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TRAINS NEWS WIRE EXCLUSIVE: BNSF to begin LNG testing
BNSF can use the Raton Pass route for “testing”, but it’s not economically feasible for the Southwest Chief.
Did the BN already do some tests like this several years ago?
OK, so they have to ask “Daddy, may I” to test this. The US Government is a flat out joke.
BN tested and ran on coal trains two SD 40-2’ years ago. There was a fueling station at Staples, MN.
Ken: While remaining neutral on your “government is a joke” comment, you need to understand that movement of hazardous materials (i.e. LNG) and locomotive and freight car safety have always been regulated by the FRA and thus require sign-off. The FRA’s primary focus is safety. Thus I cannot as a railroad or locomotive manufacturer or freight car manufacturer just put a new design on the rails without getting permission from the FRA. This is nothing new under the new administration. And I cannot just automatically take an older tank car (or in this case, fuel tender) design and decide because it was “safe” in the past, it meets today’s requirements.
Just because the BNSF fuel tenders were used by the BN back in the 80’s and 90’s does not automatically mean they meet current safety regulations. EMD and GE cannot build new locomotives with the lower frame strength from the 80’s just because thousands of SD40-2’s and C30-7’s were produced back then, with many EMD SD40-2’s still running around today. The designs of the 80’s don’t meet today’s frame and cab crashworthiness and safety requirements.
The same goes for tank cars. You cannot build old design DOT 111 tank cars today and put them into CBR service just because “that is what we used to do.” Changes in safety requirements mean you need to make sure the FRA signs off on new technology, especially a 30,000 gallon LNG tank car running between two locomotives as a fuel tender. While the tenders are safe, there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes in the design and verification of safety than you probably realize.
So this has nothing to do with any new “Daddy may I…” mentality from the FRA or U.S. government. FRA safety regulations change and evolve, and when you want to test something new out on the rails, you have always had to make sure you get FRA sign-off. In the case of the fuel tenders this has also been complicated by the new tank c