Railroads are the main industrial arteries of any developed country. It is difficult to imagine modern life without them. Rail transportation captivates with its cheapness and the possibility of transporting bulky goods. That is why they have found such widespread use in the industrial sector, allowing large enterprises to save huge amounts.
Railway tank car - one of the varieties of rolling stock. It is mainly used for the transportation of petroleum products, acids, alkalis and other aggressive substances, as well as flour, cement, liquefied gas, milk.
Types
There are different types of rail tank cars:
- General purpose tank. Oil products are most often transported in these.
- Special tanks designed for the transportation of strictly defined goods.
Railway tank car can be designed for both ordinary, not particularly fastidious liquids, and for those that are under pressure. A container for the transportation of liquefied gases and other goods requiring high pressure is called a vessel. When to complycertain storage temperatures, you have to use cryogenic types. If necessary, the inner walls of the tank can be protected with a special coating that prevents corrosion.
General Purpose Tanker
Most of the tanks plowing the railroads are of the general purpose type. They are much cheaper than their specialized "colleagues" and are ideal for the transportation of liquid petroleum products that do not require heating during discharge or loading. Typically, general purpose tanks are of the simplest design and are not equipped with sophisticated measuring equipment or other technological innovations.
Special tank car
Special types are much rarer than ordinary ones, and they are needed mainly by organizations that use transported liquids in production. Such a railway tank car can be quite complex, it can be designed to transport liquefied gases under pressure, to transport acids and alkalis, various toxic and corrosive substances.
Special-purpose tanks are often equipped with complex technical devices, so a separate instruction manual is written for each. It discusses the correct discharge of railway tanks, as well as design features, maintenance and operation rules for this product.
Designs
Modern rail tank cars come in a wide variety of designs, buttwo main types can be distinguished - with a frame and without it. Differences in the structure do not affect the volume of the railway tank. The frame design differs only in that in it the load passing through the cars is transmitted along the frame, excluding the tank car itself.
The frameless version, on the contrary, allows traction and shock loads to be transmitted through the tank, which plays the role of a frame. If the volume of the railway tank is too large, then it is securely reinforced with steel rings on the outer or inner side.
The design of railway tanks also differs in the number of axles. You can find four-, six-, eight-axis options. The higher their number, the greater the volume of the product. Also, the hull must have ladders and hatches for draining the liquid.
Loading
Before loading the liquid, the railway tank car must be properly maintained and prepared for loading. For specialized types, loading procedures can vary significantly, but there are a few general rules that apply to most tanks.
First of all, it is necessary to wait for the rolling stock to stop completely, then clean the stairs and hatches from dirt or snow, if any. Next, you need to unscrew the pressure relief valve to make sure that there is no pressure in the tank. Then you should open and securely fix the manhole covers. After that, inspect the inside of the tank and remove any foreign bodies from there. Then all elements are checked.construction, all parts and assemblies are checked. Particular attention is paid to the presence of butterfly valves and bolts that fasten the air bottoms to the flanges of the cones of the boiler bunkers.
When all the necessary procedures are completed, the loading of the tank will begin. After it is fully completed, manhole covers must be tightly closed and sealed. The last steps are cleaning the outside of the tank from the parts of the cargo that have fallen on it.
Drain liquid
After the liquid is loaded into the railway tank, the accompanying documentation is attached to it and the container is sealed. Upon arrival, it is by the presence of a seal that you can be sure that everything is in order with the cargo. Drainage of oil products or other hazardous liquids should be carried out in special warehouses or access roads. In public areas, draining can only be done after agreement with the head of the railway department and firefighters.
It is necessary to remove adhering dirt or snow from the surface of the tank. After that, you can unload the cargo. Unloading can be done from three bunkers at once, or from each in turn. To avoid problems with pressure, you need to constantly monitor the readings of the pressure gauge. After unloading, it is necessary to make sure that there are no cargo residues in the boiler. If they are, then they must be removed. Then it is required to seal all hatches and put seals on them, after which the railway tank car is returned to the sender.
The composition can only betanks. But sometimes railway cars are added to them. After draining the transported liquid from them, the tanks must be thoroughly washed. The procedure is carried out by machine or by hand. However, it can be made with ordinary water or with the addition of special detergents.
