[ROCKMAN]

Tanada – heard an interesting story about rail transport on NPR the other day. Long beach/L.A. want to build a huge rail yard in the port facility. A lot of of imports, something like 75%+, come thru these ports but have to be trucked about 25 miles to the rail terminals. That’s 25 miles thru some nasty CA commuter traffic. Of course the NIMBY’s are up in arms and are delaying the process. The kicker with the delay is the potential completion from the expanded Panama Canal scheduled to open up in a year or two. Thus the potential to divert imports coming into CA and then railed all the way to the east coast to cheaper delivery via ships all the way to the eastern US. So while the current economics seem to favor the new $500 million rail yard it may not hold once enough cargo starts to bypasses CA to the other end of the country.

It will be curious to see if the PC expansion significantly changes the dynamics of bulk material transport which actually makes up the majority of rail transport as I understand it.

[dinopello]

Inland ports seem to make a lot of sense for transshipping from the ocean port by rail and then to truck.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', '[')url=http://www.envisionfreight.com/modes/default.aspx%3Fid=inland_ports.html]Inland ports[/url] seem to make a lot of sense for transshipping from the ocean port by rail and then to truck.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', 'T')anada – heard an interesting story about rail transport on NPR the other day. Long beach/L.A. want to build a huge rail yard in the port facility. A lot of of imports, something like 75%+, come thru these ports but have to be trucked about 25 miles to the rail terminals. That’s 25 miles thru some nasty CA commuter traffic. Of course the NIMBY’s are up in arms and are delaying the process. The kicker with the delay is the potential completion from the expanded Panama Canal scheduled to open up in a year or two. Thus the potential to divert imports coming into CA and then railed all the way to the east coast to cheaper delivery via ships all the way to the eastern US. So while the current economics seem to favor the new $500 million rail yard it may not hold once enough cargo starts to bypasses CA to the other end of the country.

It will be curious to see if the PC expansion significantly changes the dynamics of bulk material transport which actually makes up the majority of rail transport as I understand it.

[dinopello]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dinopello', '[')url=http://www.envisionfreight.com/modes/default.aspx%3Fid=inland_ports.html]Inland ports[/url] seem to make a lot of sense for transshipping from the ocean port by rail and then to truck.

[ROCKMAN]

Seems like the most appropriate place for an update of hydrocarbon rail transport. From RigZone:

"The total amount of crude oil and refined products being transported by rail is close to 356,000 carloads during the first half of 2013, up 48 percent from the same period last year.

U.S. weekly car loadings of crude oil and petroleum products averaged nearly 13,700 rail tankers during the January to June 2013 period. With one rail carload holding about 700 barrels, the amount of crude oil and petroleum products shipped by rail was equal to 1.37 million barrels per day during the first half of 2013, up from 927,000 barrels per day during the first six months of last year. Crude oil accounted for about half of the 2013 daily volumes."

So projecting thru the end of the year approximately 250 million bbls of crude oil will be shipped by rail during 2013. Or over $20 billion of oil shipped by trains. With that amount of revenue involved it doesn't appear the lack of pipeline additions will hold back development plans in any US or Canadian plays.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', 'S')eems like the most appropriate place for an update of hydrocarbon rail transport. From RigZone:

"The total amount of crude oil and refined products being transported by rail is close to 356,000 carloads during the first half of 2013, up 48 percent from the same period last year.

U.S. weekly car loadings of crude oil and petroleum products averaged nearly 13,700 rail tankers during the January to June 2013 period. With one rail carload holding about 700 barrels, the amount of crude oil and petroleum products shipped by rail was equal to 1.37 million barrels per day during the first half of 2013, up from 927,000 barrels per day during the first six months of last year. Crude oil accounted for about half of the 2013 daily volumes."

So projecting thru the end of the year approximately 250 million bbls of crude oil will be shipped by rail during 2013. Or over $20 billion of oil shipped by trains. With that amount of revenue involved it doesn't appear the lack of pipeline additions will hold back development plans in any US or Canadian plays.

[sparky]

.
The production could become batched , the plant ticking over in winter time
though I can hardly imagine the technical trouble of running at very low rates
or even for a seasonal shut down

[Subjectivist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('sparky', '.')
The production could become batched , the plant ticking over in winter time
though I can hardly imagine the technical trouble of running at very low rates
or even for a seasonal shut down

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'w')hen TAPS doesn't have enough volume to stay in operation will they extend the rail line up the Dalton haul road to Prudhoe Bay and ship by rail? Or will they store it in huge above ground tanks and use tanker ships in the July-October Arctic shipping window? I strongly doubt they will just shrug and walk away.

[sparky]

.
The problem is
1- storage capacity ( it increase the risk of a large spill )
2-temperature , oil come out of the ground quite hot , with a low viscosity
if the pipeline is cold , pumping become very very dificult ,
the oil would have to be completely removed prior to the stoppage ,
then re heated before oil is put back into it

[sparky]

.
The problem is
1- storage capacity ( it increase the risk of a large spill )
2-temperature , oil come out of the ground quite hot , with a low viscosity
if the pipeline is cold , pumping become very very dificult ,
the oil would have to be completely removed prior to the stoppage ,
then re heated before oil is put back into it
for small field rail transport is more cost effective ,
for very small field , a tanker truck is collecting from the well heads and bring it to a tank farm

[Subjectivist]

China has once again made a big investment in rail transport. Seems to me having engineers in charge instead of politicians has been a huge benefit go China. In the west we built and subsidize a lot of flashy airports, in the east they have concentrated on what makes the most economic sense, ships and barges where water access exists and rail roads where you have to go by land.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t is to run from Mombasa to Nairobi and will extend eventually via Uganda to Rwanda and South Sudan.

In Kenya, the line is to replace a narrow-gauge track built more than 100 years ago during British colonial rule.

China is to finance 90% of the cost of the first stage, put at $3.8bn, with work carried out by a Chinese firm.

Construction work on the standard gauge line is expected to start in October this year, and the 610 km (380-mile) stretch from the coast to Nairobi is due to be finished in early 2018.

"The costs of moving our people and our goods... across our borders will fall sharply," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta told a news conference after the signing.

Mr Kenyatta has previously said the new link should cut the cost of sending a tonne of freight one kilometre from 20 US cents to eight, Reuters news agency reported.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

The costs of moving our people and our goods across our borders will fall sharply”

Uhuru Kenyatta
Kenyan President
"This project demonstrates that there is equal co-operation and mutual benefit between China and the East African countries, and the railway is a very important part of transport infrastructure development," said Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang.

A subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co has been named as the main contractor.

According to the terms of the agreement, China's Eximbank is to provide 90% of the cost of the first phase of the line, with Kenya putting up the remaining 10%.

After that stage is complete, it is planned that work on the links to other countries in the region will start.

[Subjectivist]

Aha! I knew that the Peoples Republic of China had been pouring money into African Railroads for a long time, it was one of the first things I thought hinted that Peak Oil is real. Just found this in the Reuters news archive from December, 2005,
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')hina is busy improving one of its 1960s era political gifts to Africa -- the Zambia- Tanzania railway -- which is now proving useful as a conduit for Zambian copper that China uses to make telephone lines, electronics and construction materials.

Chinese tourism to Africa is a fast-growing market, while environmentalists blame China's appetite for ivory for a new round of elephant poaching across the continent.

Peter Draper, a trade analyst at South Africa's Institute for International Affairs, said Chinese competition was visible across Africa, particularly in construction projects as Chinese firms win key contracts.

"From a long term perspective, if we engage China the potential for them to become partners increases. If we confront them, we will probably come off second best," he said. (additional reporting by Hannington Osodo in Johannesburg, Karen Iley in Luanda, Shapi Shacinda in Lusaka)

[ROCKMAN]

Sub - Not just rail. A year ago I saw a report that Chinese engineers were working on more than 160 dam projects around the globe. No indication of how many were hydropower or just water resources. But China has been focused on foreign Ag projects for a long time so food sources might have played as much of a role as energy.

[Keith_McClary]

Climate Change Could Warp Rails With ‘Sun Kinks’

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'T')he "Worlds Worst Railroad" video's I put up from youtube earlier is creeping along on track that was laid between 1880 and 1905. Amateurs filming the trains who are knowledgeable hobbyists on the subject state unequivocally that the old track is 80# rail, i.e. eighty pounds per yard length. Given that they do this for fun and the stats are stamped into each piece of rail when it is forged and I presume they have no reason to lie about it I believe it is very old 80# rail Most modern freight lines have replaced the old rail like this antique 80# rail with modern heavy duty 130#+ rail, I can remember when they replaced the siding near the home I grew up in to hold heavier cargo without warping back around 1983 in Michigan. Modern 130#+ rail is not just thicker and heavier, the steel itself is also tougher than the steel they were making way back when this line opened its doors in the 1880's.

All that being said the line is still in use 6 days a week on 100 year plus old rails. Do you know any surface streets in the USA that can make the same claim without complete reconstruction every 20 to 40 years? All the Napoleon, Defiance & Western has had done to it is regular replacement of the cross ties and repairs from things like floods. Even a cobble stone street in a city would be hard pressed to match that performance. Since January 2013 the new owners have been replacing ties as quickly as the news ones arrive on the work site because the ones on the system now are all far past replacement age. From what I read online the first phase of the replacement is to replace the ties, that alone is a $740,000.00 project. Next will be Ballast improvements to level the track wherever it needs it. I didn't see any figures for what that will cost. Lastly, because both those have to be done first, will be replacing the existing 80# rail. There is some debate among those interested how soon that will start and if it will be replaced with modern 130#+ rail or salvaged serviceable 80# rail recovered from other job sites where rail has already been replaced. The new owner of the N,D&W is Pioneer Railcorp, in the last decade they have been buying up short line railways like this one and operating and maintaining them. From what I have gathered the N,D&W was by far the worst maintained section they have purchased and requires the most restoration before it can run at moderate speeds.

[Subjectivist]

Rail traffic here has been lower than average all summer. I suspect the low Diesel price allowed a lot of cargo to go back on semi trucks because they are point to point instead of yard to yard then trans shipment via truck for the final leg of the delivery.