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[quote user="WilliamKiesel"] I am aware that a "tank train" of interconnected tank cars has been used in revenue service. I do not recall where, how, why or when. Does anyone have answers? Examples. Regarding the "tank train" design, what kind of control is there for the interconnection? What kind of spill control valves? might there be in the "tank train" design? <div style="clear:both;"></div> [/quote] Steve Schmollinger's excellent book Tehachapi: Railroad on a Desert Mountain* has quite a bit of information and photos of the Shell Oil Company's oil train, which transported Kern River Basin crude to a refinery over the Tehachapi range near LA's Dolores Yard between 1983 and at least 1992...how much later I don't know. Building a pipeline was too expensive and would take too long, so they contracted with the Southern Pacific to transport the oil at the same speed as a pipeline - 10,000 tons at a time. GATX built three 72-car trains based on their <a href="http://www.gatx.com/wps/wcm/connect/GATX/GATX_SITE/Home/Rail/Rail+North+America/Products/Equipment+Types/Tank/Tank+Train/">TankTrain</a>, divided into 12 car sets with each car in the set connected by ten-inch hoses. Cars could be loaded and unloaded 12 at a time at three track loading/unloading facilities, with the crude heated to 140 degrees to allow it to flow. The cars were unloaded by pumping inert nitrogen gas through the cars. Pull-aparts were uncommon as the knuckles were regularly changed, and in the rare times it did happen, only the oil left in the hoses spilled since valves prevented any from leaking out the car. One derailment did cause nine cars to derail and create a huge mess that spilled 66,000 gallons of crude and shut down the line for two days, but keep in mind this was 1980s technology. Tank car engineering has come quite a ways as far as safety is concerned. I know the forum rules discourage linking to other forums, but this is one of the only resources on the web about this train and it's GREAT. Mods, feel free to delete if necessary... [url]http://sptco.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=sp&action=display&thread=881[/url] *Incidentally, this was my first serious railroad book as a child, and not paying attention to the photo dates (almost all from the '80s), I was baffled years later at hearing that the Santa Fe and SP had been merged away for years!
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