Railway Freight Car Inspection & Safety Rules: Guidelines for British ...

Railway Freight Car Inspection & Safety Rules:Guidelines for British Columbia’s Provincial Industrial RailwaysPart I - General1. Short TitleFor ease of references, these Guidelines may be referred to as the "Freight Car Safety Guidelines".2. Scope2.1 These Guidelines prescribe the minimum safety standards for freight cars operated by railwaycompanies subject to the jurisdiction of the MOTI pursuant to the Railway Act (BC).3. DefinitionsIn these Guidelines,3.3 "break" means a fracture resulting in complete separation into parts. The term "break" and "broken"are use interchangeably in these Guidelines;3.7 "cracked" means fractured without complete separation into parts;3.9 "freight car" means a car designed to carry freight on rail and includes a caboose and a serviceequipment car;3.10.1 “MOTI” means the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure;3.11 "person in charge" means a person qualified in accordance with Section 5.1, appointed by a railwaycompany to ensure the safe conduct of an operation or of the work of employees;3.12 "qualified person" means, in respect of a specified duty, a person who, because of his/herknowledge, training and experience is qualified to perform that duty safely and properly, inaccordance with Section 6.2;3.13 "railway company" means a railway company subject to these Guidelines;3.14 "railway safety inspector" means an inspector appointed pursuant to section 20 (1) of the RailwaySafety Act (BC);3.15 "safety defect" means any item that is defective on a freight car as prescribed by Part II of theseGuidelines and the Safety Appliance Standards Guidelines for Industrial Railways.4. Application of Safety Inspections4.1 A railway company shall ensure the freight cars it places or continues in service are free from allsafety defects described in these Guidelines, and that such cars comply with the Safety ApplianceStandards Guidelines for Industrial Railways.

4.2 A railway car identified with safety defects may be moved to another location for repair includingplacing a loaded car for unloading, when authorized by a person in charge, who will ensure that:the car is safe to move;1. a means to protect the car's safe movement is implemented, including identifying for theemployees involved the nature of the defects and the2. movement restrictions, if any, and;3. the appropriate records will be retained for a period of 60 days.4.3 The movement of a car with safety defects shall be controlled.6. Safety Inspection Locations6.1 Safety inspections shall be performed at locations where cars are added to trains, or wheninterchanged. Such inspections may occur before or after a car is placed in a train at that location.6.2 A pre-departure inspection of the cars to be added to a train shall be performed by a qualifiedperson, as a minimum, for those conditions listed in Appendix 1.7. Requirements for dangerous goods cars7.1 Additional inspections of cars carrying goods subject to the "Transportation of Dangerous GoodsAct, 1992" are required as follows:1. Tank cars destined for loading with a dangerous good or other cars destined for loading ofexplosives shall be given a safety inspection prior to being placed for loading.2. Freight cars loaded with a dangerous good shall be given an inspection by employees of thereceiving railway, at the point of loading, for those conditions listed in Appendix 1.Appendix 1- Pre-departure inspection procedure by other than aqualified car inspectorAt each location where a freight car is to be placed in a train and a certified car inspector is not onduty for the purpose of inspecting freight cars, the freight car shall, as a minimum requirement, beinspected for these hazardous conditions:1.i. car body leaning or listing to the side;ii. car body sagging downward;iii. car body positioned improperly on the truck;iv. object dragging below the car body;v. object extending from the side of the car body;vi. door insecurely attached;vii. broken or missing safety appliance;viii. lading leaking from a placarded dangerous goods car;2. insecure coupling;3. overheated wheel or journal;4. broken or cracked wheel;5. brake that failed to release; and6. any other apparent safety hazard likely to cause an accident or casualty before the cararrives at its destination.2