BNSF tank cars

[Lyon_Wonder]

BNSF has tank cars of BN and ATSF heritage.  Some have been repainted into the new BNSF scheme.  Besides the former BN fuel-tenders, what does BNSF use their tank cars for, general revenue service like shipper-owned cars, or specialized in-company use? 

 

 

 

[CShaveRR]

Most, if not all, BNSF tank cars nowadays are used for diesel fuel transport (some numbered in the non-revenue series may be used for company purposes like drinking water, waste disposal, etc.).  These are used primarily to ship fuel from oil-company loading facilities (I believe there's one at Rochelle, Illinois) to outlying fueling locations. I'm sure it saves money over trucks bringing in the hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel needed.

I hope someone else can elaborate, or correct if necessary.

[mudchicken]

The bulk of Santa Fe cars were for loading in CA and TX for loading of diesel fuel at fueling points points on line and in the terminals where there was no pipeline access. BN did the same thing (Crawford, NE for example).......Some of the game now is taking fuel to outlying points and to fueling contractors from lesser expensive points.

[edblysard]

We send out a 80 car average train of these every day...they are filled at Houston Fuel and Oil, and BNSF drops off an empty train and picks up the loaded "fuel train" as it is called at PTRA's North Yard.

They head out to New Mexico and Nevada most of the time, but a few go north every once in a while.

[htgguy]

I see solid sets of them on the Staples Sub, both eastbound and westbound, from time to time. There is a photo of one train in Detroit Lakes, MN, from this June in a blog post here. I figure they are transporting fuel from west to east but I don't know that for a fact.

 Jim

[ericsp]

I remember seeing ATSF tankcars in Bakersfield. It has been years since I have seen any. I am guessing that the cars that go to NV go into NV from the east and leave to the east.

[Lyon_Wonder]

Thanks for the info.  Some pics even show one or two BNSF tank cars intermingling with covered hoppers and other rolling stock in consists   I was wondering since they are HO models of tank cars painted in BNSF, ATSF and BN colors.  Do the other class 1s, UP, NS, CSX ship their fuel by the same method?  If any of the other Class 1s do, do they have their own tank cars like BNSF or do they use lease cars with ARR reporting marks ending with the X?   I found pics of UP tank cars on rrpicturearchives.net with the UPT reporting mark.  I assume these are similar to BN’s fuel tenders.  Other UP tank cars appear to be MOW equipment.

 

[ericsp]

Southern Pacific used to ship diesel fuel by rail. Just like the ATSF tankcars, I have not seen any SP cars in a long time. They were, or are, in the SP 67300-67349, along with a few others in the SP 67200 series. I once saw a NATX tankcar that was leased to CNW and a GATX tankcar leased to SP. I seems like the NATX car was placarded 1993, so it might have still been leased to UP. However the GATX tankcar was placarded 3257 (probably asphalt), so I doubt it was still leased to UP.

I think you meant AAR reporting marks. Ironically, it seems like ARR does have tankcars. 

I am guessing that UPT tankcar is probably used for the executive train. Perhaps to haul fuel for the power car.

[cordon]

I have seen dozens, if not over a hundred, new BNSF tank cars, some with build dates of 07/2008 and 08/2008, and late last year.  I have trouble thinking that they need that many new cars just for their own Diesel fuel.  Are you sure they are not serving other customers also?

  

 

[Bruce Kelly]

Example: BNSF tank cars carrying diesel from Texas are delivered to the main line refueling facility at Hauser, Idaho. Depending on track availability, the tanks are either set out by a manifest at Yardley/Parkwater terminal in Spokane, and may be stored temporarily just east of there at Velox before being backtracked to Hauser by a local, or the manifest will drop the tanks on a yard track at Hauser or (when fuel delivery is critical) hand off directly to a switch job on the yard lead. Tanks are spotted on one of two tracks under a 450-foot long shed where they're emptied into on-site storage. A third adjacent track under the shed can hold additional fuel tanks but is intended mainly for loading of wastewater to be shipped elsewhere for treatment. Trains are then fueled under a separate shed housing three run-through mains plus a fourth main designed for short trains or light power.

[passengerfan]

BNSF recently got a huge contract for hauling Ethanol so many of those cars are probably being used for this service until the end user builds enough tank cars of there own or maybe they are paying a premium for BNSF to supply the cars.

Al - in - Stockton

[CShaveRR]

cordon

I have seen dozens, if not over a hundred, new BNSF tank cars, some with build dates of 07/2008 and 08/2008, and late last year.  I have trouble thinking that they need that many new cars just for their own Diesel fuel.  Are you sure they are not serving other customers also?

If you have a number for one of the new cars you've seen, this could be easy enough to check out.  I think diesel fuel is shipped in 28,000-gallon (or thereabouts) tank cars, while ethanol is shipped in 30,000-gallon cars.

[Bob-Fryml]

1st QUESTION:  Are there still any Great Northern (GN) and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CBQ) reporting marks still affixed to BNSF company service tank cars?

2nd QUESTION:  Has BNSF retired its fuel tender tank cars, or have they been modified as ordinary company service tank cars?  Pre-BNSF, the Burlington Northern was operating a pair of Chicago - Puget Sound trailer/container hotshots that typically were pulled by four SD40-2's.  Sandwiched into the middle of the locomotive consist was a specially modified tank car that supplied diesel fuel to the locomotive (actually to each engine's fuel tank).  The idea behind this arrangement was this:  the locomotive would take fuel only once per roundtrip, specifically at the cheapest fueling point.  This arrangement was covered in Trains Magazine, but I seem to recall that it lasted only a year or two.  

[Lyon_Wonder]

On burlingtonroute.com, I found one pic taken in 2005 of a BN tank car still in it's original CB&Q scheme, reporting mark BN 974041.

IIRC, several of the BN fuel tenders have BNSF reporting marks, though still in their BN black/green.
 

 

 

 

[Andrew Falconer]

Did the Burlington Northern keep any tank cars owned by the Great Northern? 

Did the Great Northern ever paint their 1960's Tank Cars in Big Sky Blue or Glacier Green like some scale models?

Andrew

[CShaveRR]

I saw a few GN tank cars with non-revenue numbers after the BN merger. They were in black or red oxide--nothing blue or green.

[PNWRMNM]

Andrew,

 

BNSF became owner of GN's fleet on merger day.  Most of them were reasonably modern and would have lasted many years.

Never say never but puting fancy paint on company material cars would have been a waste of money, so I doubt any GN tank got new paint.  I never saw anything but black on the west end of the GN.

 

Mac