I have a walthers propane tank set, of which one I plan to use by the refinery, which leaves the other. I was going to use it at my grain elevator which has 7 concrete silos 25’ x 100’ high plus two large steel silos each 40’ x 100’ high with two tracks servicing the elevator as well as a place for large trucks to unload plus the main elevator building. It is a fairly large grain elevator. I also have a track that I was going to put the ammonia tank next to. My question is what does a ammonia railroad unloading rack look like, and did they transport the stuff in a small tank truck similar to a propane truck, or what kind of process do they do to it to make it useable by farmers?
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
We use lots of ammonia for an industrial process. The ammonia tankers we get do not have a bottom valve to reduce the chance for a leak in case of a derailment. So all unloading goes through the top of the car.
Unloading is done using a compressor. There is a pipe connected to the top of the storage tank which is connected to the inlet of the compressor. The outlet of the compressor is connected to one of the vapor connections on the railcar (usually the two valves crosswise to the car). One of the liquid connections on the railcar (one of the two valves lengthwise to the car) is connected to a pipe which delivers the liquid to the storage tank, usually through the top of the tank using a dip tube. The compressor removes vapor from the storage tank and forces it into the railcar which pushes the liquid out and into the storage tank. When no more liquid can be removed from the railcar the piping on the compressor is reversed, the liquid lines are valved off, and the vapor in the railcar is removed to the storage tank until the railcar is slightly above atmospheric pressure. The last operation is bleeding off the pressure in the unloading lines through a scrubber.
This is a fairly dangerous operation and falls under strict OSHA regulations. To have an accurate model you will need a compressor building, a separate operator building to keep the gas masks and emergency response equipment, and you will need at least two water spray guns on opposite sides of the operation to spray massive amounts of water in case of a spill. You will also need a scrubber to remove the pressure from the pipe. A 55 gallon drum filled with water will suffice.
I cannot answer anything about the trucks as we use the ammonia directly from our storage tanks.
Johnathon,
Thank you very much for the information. I will at least be able to fake the tank car to storage tank facility. Any idea when they started doing this type of shipping. I model the NYC in 1967, and I would like to be sure it is era approriate. It is possible that they never move this stuff in smaller trucks, but is limited to industrial uses. I would suppose that at grain elevator kind of settings is used in the manufacture of ferterlizer. Thanks again for the information.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River Railroad
There are lots of agricultural users of Anhydrous Ammonia around where I live in Iowa. Some do take shipments in by rail. Tanks similar to the tanks in the walthers propane set are used to store the ammonia. Usually there is some sort of platform that a person can stand on and connect the hoses to the housing on the top of the tank car. There will need to be some sort of building to hold the compressors/pumps. I’ve never seen the water nozzels and such, but as a firefighter I can see where they would come in handy.
When possible these facilities are located away from residential areas because of the hazards involved. But particuarly in small towns they may be located right next to the grain elevator. Moving ammonia towards the fields is generally done in one of two ways. If it’s going more than 5 or 10 miles it’s probalby transported in a semitruck tanker. If it’s going straight to the fields its transported in a small tank on wheels. The wheels and frame are usually similar to many other farm wagons.
Stephen