I recently went through Staples, MN and saw a very unusual tank car sitting on a side track. It was like two tank cars put together and had three trucks I believe; I only got a quick glance, 1 at each end and 1 in the middle. It was painted for BN and was mostly white with green trim. I think I have heard about it before but I cant find anything about it. Can anyone help???
Update: I just found it on Bing Maps. Just type in staples mn and go to the yard next to the highway. Anybody still know whats it for?
Dunno, me. Could it have been an auxillary fuel car for long-distance lash-ups? Does Staples still have two separate “Main Streets”? Weird.
Hays
It’s on the southerly side of the yard, which is parallel to U.S. 10/ 2nd Ave. NW there, about opposite the stub end of Spectrum Park road or street, which is about 0.1 mile easterly of 255th Ave. In both the “Aerial” and “Bird’s-eye” views, it seems to be coupled to a rust-brown color carbody-type something - perhaps a rotary plow or snow dozer ? Since those views are often some months apart, this must be a near-permanent arrangement. - Paul North.
They look like the LNG fuel tenders that a pair of modified SD40-2’s used in an experiment. Staples was the LNG ‘refueling station’ for the experiment. They had heavy insulation to keep the LNG from boiling off.
Jim
Yes, those are the two fuel tenders for the RLM sets (Refrigerated Liquid Methane), a purer form of LNG.
Probably BNGT 100 and 101, although they each appear to be a tank car with the ‘normal’ pair of trucks - perhaps the longer end platforms made it appear as if they were articulated.
Here’s a link that leads to 5 photos of them - mostly taken at Staples, which makes sense - http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=BNGT&cid=12
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1590588
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1563311
See also this Energy Conversions Inc. webpage on Natural Gas Locomotives - Fuel Storage- LNG Locomotive Tender Car
What’s kind of a ‘small world’ thing here is that one of our local companies here in the Allentown, PA area - Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., or ‘APCI’ - had a lot to do with the development and manufacture of these cars. See this article on ‘‘Diesel/ Liquid Natural Gas Locomotives - A Dual Fuel Solution’’ from Diesel Era, Vol. 3, No. 6, pp. 14 - 17, particularly the middle of col. 1 on page 15, at -
http://www.energyconversions.com/dual-fuel%20solution.pdf
OK Thanks guys, thats the tank car I saw that are on rr picture archives. That red/brown car hooked up to it is some kind of plow I think. And it doenst have two main streets, its just the divided highway, 210, that goes right through Staples.
The “rust brown” car looks to me like a smallish rotary snow plow or, following NYC practice of many years ago, an old caboose car body with a surplus jet engine mounted in it to serve as a giant snow blower. In either case, but particularly if that is a snow blower, those would be the fuel supply.
I rode an NYC snow blower in action one time near Buffalo. Amazing machine! It threw up 6’ chunks of ice and snow from turnouts. The biggest problem was that it kept setting ties on fire after blowing the ice off them. The solution was a “ground-man” with an old broom to beat out the flames.
I dont think its a rotary plow. I just found this picture of a BN Snow Dozer in Staples. Im pretty sure its it. http://www.northeast.railfan.net/plow1.html Its the plow on the left row, 5 pics down.