I’m building an HO gauge layout based on the Colorado Front range. I’ve seen the molten sulphur trains on the Moffat Sub and the Joint Line. What are the manufacturing destinations Colorado? Fertilizer plants, pharmaceutical companies, battery plants?? Any photos?
Trainlady
Great question. These trains are destined for Galveston, TX. But the Oil Refinery in Commerce City (near Denver) could also be a destination.
The largest production is from petroleum refineries followed by plants
set up around natural gas production. The sulfur is extracted from the
refined fuels and cleaned from the gas. Refinery production continues
to increase as the mandates for lower sulfur increase and the supply of
‘sweet’ crude oil decreases.
it to galveston,tx.
http://www.coloradorailfan.com/gallery/photo.asp?id=104148
Thanks, Michael. I rather thought I had heard sometime ago that those cars were destined for TX. You just confirmed it. I can very well depict the refinery at Commerce City tho. I need industry on this layout of mine. It is a new one- and I am struggling. My heart is with the Moffat Sub and the Tunnel District, but there is no industry up there in that gorgeous scenery. I need my trains to have “something to do”. So, it is looking like the setting will be at the base of the foothills. Thanks for the info!
Trainlady
Thank you, Denver Outlaw. I appreciate the pix and accompanying info! Especially like seeing Long’s Peak in the background. We have a long family history associated with that mountain.
Trainlady
An oil refinery is much more likely to be a producer of sulfur than a consumer. Small amounts of sulfuric acid are used in oil refineries for alkylation (it is used as a catalyst to combine a small olefin with a small paraffin) and isobutylene solvent extraction (it dissolves the isobutylene without dissolving the other hydrocarbons that have boiling points near isobutylene’s boiling point, the isobutylene can then be boiled out), very little sulfuric acid is consumed or lost in these processes. An oil refinery would only receive sulfur if it processes only sweet crude and has a sulfuric acid plant, which is very unlikely.
I don’t have information as to where specifically the trains originate or terminate, but unit trains of sulfur go to the Bone Valley in Florida where it is turned into sulfuric acid to process the phosphates mined there to produce mainly fertilizer. I seem to recall Trains had an article about these operations a few years ago.
here is a good video on acid.
I feel your pain. Spent 15 years in C-Springs and as much as I love those mountains, I could never figure out a way to capture the grandeur and industry within the small space I have. So I stuck with a southeast shortline. But if I could get the empty basement …
May I suggest that you could have the molten Sulfur cars come to the refinery empty and leave full. On the far end (the mountain side) you could have the cars go to staging as a destination. When the cars come back from staging they are considered empty again and can then be switched back into the refinery.
Depending on your time period that name of the Refinery will change. The refinery is actually 3 separate facilities: The East Plant, The West Plant, and the Asphalt plant. The East and West Plant are separated by the Railroad’s right of way. Before Suncor bought all the plants each plant had different owners. Conoco owned the west plant until 2003. The East Plant was owned by Valero up until 2005 (Previously Diamond Shamrock).
Primary products coming out of the refinery are Gasoline, Diesel Fuel, Jet Fuel, A/V Gas, Petroleum Coke (leaves in hopper cars) and Sulfur.
Suncor upgraded the west plant to be able to handle the Sour Crude (heavy sulfur content) that comes from the oil sands in Canada.
I am also modeling the Front Range of the Denver area although due to my limited space I am only modeling from Commerce City to Golden (I have a fictitious operating company that has taken over the local traffic along the beer line and interchanges with class 1 railroads at North Yard in Denver. All Power is leased from the Rio Grande)