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Not knowing too much about actual trains and learning as I go, I was wondering why the past few enthnol trains I've seen come out of town here there has been a hopper or two right after the units? Im guessing it has something to do with safety?
Some, or most railways require cars between the locos and cars handling dangerous goods to act as blast shields. The same goes for certain open loads that can shift such as machinery or pipe loads.
Tourist lines often place heavier cars such as box or baggage cars between the locos and occupied passenger cars to follow insurance guide lines in the event of boiler failure.
Rico has it right. The FRA has a long list of hazardous material handling rules, including place idler cars between the locomotives and the hazmat loads. The rules also prohibit mixing two different types of hazmat materials in the same train or carrying certain types of hazmat cars at the end of the train. There's a good FRA document that details all this and more at
http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/1242.
Wow, that's something I always wondered about, good question, and good answers.
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