Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/26/what-is-a-bomb-train-and-w.html
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The only surprising thing about this story is that the regime didn’t legalise trains carrying actual purpose-designed munitions to roam through the country’s major urban areas at random.
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Cool.
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Some background on the problem:
In short- if one of these containers fails in an uncontrolled manner, the contents will cause an explosion as the LNG flashes into gas. This can then lead to a separate fuel-air explosion as all that fuel is now in a massive vapour cloud around the former container. If there is a train of these things, the blast and heat can damage the other containers, leading to further explosions.
This is why we build pipelines.
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Let’s get as much packed into 2020 as we can, I guess…
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Want another Beirut bomb? Because this is one way to get another Beirut bomb.
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Maybe he’s hoping the massive destruction won’t happen right away…maybe in a year or so. Then he can point at President Biden and say “SEE! I never let a huge train explode and level a city on MY watch!. It’s because Obama lifted the restrictions and Biden never re-implemented them like I tried to do!”.
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Yup, that would be on point, sho’ nuff. Blow up “those people.” Threaten to route them through areas that “supported protesters, etc.” The possibilities are endless.
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Well, that’s because for the most part they already can. Actual munitions are not easy to accidentally detonate during transport - modern munitions typically need to be armed/primed/whatever before they’ll explode.
These types of liquid fuels just need a leak or some kind of impact (drunk driver trying to “beat the train” etc.) and you can easily have a sudden catastrophic failure that detonates all the cars on the train.
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Yes and no. The Beirut explosion was quite a bit smaller due to the ammonium nitrate having far less energy per tonne than methane since the methane is just the reducing part of the redox – the oxygen (always the greater part) is already present.
On the other hand, methane is not as dense as solid ammonium nitrate so you don’t get as many tonnes per carload. On balance, it only takes one carload to equal the Beirut blast (Beirut was about one kiloton equivalent. Which, per TFA, would be one carload.)
ETA: assuming we don’t have full-up military paranoid security along the length of the tracks, one AT landmine anywhere along the track would be a gift from Shiva to terrorists.
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Who knew the destruction of humanity would be an inside job?
Meanwhile:
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It’s OK, no rich people will be harmed. They live far away from rail road tracks. F*ck the rest of you.
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Trump wants to see chaos, death and destruction. He thinks it’s funny.
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Did they legalize this before or after 45 found out Joe Biden likes trains? 
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“Let’s combine 2 parts trainwreck, 12 parts dumpster fire, and 3 parts shitshow; shake well, and give the terrorists a heads-up that we’ve set the ball for them.”
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So many script writers sob, “But, but, that’s my plot”
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Not far enough.
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Industry: We want to be able to take train cars of potentially explosive material through cities to save some money that we’ll totally pass on to consumers (wink).
Environmentalists: That is a really bad idea because explosions in cities are bad.
Beirut: explodes
Environmentalists: gestures wildly
Administration: We approve of potential bomb trains because money
At some statistically possible but specifically unknown future location:
City: explodes
Industry: Nobody could have predicted… Company Name regrets the loss of life… Thoughts and Prayers…
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Would you rather die by getting hit by a train or die of an explosion caused by a bomb train? I’m just asking a simple question. Or would you rather die of the coronavirus? Or perhaps die from a car accident. Which one do you choose? Likely you can’t decide you fate unless you actually jump in front of the train.
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