Wyoming originating rail traffic

[Murphy Siding]

     I got a chance to spend some time here, looking at maps http://trn.trains.com/Railroad%20Reference/Railroad%20Maps.aspx 

     Something that caught my eye was a map and text saying that 95% of Wyoming's originating tonnage in 2005 was coal from the Powder River Basin.  No mystery there.  But, what makes up the other 5%?  Coal from other parts of the state?  Other minerals?  Maybe some petroleum products from refineries like the one at Newcastle?

[HTower]

Short answer could certainly be anything that is shipped on rails.

 

[CShaveRR]

Soda ash from the Green River area.  That is good for several UP trains moving between the producers and Green River daily.  Not a small volume, so that gives an idea of how overwhelming Powder River has become.

[Railway Man]

Murphy Siding

     I got a chance to spend some time here, looking at maps http://trn.trains.com/Railroad%20Reference/Railroad%20Maps.aspx 

     Something that caught my eye was a map and text saying that 95% of Wyoming's originating tonnage in 2005 was coal from the Powder River Basin.  No mystery there.  But, what makes up the other 5%?  Coal from other parts of the state?  Other minerals?  Maybe some petroleum products from refineries like the one at Newcastle?

Becasue the coal volume is so enormous, it means the 5% is really quite large.  Might I elaborate from Carl on that 5%:

1. Soda Ash -- 11 million tons/year (that's approximately 300 carloads per day) loaded at mine-refinery complexes in the Green River-Granger area) operated by FMC, General Chemical, OCI Wyoming and Solvay.  A substantial amount goes to export via Portland, Oregon. Some soda ash is trucked to BNSF transloads at Riverton, Wyoming, and Ogden, Utah.
   
2. Coal, other mines.  The Hanna Basin mines at Hanna ship went idle except as a mine-mouth producer after the PRB came on line in the 1970s. Significant volumes are shipped by rail from P&M's Kemmerer Mine outside of Kemmerer and the Black Butte mine near Rock Springs.
   
3. Bentonite.  Most of the U.S. supply of this clay (used in drilling mud, to coat paper, and construction) comes from mines in the far northwest corner of South Dakota and the northeast corner of Wyoming, near Colony.  Wyoming produces nearly 5 million tons per year, or more than 150 carloads per day.
   
4. Phosphate Fertilizer. Simplot Phosphatesoperates a phosphoric acid refinery near Green River that refines phosphate ore brought by slurry pipeline from the mine near Vernal, Utah.  This produces phosphoric acid, superphosphoric acid, and fluorsilicic acid (shipped by tankcar) and monoammonium phosphate (dry, granulated fertilizer shipped by covered hopper).
   
5. Helium.  Small amounts shipped by tankcar (which nevertheless accounts for more than 20% of U.S. production; we just don't need that much helium).
6. Sulfur. Several plants remove sulfur from sour natural gas and ship it by tankcar in liquid form. Chevron operates a large one near Kemmerer.  This commodity accounts for about 1.5 million tons/year or about 50 carloads per day.
   
7. Natural gas liquids.  These extraction plants are scattered in numerous locations and separate butane, propane, ethane, and natural gasoline from natural gas, then ship by rail.
8. Diesel fuel, asphalt, propane, and pet coke are shipped from the Sinclair refinery at Sinclair, near Rawlins, and the Frontier refinery in Cheyenne.  There are several other refineries in Wyoming but they are very small.  Pet coke is also shipped from a plant near Kemmerer.
   
9. Cement.  Mountain Cement's plant near Laramie ships a lot of cement into the Denver area, Nebraska, Kansas, etc., by rail.
10. Coke. A plant south of Rock Springs produces coke for industrial purposes from coal.
11. Urea and ammonia fertilizer, and prilled ammonium nitrate.  From the anhydrous ammonia plant west of Cheyenne.  The plant changes hands it seems every few years now.
    
12. Ballast. One of the largest and most important ballast quarries on UP is located at Granite, just west of Cheyenne, and operated by Martin-Marietta.
    

RWM

[erikem]

RWM,

Thanks for the info!

A comment on Helium: While the tonnage may not be all that much compared to the other commodities mentioned (e.g. 11 million tons/year for soda ash is significant traffic), but the world is using more Helium than what's being produced.

- Erik

[nanaimo73]

Is helium shipped as a liquid, or under high pressure? Otherwise a full tankcar would weigh less than an empty car (full of air), wouldn't it?

[Rails West]

Assume that WY's crude oil is refined in-state?

[ericsp]

According to the EIA, Wyoming's crude oil production was an average of 140,638 BPD and the total refining capacity is 166,100 BPD (3,600 BPD of which is idle).

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

RWM, thanks much for that very detailed and informative little dissertation.  It's a little surprising to see (summarized so well) how much serious and necessary fundamantal industrial economic activity is going on there comparatively unnoticed - "off the radar screen".  Nevertheless, it's probably a good thing to have it - keeps people employed and businesses going, because other sectors of the economy are not doing well at all.

Others already mentioned the possible weight anomaly of cars loaded with helium, so I'll let that pass . . . .  

- Paul North. 

[Railway Man]

ericsp

According to the EIA, Wyoming's crude oil production was an average of 140,638 BPD and the total refining capacity is 166,100 BPD (3,600 BPD of which is idle).

Wyoming's refineries are legacy constructions for fields many of which are long ago depleted, and the production locations are no longer co-located with the refineries as neatly as was the case when the refineries were constructed.  And as is common in the Rocky Mountain states there is not a complete pipeline network lacing together all the refineries and production districts, but rather a few purpose-built pipelines designed to carry oil from certain fields to certain refineries.  Most of the oil produced in Wyoming at present occurs in the Overthrust Belt in southwestern Wyoming.  Most of that crude is transported by pipeline to the several refineries in the North Salt Lake City-Woods Cross area.  And similarly, much of the oil being refined in the eastern Wyoming refineries is produced in the Denver Basin or North Dakota.  Wyoming has always been a net crude exporter because its demand for refined petroleum is much less than its production capabilities.  The pipeline from southwestern Wyoming to Salt Lake City dates to the 1920s (I think that's right, but I'd have to go look up that date to be sure -- it might be the 1930s.)

RWM

[erikem]

nanaimo73

Is helium shipped as a liquid, or under high pressure? Otherwise a full tankcar would weigh less than an empty car (full of air), wouldn't it?

My understanding is that the helium is shipped under pressure on a car loaded with pressure vessels. This probably has the worst cargo to tare ratio of any freight car, but it is cheaper than trying to liquify the stuff. This is one commodity where carloads is a much better indicator of potential revenue than tonnage.

- Erik

[ericsp]

I noticed in those EIA statistics that in 1981 Wyoming's crude oil production was about 2.54 times that of last year's production.

[Railway Man]

ericsp

I noticed in those EIA statistics that in 1981 Wyoming's crude oil production was about 2.54 times that of last year's production.

The decline is mostly due to exhaustion of primary recovery oil in the Salt Creek and Monel fields at Midwest (north of Casper), the field associated with the Teapot Dome scandal that sullied the Harding Administration.  CO2 flooding has enabled continued production.  More than 700 million barrels of light sweet crude have been extracted from the field, with an estimated 1 billion barrels still in the ground.

In 1970 Wyoming was producing about 160 million barrels a year.  Now it's about 60 mmb/year,

RWM

[Murphy Siding]

     I had forgoten about bentonite shipping out of Colony.  In fact,  I had forgotten it was even in Wyoming,  seeing how it's just a little west of Belle Fourche, S.D. and all that traffic goes on the CP line to Chadron, Nebraska.

     Is there any ag related traffic shipping out of Wyoming?  If you're not familiar with Wyoming,  it's dry, dry, dry.  There is a lot of cattle grazinf, but I don't know if I've seen any crops there.

[Bob-Fryml]

A rule of thumb about Wyoming:  ranching is generally west of I-25 while farming is east of the interstate.

Along the North Platte River are many irrigated farms that produce sugar beets.  There's a sugar beet refinery in South Torrington (near the Nebraska border) that may still accept inbound shipments of coal and also load covered hoppers with outbound product.  U.P. serves this facility.

I should think that the BNSF's mainline connecting Wendover, Wyo.; Scottsbluff, Nebr.; and points east would have some grain elevators along the way.

Egbert, Wyo. has a Pillsbury elevator that buys hard red winter wheat grown in Wyoming.  It's along The Overland Route mainline near the Nebraska border.

At one time Big Horn Lumber in Laramie was a pretty steady shipper of wood chips, a raw product used by the paper-making industry.  Recently, though, that source of traffic has pretty well dried up.

On occasion BNSF has run a unit molten sulphur train from somewhere around Shoshoni, in central Wyoming, to Beaumont, Tex.

 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Kind of surprised RJ/ miniwyo hasn't posted anything to this thread.  I'll drop him a line to see how he's doing, and if he's seen this one ... .

- Paul North. 

[VerMontanan]

Murphy,

Wyoming ranked 6th nationwide in Barley production, and most of it is centered in Northern Wyoming in the vicinity of Powell and Ralston.  Starting at the end of July every year there is a short "rush" of barley loading on BNSF's Cody branch.  Wyoming raises more barley than it does wheat (but just barely) and is the No. 1 agricultural activity behind livestock.  So, I would think this would be Wyoming's primary agricultural commodity transported by rail.

I don't know the breakdown of the bentonite shipments out of Colony, WY on the DM&E/CP, but I don't believe most of it goes toward Chadron (actually to Crawford to interchange with BNSF; Chadron is now the Nebraska Northwestern Railroad), but rather east from Rapid City on the ex-C&NW ex-DM&E CP line. 

In addition, there are bentonite shipments on BNSF from locations around Greybull and Newcastle.

[VerMontanan]

Bob-Fryml

On occasion BNSF has run a unit molten sulphur train from somewhere around Shoshoni, in central Wyoming, to Beaumont, Tex.

 

The sulfur trains not uncommon, but usually only about once a week at best.  They originate just outside Shoshoni at Bonneville and go to Galveston, TX.

[ButchKnouse]

I live 100 yards from the DM&E and bentonite cars are few and far between. I can't even guess the last time I saw one.

I live in Eastern South Dakota.

[Murphy Siding]

ButchKnouse

I live 100 yards from the DM&E and bentonite cars are few and far between. I can't even guess the last time I saw one.

I live in Eastern South Dakota.

     I would guess they head south toward  Chadron Nebraska, rather than east on the DM&E (CP).

[ButchKnouse]

True.

I've never seen more than a few Bentonite cars on any train here.

[miniwyo]

Paul_D_North_Jr

Kind of surprised RJ/ miniwyo hasn't posted anything to this thread.  I'll drop him a line to see how he's doing, and if he's seen this one ... .

- Paul North. 

Thanks for the heads up Paul!

 

RWM Pretty much covered everything.

I do have a few fun facts though.

Soda Ash

There are 5 mines in the area. Solvay, usually shoves 75 cars across the interstate to the mainline every day. FMC Westvaco is the Worlds Largest Trona Mine. FMC Granger uses solution mining, and due to the high operating expenses and the recession, was mothballed a few years ago. General Chemical also has a Church and Dwight manufacturing plant on site and they supply them directly with soda ash. Church and Dwight produces Arm and Hammer products. They load their product into containers that are trucked to Green River where they are loaded onto well cars. A Riverton, Wy. based trucking company is owned in a partnership with BNSF and like RWM stated they haul soda ash over south pass and transload it at Shoshoni, Wy. about 15 miles east of Riverton.

Coal

Coal from the Black Butte coal mine near Point of Rocks only ships coal to the Jim Bridger Power Plant.

NGL (Natural Gas Liquids)

Most of the Fractionated NGL that is loaded on rail is LPG like Propane (C3) and Butane (C4). Most of the Lighter Liquid (Ethane (C2) is shipped in a pipeline, as pressurized transportation can be dangerous due to its high Vapor Pressure. Liquids heavier than Butane, are generally trucked and pipelined to refineries as the Natural Gasoline (C5) and Condensate (C6+) can easily be refined into gas and diesel. In fact, before fuel injection, many of the field operators used to take the heavier liquids off the wellhead separators and use it in their trucks as fuel. I work at one of the MANY processing plants in the state, and for about 10 months used to load LPG on railcars. I have since moved into operations and am now responsible for running the processing plant.

An industry that recieves rail shipments that is big in the state is the Oil and Gas Drilling industry.

They get Frac sand in covered hoppers. Frac sand is used in the infamous Hydraulic Fracturing process. It is a synthetic silica sand that is hydrophobic (it doesn't absorb water mixed in with the liquid pumped down the well at a high pressure to fracture the rock formation to allow the gas to be released. It is transported to the well site in pnumatic hopper trucks after being transloaded off the railcar.

They also get cement. Cement is used in completion of the well. They insert pipe(casing) down the completed well, making sure it is centered as it goes down with devices that keep it an equal distance from the side all around it. they then pump cement between the casing and the rock to keep the casing in place and support the drilled hole. If the casing is not centered and cemented properly, a blowout can occur. Halliburton used to used specialized cement hoppers cars for this product.

 

[Andy Cummings]

FYI, Most of the benonite from Colony and Belle Fourche does indeed run east from Rapid and into Minnesota; probably 30-50 cars per day on average. The totals through Crawford are much smaller, though some goes that way as well, including big blocks for export through Vancouver, B.C. Butch, all those gray 4-bay CHs with blue DM&E lettering in the 49000 series are bentonite service. Most of the cars with reporting marks like NAHX, CEFX, GCCX, CRDX, etc., are bentonite service as well. It's a mix of standard CHs and pressure differential cars. But it's a very substantial portion of the business you see on DM&E's mainline trains.

Best,

[ButchKnouse]

I had no idea. There's a few Bentonite hopper cars around so I just assumed they had there own fleet, and most of them went through Chadron.

Hey Andy. How do I get my home town back under my lack of an avatar?

[Murphy Siding]

ButchKnouse

Hey Andy. How do I get my home town back under my lack of an avatar?

     I'm not Andy........but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn last night......

     Butch- click on your screen name under your non-avatar.  When it jumps to the next page, scroll down a ways, and look for the box on the right hand side that mentions cvhanging profile information.  Change the info there. 

-Norris