Is anyone modeling frac sand shipping or mining operations. I think it has many possibilities for the modeler. I have seen pics of the sand hauled in open top gondolas or covered hoppers. Loaded with bucket loaders or conveyors. For unloading I can see using those new 3-d printed dry bulk trailers parked next to a covered hopper on a team track or rural siding. Lots of ideas. The unloading process does not need much space.
This is the site of the Bakken Oile Express shipping point west of Dickinson, ND. The right loop (four tracks) ships Bakken Crude Oil eastwards on the BNSF mane lion. The loops to the left, long since compleated are being used by Halliburton for receiving fracking sand. This is all in covered hoppers, and is stored in covered bins (http://www.amberwavesinc.com/)made right here in Richardton ND. This is a temporary operation, it will be moved as a new diesel refinery will be opening just to the west of this frame.
Halliburton did buy land here in Richardton for this operation, but no one is sure if it is to be built or not. Other rail terminals are being built in Richardton just east of the Ethanol Plant, they are receiving pipe and other chemicals.
As you can see, it is an ideal project for an HO scale layout. In addition to BNSF power, we see a lot of NS power here on through trains.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I put this 16 car raw frac sand train together last year, using "out of service/repurposed" Conrail and BN coal hoppers. I weathered them up, patched for my road, GLC (Great Lakes Central), tuned the trucks and added metal wheelsets, KD couplers, and new finer profile ladders.
I watched some frac sand operations in western WI, and raw sand was taken from the mining area in hoppers, gons, whatever was availiable, and hauled to processing plants, where the silica sand was seperated, washed, dried, and put in covered hoppers for shipment to drilling fields, where it was usually transloaded to trucks, for shipment to the drill site.
Mike.
My You Tube
I work at Midland International Airport and Midland/Odessa, TX is one of the biggest areas for not only oil and fracking as well. There are tons of sand cars coming into the Midessa area, even from my hometown local shortline the Winchester and Western. If you have any questions about it, I can do my best to try to answer them, don't know everything but might be able to help you out.
mbinsewi I watched some frac sand operations in western WI, and raw sand was taken from the mining area in hoppers, gons, whatever was availiable, and hauled to processing plants, where the silica sand was seperated, washed, dried, and put in covered hoppers for shipment to drilling fields, where it was usually transloaded to trucks, for shipment to the drill site. Mike.
That sounds interesting. We could model the plant, with open hoppers in - and covered hoppers out.
What did the plant itself look like? Have any pictures?
- Douglas
DoughlessWhat did the plant itself look like? Have any pictures?
No pictures of the plant, and the two that I took of a WN (WI Northern) and UP raw sand train on my old "flip phone" didn't turn out, so once I was home, I started collecting cheap hopper cars, and started to put my own version together.
After reading your post, I Googled "frac sand trains" and "frac sand mining", and saw a ton of images, which could be used for mining, plant and train ideas. I don't have room to model loading and unloading, etc., until I do my planned lay out addition, with staging area, so my sand train just makes "run-throughs".
You can get the Walhers Rail to Road aggregate transfer faciitly. (i have that kit) but I haven't built the frac sand facitly yet because I have been building a new layout. Once I get trackwork completed I will work on the fac sand facility.
The frac sand is loaded into 2 bay covered hoppers. Walthers has them, I beleive some are Haliburton labled.
I did a lot of research on this with youtbube, there are lots of videos on this. Also there are HO trucks available now that haul fac sand. The trucks pull into the storage tanks, and sand fills up the trailer. Then the trucks are unloaded using pressurized air connected to the trailer.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
prograilfanWhat did you use for the frac sand loads in your open cars? Thanks. Alan
Styrofoam, shaped, sanded smooth and painted. Each load comes out for running MT's. These are 70 ton hoppers, I calculated how much sand could be hauled in a 70 ton hopper. That's why they are not "full".
Not frac sand but my major industry on my portable modules was a sand and gravel pit and plant. Three load out hoppers and a scale house set in the late thirties to forties. You can see my plant at 1:24 of this video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hyL2Tjhu2W8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.enterprisenews.com%2Fmultimedia%3Fvid_id%3DhyL2Tjhu2W8
I really need to get my pictures off of Photobucket.
Pete
For those who want a look at a frac sand plant, here are several of a (relatively) new facility in Kingfisher, OK. It's my understanding that some producers are going to a different, more natural type of sand and that this plant was idled within a year of going online, but…
https://www.solarisoilfield.com/services/transloading-services
Don't know where the prototype is based, but Walthers has a Glacier Industrial Sands kit, now. I don't think it was available six years ago when this was first posted.
The San Saba sub of the ATSF; a branchline from Lometa, TX to Brady, TX survived on frac sand for years. The line was sold to a short line in 1993, and the principal commodity hauled continued to be sand. The line is currently up for abandonment since last year; although there is an effort by shippers to buy the line.
At one point there were 8 sand plants in Brady. When I took pictures, I only saw covered hoppers; and I have only seen covered hoppers in use on the current short line. For a time, the sand was even hauled to Santa Fe engine facilities in Texas for use in locomotives, two bay covered hoppers, stencilled "return to Brady when empty."