Credit: Courtesy of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
The Second World War was the last time that American railroads carried large quantities of petroleum products, due to the threat of Nazi submarines sinking ocean-going tankers. Since then, railroads have put the versatile tank car to dozens of other uses, including the transport of corn syrup, molasses, and an extraordinary variety of chemicals, many of them so poisonous and toxic that they cannot be carried on the nation's highways.
