemima. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/37 "2023-06-26T23:04:01Z")
Kinda like this recent gem: > [@You thought your school lunches were bad](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-thought-your-school-lunches-were-bad/985888): > > Chinese school lunch officials are forced to concede that a mysterious chunk of meat found by a student in a school lunch was not a piece of duck neck (apparently a delicacy) but rather a rat’s head. But for quite a while, they were adamant it was a valid piece of desirable meat, even convincing the student to publicly repudiate the claim it was a rat head. IMO Post #3 was especially tangy in that thread. In a Doperish sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/38 "2023-06-26T23:29:57Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > It was January in Boston. The stuff congealed to pretty darn hard. > > Once you warm the molasses back up, you can easily fish out the dead birds, plants, dogs, little kids, whatever was in the block you chopped out of the congealed mess over by the fish cannery. Easy peasy. And oh so yummy. And people could have been gathering it for animal feed, like for horses or cows. There were still a lot of them around. Even today, 100+ years later, molasses is still a common ingredient in dairy cow feed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2023, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/39 "2023-06-26T23:42:54Z")
That area has to have smelled terrible, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2023, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077/40 "2023-06-27T00:20:58Z")
For quite a long time. “It is said” that the aroma lingered for several decades. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freight-train-carrying-hot-asphalt-molten-sulfur-plunges-into-yellowstone-river/986077.md?page=3)