Vol. 17 No. 2
February, 1987
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Stay Safe in 87
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Co-op Move Largest Ever
Lengthy journey: The special
pressure vessels destined for the Saskatchewan Co-op Upgrader Project in Regina began their journey in
Japan and followed the route shown above.
Regina - The massive refinery vessel, clutched
in the grip of a special railway car the length of a football field, dominated the prairie landscape recently as it
crept along the tracks toward Regina.
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Ninety-one-meter-long rail car used for massive
shipment.
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In towns dotting the main line townsfolk and media gathered to witness the heaviest and widest load ever handled by
CP Rail.
The route from Emerson, Manitoba, to Regina was the last leg of a 28,000-km journey for the first of
five mammoth heavy oil refinery pressure vessels, constructed in Japan as part of the $650-million
Saskatchewan Co-op Upgrader Project.
The pressure vessels will be used in the main processing unit of the heavy oil upgrader. In them, heavy crude oil
and hydrogen will be mixed at high temperature and high pressure to remove contaminants from the oil. The resulting
product will be refined further to produce gasoline and diesel fuel.
The four largest reactors, made from 28-centimeter-thick chrome-molybedenum steel, are
each nearly 25 meters long, about 4.7 meters in diameter and weigh more than 680 tonnes. The fifth vessel is
comparatively light, at 363 tonnes.
Clearing the path for shipments of this size means checking the smallest details over and over again.
Dubbing the Co-op Upgrader transportation project "the most ambitious special-load
commitment" in CP Rail's history, Rick Szyja, clearance bureau manager in Montreal, says it's also the largest
of its kind ever handled in Canada.
"We were hampered by two significant problems. First of all, we were restricted to daylight movement only -
and, between November and March, daylight is at a premium," he said.
"Secondly, we were subject to a 24-km/h speed restriction and therefore had to effect the movement
in stages. On day one, we picked up the car from Burlington Northern at Emerson and moved it as far as Winnipeg
yard. On day two, we got as far as Brandon. Day three saw us at Broadview, Saskatchewan, and, by day four, we were
in Regina.
Clearances
This whole procedure is being repeated four more times and, if everything goes according to plan, the last load will
reach Regina in mid-March.
Among the team of CP Rail experts who contributed to the planning process was Ray Horsman, a
Winnipeg-based assistant regional engineer.
"In preparation for these special movements, we are continuing to physically measure clearances through the use
of what we call template surveys," Mr. Horsman said.
He described a template as a "moveable, multi-arm yardstick" attached to the front of a light
rail vehicle used frequently by engineering specialists and other railway officials to inspect track.
Alterations
The purpose of the survey is to ensure that clearances conform to known engineering specifications, and to determine
where modifications were required.
In many locations, items such as switch stands and signal lights temporarily had to be moved out of the way.
"We also had to build some additional track to allow the car to bypass a curve in Winnipeg that proved too
tight; and we decided to replace a bridge on our Emerson line that was due for replacement (in 1987) anyway,"
Mr. Horsman said.
The combination of width and weight make the pressure vessel movement CP Rail's largest, but the railway has carried
longer loads. An example was the 50-meter, 106-tonne steel tower shipped on three flatcars
from Chatham, Ontario, to Nisku, Alberta, in November 1982.
Car with Funny Name Rare... and
Impressive
Schnabel car: Approximately a
football field in length, Combustion Engineering's rare car drew a lot of attention.
You might
call Combustion Engineering's Schnabel car the Super Bowl of railway equipment. After all, it's approximately the
length of a football field.
Coupler to coupler, it's just a shade under 91 meters long, making it the world's largest capacity rail car.
The 36-axle giant, which at 335 tonnes, weighs nearly as much as two main line locomotives, is the only
one of its kind in North America. There are only two others of its type anywhere.
Between now and mid-March, the big car with the funny name will be a frequent eye-popper
along CP Rail's track in southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Cradling an equally impressive, high-pressure oil refinery vessel, the Schnabel car already made one
voyage from Duluth, Minnesota, via Emerson, Manitoba, to Regina in December.
Four similar trips will be completed by mid-March.
The car can support a maximum weight of nearly 800 tonnes from arms which swing out to lift and manoeuvre
extraordinary loads into place between its two halves.
It has the capability of lifting, lowering, and side-shifting its load to avoid obstructions.
The special pressure vessels it has been assigned to carry to the Saskatchewan Co-op Upgrader Project
in Regina originated in Japan.
The customary route from Japan would be by ship across the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver and east to Regina. But,
because of their size, the reactor vessels could not be taken through the mountains of British Columbia and Alberta.
So, they had to come across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal, up the Atlantic coast, through the St. Lawrence
Seaway, and across the Great Lakes to Duluth, Minnesota. The ship used was the Mirabella, a
self-sustained, heavy-lift ship, owned and operated by Jumbo Navigation N.V., of
Rotterdam.
Once at Duluth, yet another monster of a machine, formally known as a "Transi-Lift Series II Model
LTL-1200 Crane," was used to lift the vessels off the ship. One of the largest of its kind, the
crawler crane has a capacity of 1,088 tonnes.
Burlington Northern handled the Schnabel car and its cargo from Duluth to Emerson.
The Saskatchewan Co-op Upgrader, is a joint project of Consumers' Co-operative Refineries
Limited, Regina, and the Government of Saskatchewan, with financing provided by the Government of Canada. The
project is scheduled for completion in late 1988.
This Canadian Pacific Spanner 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.
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