a while back I started a topic about how a woochip Gondola could feasibly carry irrigation pipe. Now I've got a second question about rail delivered pipe.
I recently saw a CSX unit train of huge greenishc olored pipes here in TN, they were all on 86 ft PTTX marked flatc ars. I was wonderring who shipped these and who recieved these? I thought this might be another good industry idea for the lay out.
There are several pipe manufacturers so the bets are off on who shipped them..
As far as a unit train..How many cars? If it was a unit train I would suspect it was going to a pipe construction project and would be unloaded at the nearest transload track or the nearest pipe distribution company and then rubbered (trucked) to the construction site.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
PTTX cars are I assume in dedicated pipe service. I have seen both very large green pipes and smaller green pipes. I do now know if the green is an indicator of the manufacturer or of the intended service, but I usually do see a significant number of such loads in the same train (although I have yet to see an all pipe train that I recall).
Dave Nelson
I think the green may be a protective coating. I have seen pipes which did not have it all the way to the ends. Probably so the pipe could be joined by welding and then more coating was applied before the pipe was covered up in the trench.
Charlie
Hello All,
By green-ish pipes do you mean PVC or metal that has been painted or coated green-ish?
The pipes I'm thinking of are PVC that are used for everything from farm irrigation to sewer lines. I've see them in sizes from 4-inches to several feet in diameter.
I did a web search and came up with the Diamond Plastics Corporation. If you scroll down on their home page you'll see the type of pipes I'm referring to. One is blue and the other is perhaps the green-ish ones you are referring to.
This would be a great industry to model. The raw PVC pellets come into the facility in covered hoppers along with other manufacturing materials in tankers and box cars. These are unloaded into holding silos, tanks and warehouses. The finished pipes are then shipped via truck and rail to distributors and end users.
Depending on the size of the manufacturing plant there might even be dedicated switcher(s) to move cars around the facility and make up outgoing cuts.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
O think the train I saw had to have had 30 or so cars, i'm just curious what kind of project or company would justify having a 30 car train of pipe on a weekly / semi-weekly basis.
DavidH66 O think the train I saw had to have had 30 or so cars, i'm just curious what kind of project or company would justify having a 30 car train of pipe on a weekly / semi-weekly basis.
I'll take wild guess..If there is a major pipe project that extends for (let's say) 70-80 miles then that would explain the need for unit trains of pipe.
Another wild guess those pipe might be bound for export..
Several years ago cars hauling pipe like you described were used for a natural gas pipeline in Michigan.
Railroads move large shipments of pipe all the time. They go to water projects, sewer projects, oil pipelines. The green pipes are usually coated steel. There are several shippers and they go all over the country. They often go to tracks near the construction projects, sometimes to team or transload tracks, sometimes to "inactive" industrial spurs leased just to handle pipe for the project. Sometimes they are handled as a unit train (large shipments), sometimes a block on a manifest train (smaller shipments).
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
BLMA has made pipe load 89' flat cars:
http://www.blmamodels.com/cgi-bin/webstore/shop.cgi?ud=CQcEAAoABgcFBxQUEBEcHAABAwYJCAMFCQkTEQAA&t=main.blue.htm&storeid=1&cols=1&categories=01001-00023&&c=detail.blue.htm&t=main.blue.htm&itemid=F89JHO-5
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
If it's not PVC, it's most likely coated steel for direct burial. This usually has uncoated ends for welding. The weld areas are covered after they are welded and inspected.
There are many oil and gas pipelines of all sizes under construction in the USA and some of them are hundreds of miles long.
I have seen some large light blue pipes on the side of the road were the water mains are being replaced. The are about 4 feet in diameter and are made out of plastic. These pipes are fused together by heating the ends and then being pushed together. I believe they are using plastics more because plastic doesn't rust like steel does and lasts longer.
Thank you for the picture link- -I really appreciate RailPictures.Net! I have answered many a question through researching their database of photos. Becoming a member- -FREE- -is worth it.
Regarding the photo of the load you described, those pipes are completely different than what I had in mind. Thank you for the clarification, sory for the confusion.
Modeling the steel industry, in any scale, is a huge area of potential. From the loads you saw, to manufacturing, end use and the subsidiary industries of coal and ore, all great stuff to model! No matter what era.
A company in Wharton, Texas on the KCS manufactures blue-green pipe, looks like PVC, has acres of it in outdoor storage.
charlie9 I think the green may be a protective coating. I have seen pipes which did not have it all the way to the ends. Probably so the pipe could be joined by welding and then more coating was applied before the pipe was covered up in the trench. Charlie
Charlie,
You are correct that the green you are seeing is in fact a protective coating on the pipe. The company I work for inspects pipelines and that is exactly what it is. You are correct that they do weld the pipes together then coat the ends of the pipes. Depending on the size of the line you will have many cars of these pipes going to a location to build a pipeline.
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/