Tank Car and Fueling Facility

Tank car diesel receipt and locomotive fueling facility for Class 1 railway

Argus Consulting was retained to design and manage construction for a fuel receipt and fueling facility for a small station designed for maintenance and fueling of railroad snow removal locomotives and equipment in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  This project included the controls, electrical power, piping, diesel fuel storage tank, fuel receipt, fuel dispense, and containment as well as start-up services.

The solution was a customized, state-of-the-art system to unload, store and dispense diesel fuel to snow-clearing trains and equipment to clear the mountain pass.

A new 20,000-gallon diesel fuel tank and piping were installed. The facility includes double wall piping from the tank car offload rack and double wall piping to two fueling spots. The pump pad containment was verified; and pumping and associated equipment were serviced and refurbished. A truck unload connection was added for fuel receipt flexibility. The system included monitoring of the tank, double wall piping, and containment pads for leaks, with an auto-dialer since the facility is unmanned most of the time.

After each use the system was designed to purge itself back to the tank so that no fuel would remain in the piping in order to reduce the risk associated with a leak in the highly sensitive environment. The system is also utilized to automatically fill the tank of a standby generator located at the facility.