What is this train hauling?

GeorgeHO

Member
What great photo shots. The articulation is wonderful, but I'm sure that a number of modelers today would say that the "s" curves and too much overhang are not prototypical.
 

screen

New Member
It's a compressor tank - used in storage and production of gasses for various industries - several like that at the old Northwestern Steel now Sterling Steel -
 

zedob

Member
My guess is it's a distilling tower for a refinery, but in all honesty, the load is rather boring. Now, that heavy duty flat it's on, now that's something amazing.

It's not from the era I model, but it would be a neat car to build. Nice conversation piece for a layout.
 

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
Something long and tubular....
The owner of the LHS I frequent actually scratchbuilt an HO Schnabel car that looked just like that one.
 

cidchase

Active Member
In them pix it looks colder than a welldigger's butt. :D :D

That's a heck of a load, too! :thumb: Nice photos, Andy
 

ausien

Active Member
my guess would be afuel tank for the shuttle, but that a long shot.:D :D ....great pix,:thumb: and good railfanning, got any more??;) ;) ...have a good one..steve:wave: :wave:
 

doctorwayne

Active Member
Well, if it's going to Alberta, must be something to do with the oil industry. How about a cracking tower for a refinery?

Wayne
 
Obviously, the load is a big, long, tubular "thing." As others have noted, it's not the load but the car that is pretty spectacular. Great pix. I take it this must have been some sort of press release, or something.
 

screen

New Member
Shuttle tanks are made in New Orlians(sp) so they can be bargged to Florida - Look at the name on the tank and google it - the same name is on tanks here in Sterling and are used for making and storing compressed gas for a steel mill - like a huge air compresor -
 

green_elite_cab

Keep It Moving!
it looks to me liek an Oil Refinery Cracking tower. this is where they boild and sperate oil into its different kinds ( kerosen, diesle fuel, that stuff)
 

Oroka

New Member
[font=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Duluth unloads 150 million pound machine

There was some real heavy lifting going on along Lake Superior this week, as a crew unloaded the heaviest single piece of equipment to ever pass through the Port of Duluth, Minnesota.

On Wednesday, workers at Lake Superior Warehousing Co. unloaded a 1.5 million pound "hydro cracker" - a device that separates oil from sand. It is to be used in an oil sands project in Long Lake, Alberta.

The hydro cracker arrived via the Stellaprima, a Dutch heavy-lift vessel that sailed the world gathering specially manufactured equipment for the oil extraction process. The ship also stopped in Japan, Malaysia, India, United Arab Emirates, Italy and the Netherlands before crossing the Atlantic Ocean bound for Duluth.

Cranes lifted and swung the device toward shore while ballast water was pumped fro chamber to chamber in the ship's hull to balance the heavy load.

The massive steel reactor, with 4-inch-thick walls, was lowered onto a tension skid custom-built by BendTec Inc., of Duluth. Together, the skids, loading bars and reactor weigh 805 tons.

The materials arrived in Duluth in July, and crews worked right up until Wednesday to prepare for the shipment.

The device will be carried northwest by the largest railroad car in the world: the 36-axle Schnabel car. The reactor and tension skid will be lifted and suspended in the beak-like jaws of the $3.5 million Schnabel car.

Officials with the oil sands project said Duluth "has proven to be a successful route for moving this kind of equipment," said Ed Clarke, the logistics manager.

It's the only port of its kind to offer relatively direct rail access to Alberta, he said.

The Schnabel car has a sophisticated hydraulics system that allows cargo to be raised and lowered up to 3 feet, and shifted side to side by as much as 2 feet. It's needed, Clarke said - an underpass near Crookston has clearances as little as three-quarters of an inch for previous equipment shipments.

Rent for the train car is $1.2 million for 25 days, Clarke said. - The Associated Press, KSTP-TV5, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, courtesy Larry W. Grant[/font]

An oil refinery cracking tower was my first guess, it looked familure from a documentary I had seen about super heavy weight cranes, in this case, a massive containerized crane that was shipped in on something like 25 rail cars, and it was used to life a simular tower at a refinery in Nova Scotia, or NewBrunsiwck...
 

Zman

Member
I think it's a warp nacelle.

By the way, that's some excellent weathering on those cars, and very realistic looking people.
 
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