About forty of these brand new two-bay covered hoppers have been sitting in the CP's New Ulm MN yard for a few days. The reporting marks show that they are managed by the Enkay Leasing Company, but I'm not able to find anything on the net about cars with these numbers. Maybe they are too new. Here are links to a couple of photos.
NKLX 300047
Two rows of new NKLX covered hoppers (CP 3096 yard switcher on the right)
Most of the covered hoppers found in this yard are of the four or five bay type used for bentonite which is transferred to tractor-trailers at the team track. I've included a few links to photos of that style.
CRDX 11373
MCEX 350396 and FURX 894320
Any idea what might be up with these new ones? I know the engineer that runs the yard switcher so the next time that I see him I'll have to find out if he has any ideas.
Tom Edwards
my hunch is frac sand service.
Dave Nelson
I'll agree with Dave, refined frac sand. Seen a lot this this in western Wisconsin.
Refined is silica sand, without all the impurities that come with it, as dug from the ground. Wisconsin has lots of it.
You can Google frac sand, and learn more.
I've also seen 3 bay hoppers, that carry the same.
Mike.
My You Tube
Could be for frac sand, but as far as I know there aren't any suppliers of that commodity on the CP in southwestern MN or in SD. There are a couple of big suppliers between Mankato MN and the Twin Cities, but those are on the UP. The CP does serve at least one supplier on the old MILW mainline between the Twin Cities and Winona, but that wouldn't explain the cars al the way west in the New Ulm yard, unless there isn't room anywhere else for them. [;D]
I also noticed that they have just normal gravity gates on the bottom of the bays, not the pressure differential plumbing like on the bentonite hoppers. Do frac sand customers prefer one over the other? or either kind?
edwardstdCould be for frac sand, but as far as I know there aren't any suppliers of that commodity on the CP in southwestern MN or in SD.
Right, it comes from Wisconsin.
edwardstdI also noticed that they have just normal gravity gates on the bottom of the bays, not the pressure differential plumbing like on the bentonite hoppers.
Doesn't need pressurized hoppers. It's usually transloaded to trucks, that take it to the drilling site.
Unrefined sand goes to a refinery first, sifted, cleaned, and dryed, and loaded in to covered hoppers for it's final destination.
The unrefined sand may be hauled in open hoppers, to the refinery. I've seen it many times.
If the cars are not for silica sand/frac sand, then you'll have to keep searching.
Minnesota is one of the top producers of fracking sand so I'm used to seeing that traffic in and out of the Mankato area, but I'm still curious about these cars. Here's a link to a four year old map of mines in MN. It doesn't show the one on the former MILW mainline north of Winona. As I mentioned, as soon as I meet up with a friend of mine who runs the local switcher in town for the CP, I'll have to quiz him.
On a related topic, locally the CP handles a lot of kaolin clay in open hoppers and forwards a lot of bentonite that comes in from SD via the RCP&E/former DM&E line in Wyoming. Some of the bentonite stops off in New Ulm where it is pumped into tractor-trailers that take it up to a customer in St. Cloud, MN.