Im going half empty trying to figure up tank unloading times common to railroads.
For example 13,000 gallon tank of Acid, 11K of Pressurized gas and 23500 gal of fuel oil are examples of my question.
Everything I have seen on the net so far in googling are more than happy to tell you about tank cars and product. But they dont say what it will take time and how long to empty it. (Or fill it)
Any help will be appreciated!
In the relatively unusual instance where a facility has to obtain a high volume of throughput, it might load or unload a 25,000 gallon general-service tankcar in as little as 4 hours, depending upon the product, whether the car needs to be inspected, pressurized, depressurized, or preheated, or an inert gas envelope inserted. One particular facility with which I am familiar loads product cars every four hours, 16 hours a day, including preheat and inspection time. But this is fairly rare, and usually only found at places such as refineries where a very high volume of product has to be moved every day to keep the plant from drowning in its output and shutting down production. Most of the shippers and receivers I work with that load or unload tankcars (commodities such as LPG, acid, ethanol, corn sweeteners) rarely seek to turn the car faster than on a 24-hour cycle, and many shippers and receivers use the tankcar as a semi-mobile storage tank, filling or emptying it over a matter of a week or more to suit their plant’s needs.
RWM
The vast majority of tank cars are private cars, private cars on private tracks are not subject to demurrage charges, so there is not the imperative to unload them that railroad owned cars have.
The vast majority of industries are switched once a day (or less) so loading/unloading times mostly only need to estimated in days, not hours.
Not trying to hijack this thread but I do have a related question. When a corn syrup car is unloaded does it need to be cleaned out? If so how long does that take and is it normally done at the unloading facility or can it be done somewhere else?
I am modeling a transload industry that receives corn syrup by rail and transfers it to tanker trucks for two large bakeries in another part of town. This is similiar to a corn syrup transload facility here in Tulsa. It has two tracks, and I think one track is for unloading and the other for cleaning but not sure. I have seen the local move cars from the unloading track to this other track, and the empties seem to come from this other track not the loading track. This is all just a guess since the tracks are right next to eachother and the unloading piping is located between them.
Thanks in advance,
Yer not highjacking at all…
I recall in the Milk Tanker, we could pull 30,000 pounds off (4000 gallon? Long ago I forget) through a two inch line in about an hour or so. And cleaning, sanitizing took another hour or so.
It took longer to load the tanker at the farm with the much smaller impeller on the trailer. I think some of the lucky haulers had assignments to really big farms with large outputs and loaded once over a few hours in the early morning and thence straight to the dairy.
With corn syrup I would think they would have to heat the car to aid unloading, even with that, it seems like it could take awhile to unload to get all the product out. Is it typical to require the receiver to clean the car as well?
Thanks,
The simple answer first…it varies! Some industries pump out to large holding tanks maybe 4 to 8 hours, so safe in saying one shift. Other industries/commodities may have a small pump directly to their process line(s) and it may take a week or more to empty a car. One thing seldom addressed is tank car cleanout if it was to be used for different commodities, such as different grades of lube or fuel oil. Way back in the late '50’s when I was an apprentice Carman our overalls used to get so filthy we couldn’t take them home to wash, but next to the RIP track was a tank car cleanout track. Fill them with water and shovels full of Boraxo, turn on the steam and throw in our overalls, and let them come to a boil! Another use was plain water washout in the hot summer sun we used to swim in them! But not too long or you might get dermatitis in unhappy places! LOL Ah, the memories…John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
Would it be safe to assume that a car used exclusively for transporting corn syrup would not get cleaned out since it would be reloaded with corn syrup. I wonder howmany different grades of corn syrup there are?
They’ll be cleaned before reloading if food-grade syrup is being loaded.
Here’s the industry’s recommended practices:
http://www.corn.org/CRATerminalGuidelines12-06.pdf
RWM