The photograph show a tank car standing over the track collector pans.

Murphy Oil is a motor-fuel and asphalt refinery in Superior, Wisc., across the St. Louis Bay from Duluth, Minn. The refinery had been planning a major rearrangement of their tank-car loading track to accommodate shipment of diesel fuel by rail.

Their initial plan, as of early 2009, was to retrofit an existing asphalt loading dock to load diesel fuel and install track spill containment pans to comply with the EPA's Spill Prevention, Containment, and Countermeasure regulations. Upon reviewing their options, the railroad engineering consultant, Krech Ojard & Associates from Duluth, recommended a steel collector pan with a re-enforced bar grate deck from Trans Environmental Systems Inc., Morehead City, N.C. The purpose of the deck was so any loaded tanker truck could also drive right over the railroad track collector pan. After limited discussions, the refinery's mechanical engineer, Jerry Choate, ordered one set of the pans for a summer 2009 delivery.

But before the plates could arrive, other factors, particularly the construction of new spur tracks, postponed the original plan. The evaluation team took a second look at the drive-over track pan and concluded that if they installed two pans beside the same loading rack structure, they could avoid duplicate expenses for building a second, truck-loading rack facility by simply rerouting the access roadways to come up to and parallel of the railroad spur tracks. Tanker trucks could load or unload, utilizing the same loading arms, OSHA stairway, personnel fall protection, metering and pumps, and even save by having one supervisor for the double duty loading rack. If a tank car happened to be parked over the track pan on one side of the loading rack, tanker trucks could utilize the other side for loading. If there was no railroad activity, tanker trucks could utilize both lanes.

Installation

Jerry Choate and Sam Talarico standing on this reinforced track pan

Before installing the first drive-over pan, the refinery's senior mechanical engineer, Sam Talarico, ordered a second set, which was delivered in early December 2009. By then, outside temperatures had significantly dropped. Since the track collector pans just lag bolted to the existing railroad ties, all drainage piping was put in place prior to the setting of the track pans, and before the sub base froze. The railroad contractor had installed 12-foot-long switch ties in the area where these collector pans would be positioned. With downward weights of approximately 10,000 psf from a tanker truck, these collector pans needed to be positioned on a firm foundation. Standard railroad ties were designed to take far heavier weight. This configuration allowed a 280,000 lb loaded tank car to rest on eight steel wheels with less than 4 sq. inches of each wheel touching the surface, with one set of wheels resting upon only three railroad ties.

To improve their all-weather trans-loading operations, the refinery added a closed, heated shed over the loading rack structure. While the minor canopy roof would limit the amount of rainwater collected in the open track pans, these pans could still collect blown-in snow. Although the supplier offered track collector pans with closeable lids, the facility chose to use the open pan models because they had positioned a portable steam generator at the loading rack, and believed they could simply melt away any accumulation of blown-in snow. The pans featured four, 4-inch drains in the ends of the track pans, and the bar grate support matrixes were designed to allow drainage. These matrixes could be manually lifted in order to squeegee the track pan floor or shovel debris as needed.

The refinery's staff will be keeping track of the maintenance costs on this double-duty facility. They believe it was well worth the initial investment to find a system with low recurring maintenance costs. PE