Hi, can anyone give me a definative answer to the question of how the diesel unloading rack supplied in this kit was operated? I have searched these forums and found one answer which looked good but was really a guess. I have also spent ages on google trying to get an accurate answer, without much luck.
Cheers
Bill
A locomotive stops on the fuel pad. A hose is connected to the connection on the loco’s fuel tank. The employee inserts a ticket in the meter to make a record of the amount of fuel transfered to the loco, pushes a button, and the fuel is pumped . When the tank is full, the pump should shut off automatically, but this feature often malfunctions, so the employee has to keep his eye on the loco’s sight glass so it doesn’t overflow. When the pumping is finished, the hose is disconnected ,the cap is replaced, and the ticket is removed from the meter.
No, no. Not the fueling of the locomotive, but the filling of the storage tank from the tank car, using the unloading rack. If you know the cornerstone kit I am talking about you will know what piece of apparatus I am talking about.
Maybe you could tell us what kit number you are talking about so we would know what the piece of apparatus is.
When I search for “Walthers diesel unloading rack” I get the kit used to fuel locomotives, 933-2908.
Who says it has to be filled by a tank car delivery?
No bigger then that tank is a tanker truck from a local fuel contractor could deliver the fuel.
Anyway,a worker would attach a hose from the tank car’s unloading connection to a pump…Then a hose would be ran from the pump to the loading access hole in top of the tank.
If the fuel was delivered by tanker truck the truck’s unloading hose would be place in the tank’s loading access hole and the trucker would turn the truck’s delivery pump on.This is the way most railroads would have fuel delivered since its cheaper.No need to pay a employee to refill that small tank and under union agreements a holster could not fill tanks-that was stores department job.A stores department laborer would do that job -if he was qualified as a fuel handler …All that means is he knows the safety steps in fuel handling,how to connect the hoses,work the pump and read the fuel tank gauge…
Here is a Bing Map view of the fueling spot for a small BNSF yard in Vancouver, Wa and it happens to show a fuel truck filling the tanks
Ok, thanks for all your input so far. The kit I have is Walthers diesel refueling facility No933-2908. In it is all the equipment needed for refueling diesel locos, plus an horizontally mounted bulk storage tank sitting on concrete supports with an optional bund around it to stop spilled fuel from running onto the ground (to use if you are modelling the 1970’s or later - I am modelling 1959 so wont bother with the bund).
Now, also in the kit is an unloading rack which is shown at one end of the tank and beside the tracks, which was used to unload tank cars. It consists of a tall stand made from pipes with two swivelling pipes at the top. So what I would like to know is - how does this apparatus connect with the tank car and the storage tank.
Cheers, Bill
Typically tank cars are unloaded from the bottom. The reason for a rack and top-of-car access is for the workers to vent the car. Some cars may have vents, but on most, this means opening the dome lid. Otherwise, the suction created during unloading could implode the car.
As for the kit and the pipes you reference, it appears to represent underground plumbing that connects the tank to the fueling standpipes. The description on the website mentions “…includes everything to complete a two-track fueling facility; storage tank, fuel crane, water crane…” I can’t imagine why a diesel refueling facility would need a water crane, unless it’s to wash the locomotives.
Brad
Now I see the thing you are talking about, back by the red pick up truck on the Walther’s picture.
Most places I’ve seen unload diesel fuel from the bottom, but some have a siphon hose and use a pump to suck it out of the tank car. That would require a small shed to hold the pumps and valves.
When I first looked at it my thought was the tank would be for lube oil. Its about 8 ft in diameter and 30 ft long, 750 cu ft which is about 5600 gallons. A GP40-2 has about a 3000-3600 gal fuel tank. So you couldn’t full fuel two modern hood units with that tank and anything newer than an SD40-2, one unit would drain the tank. An F7 has a 800-1200 gal tank so if you full filled an A-B-B-A set of engines you could darn near drain the tank. Normally you would want about a minimum 2-4 more fueling cycles of supply (and that’s cutting it waaaaaaaaay close), so if that’s your fuel storage tank, you would only fuel 2 road units a day or maybe 3 switch engines a day. This would be more of a tank for a shortline that only fuels one or two engines a week.
If it was a lube oil tank then the railroad would have a BIG fuel tank , in the 10’s to 100’s of thousands of gallons, a hundred yards or more away connected by underground pipes.
Dave,That tank would be ok for a short line with a small locomotive like a SW1,SW7,S1,S4 or a GE 70 or 44 tonner but,as you noted its to small for filling the tanks of large locomotives.
Bill,
This may help the conversation:
Sorry for not posting this sooner…
Tom
Yes Tom, that is the kit. That pipe thing next to the fuel hose pipe is the thing in question (It actually sits over by the tank in the illustration on the kit box). Nobody so far has come up with the method of connecting it, which is my concern at the moment.
According to my calculations, the bulk tank should hold approximately 17,574 US gals of diesel. Kit tank measures 3.5cm diametre x 10.5cm long. When you multiply by 87 to get the full size then work out the volume in cubic centimetres divided by 1000 to give litres, then divide by 3.7854 (the number of litres in a US gallon) you should get the above figure. Whew my head is spinning. (In NZ we have been using the metric sytem for many years). So the tank is big enough for a transition era fuel tank.
Cheers, Bill
Bill, that thing as you call it, is for unloading from the top of a tank car.
It is next to the track where the tank car is to be positioned. Then the long piece with the hose attached is lowered to the top of the tank car and the hose is used to offload fuel from the top of the car. Then through a pipe that goes to the fuel storage tank.
In the late '70’s BN had a facility at Energy Spur, WY (between New Castle and Osage) where they loaded company tank cars with diesel fuel and sent the cars to the smaller engine terminals around the system.
Dick
Perhaps it was a part that they thought should go with that. It appears to be from their interstate fuel kit, as does the tank. Just for my own peace of mind, what is that blue thing lying on the pink form next to the building in the lower right hand of the photo?
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
Sorry for the confusion, Paul. It’s just a push-pin to hold things in place. I haven’t finished installing the fueling platform yet.
Tom
Water is used as engine coolant, so even modern diesels occasionally take on some water.
Also if you go back a few years to when passenger trains were steam-heated, the boilers on passenger units would require filling up the water tanks. For long-distance passenger trains water services were supplied at station stops at regular intervals.
Ken, I presume then, that the hose is only attached when a tank car is about to be connected. So is there a hose connected to the other end of the pipe, or does the fuel flow through the pipe frame to the storage tank?
Cheers, Bill
The back end is attached to an other hose and fittings to a pipe that then goes to the pump and then flows into the storage tank.
Hmm, reminds me that somwehre I have that kit laying around. The small size of the storage tanks makes me thing it would be a good fit to cut that whole thing down ans use it in a corner of my cement plant, to fuel the 44 ton loco they will have. Might be too fancy though, I suspect they would have just set things up so that the pump used to fill the quarry trucks could reach a spot on the track for the loco to take on fuel as well, since for off road use (no highway tax) it would be the same fuel.
It’s possible that for a larger installation the small tank would act as a surge tank, filled in turn from the MUCH larger actual main storage tanks, which would likely have a different location to spot a tank car or two to refill them.
–Randy