Vol. 17 No. 8
August, 1987
|
Stay Safe in 87
|
|
Different Sort of Car
Wash
Erected at Sutherland Yard
By Paul
Thurston
Saskatoon - Saskatoon will be getting a car wash
with a difference this year when CP Rail completes work on a freight car cleaning facility at Sutherland Yard.
The $3.4-million plant, designed to clean the interiors of potash hopper cars, will incorporate a
single-track, three-car wash building and associated access tracks. Contracts have been
awarded to two Saskatoon companies, and work is under way.
Total annual throughput capacity will exceed 2,800 cars after the plant is completed in the fall.
For Potash Cars
The new washing facility will supplement an outdoor servicing pit where up to 14,000 potash cars a year are
dry-cleaned with compressed air.
When the new plant is in operation dry-cleaned cars needing a wash will be placed close enough to the
building that an in-track puller system can grab them by the leading axle.
Cars then will be processed through the building coupled in threes. The main component of the wash system will
consist of a motorized crane equipped with a rotating washing wand, controlled by an operator from a moving work
platform. Start, stop, and variable speed controls will be included.
Interlocking control relays will ensure that water will flow only when the wand is lowered through
roof-top hatches to its extreme down position, and that the crane will not move unless the wand is fully
raised.
Wash water draining from potash unloading gates along the bottom of each car will be treated before being discharged
into the city sewer.
When cleaning is complete, the puller system will move the cars out for subsequent transfer back into train service
or the repair track.
Washing is currently done in a building with dead-end tracks, requiring individual switching of cars
with a yard locomotive and crew. Car interiors are hosed out manually.
This CP Rail News article is copyright
1987 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with
their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway
Company.
|
