Murphy Siding If there is a pipeline terminal 25 miles from the D&I homebase, would that suggest that it would be more cost efficient to ship it in by truck?
If there is a pipeline terminal 25 miles from the D&I homebase, would that suggest that it would be more cost efficient to ship it in by truck?
That would be my guess. Take a look at satellite photographs of the terminal. If there are no tank car loading facilities, it is probably almost guaranteed they get fuel by truck but there are almost always exceptions.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Diesel fuel is combustible so I believe it does not need buffer cars. If they were carrying diesel fuel they should have been placarded 1202 or 1993.
Besides quantity of fuel used another factor is distance to the nearest pipeline terminal. Both UP and BNSF probably use more fuel around here than D&I but refuel their locomotives from trucks since the yards are close to a pipeline terminal.
Aren't you supposed to say, "Yur Wlcome" after you get "Tanked"?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Murphy Siding Norm48327 Dang! I read the thread title and thought there was going to be a party in SD. I said "What's your sign?"She said "Aquarium."I said "Me too! Let's get tanked!"
Norm48327 Dang! I read the thread title and thought there was going to be a party in SD. I said "What's your sign?"She said "Aquarium."I said "Me too! Let's get tanked!"
Dang! I read the thread title and thought there was going to be a party in SD. I said "What's your sign?"She said "Aquarium."I said "Me too! Let's get tanked!"
Somethin' sounds fishy there. Or was Froggy Courtin'?
Norm
Norm48327 Dang! I read the thread title and thought there was going to be a party in SD.
Dang! I read the thread title and thought there was going to be a party in SD.
I thought buffer cars were only required on units trains of flammable stuff?
It's certainly possible that the tank cars had something else in them. The only other tank car traffic further up the line would have been maybe fertilizer to either of the small elevators up the line. I just figured diesel fuel because that seemed like the only thing anybody would need in quantity up the line. Thanks to Mac’s figures above, it looks like they use perhaps 40-50 carloads a year. The fertilizer might be a carload a year to each elevator. Who knows, since there was 2 cars together, maybe that was this year’s shipment?
Murphy SidingRight behind the 4 locomotives were 2 loaded tank cars. I deduced that they were probably hauling diesel fuel for the railroad.
Maybe they were buffer cars to protect the locomotives from the rock cars.
But seriously, shouldn't there be a buffer car between the locomotive and the tank cars? Could they have been carrying something other than fuel?
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Much more data is needed to provide a better estimate than Mac has above.
Aside from the distance you've provided, most important is about how long those locomotives are running in each throttle position. That in turn depends mainly on the grade(s) and/or the rises and falls of the profile over that distance; curve resistance would also be a minor factor, as is the speed at each location.
Once those are known - Al Krug's calculator may be helpful ( http://hm.evilgeniustech.com/alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/RRForcesCalc.html ) - then you can start figuring throttle positions and fuel usage. Again, Al has provided some useful webpages with good data for that:
For many models of locomotive: http://hm.evilgeniustech.com/alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/fueluse.htm
For SD40's specifically: http://hm.evilgeniustech.com/alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/fuelSD40.htm
- PDN.
Murphy,
This is VERY rough. May vary a bunch if average grade is ascending. I will assume average flat but actually rolling (undulating) grade.
Your 110 car train will weigh 14,450 tons assuming fully loaded nominal 100 ton cars, 263,000 gross weight on rail. That means your SD 40 is rated at not less than 7,250 tons, which implies maximum grade against the loads of about .5%, a nice line in terms of grade.
I will assume 25 MPH which is about 5 hours travel time. Add 1 hour to load, one to unload and one to run around and switch out bad order cars. Have 5 hours under heavy load, 5 hours light load, and 3 hours basically run 1. Somewhat arbitrarily I will assume 100 GPH per unit heavy load, 50 GPH light load and 25 GPH Run 1. Actual consumption rate as function of throttle is available but since the duty cycle is a guess, I did not bother to look it up.
With SD 40 per unit, we have 5x100, plus 5x50, plus 3x25 or 825 gallons per unit per trip. Two units 1,650 gallons per trip.
With Geeps you have smaller engines but more of them. Horsepower hours will be in same ballpark so assume 4 geeps have same fuel consumption as two SD 40s, another 1,650 gallons per trip, or 3,300 gallons per day.
It would take 7.5 working days to go through a 25,000 gallon tank car, or about 8 for a 28,000 gallon car. If the RR saves 10 cents per gallon that is $330 per day. That will buy about three new wood ties installed per work day.
Mac
Out walking last night I got to see an empty Dakota & Iowa Railroad train roll by. It was a unit train of empty rock cars heading home from Sioux City iowa to homebase at the quarry in Dell Rapids S.D. Right behind the 4 locomotives were 2 loaded tank cars. I deduced that they were probably hauling diesel fuel for the railroad. I presume that any good sized shortline railroad would consume enough diesel fuel to warrant shipping it in by rail. That makes sense. On average, the D&I uses 4-5 old Geeps and SD-40s to haul 2 unit trains of rock about 110 miles out and empties back home every day. Adding in the work trains in the yard to put together trains and such, how much fuel could a railroad of that size go through in month? Any thoughts?
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