Re: East Broad Top Tunnels - Lidar Scans

If the car carrying asphalt had safety valves, temporarily removing the valves should not be a big deal. The asphalt contents of the car are not under pressure when the tankcar is in transit. The asphalt would be loaded into the car while 'hot'. But the asphalt contents are likely to cool down during shipping, and ambient temperature asphalt is not 'flowable', so [usually] steam heat is applied to heat the contents at destination so the car can be unloaded. Since there are steam heat coils built into the tankcar, the safety valve(s) would be for the tankcar's steam heating system, but there is only steam in the heating coils when the car is parked for unloading.

More info on steam heated tankcars at this vendor page: [www.astecindustries.com])

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- Graham