Oil going via North West USA to Asia

[shortliner]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/us/with-proposed-rail-expansion-northwest-confronts-its-clean-image.html?ref=business&_r=1

[trisonic]

The positive thing is that plenty of other Ports will take it on for the benefit of jobs and other opportunities (and BNSF know that)......

 

Best, Pete.

[298]

It isn't so much the issue of which ports the coal goes through, but the places en route who think their lives will be blighted by coal dust. There has been local opposition for some time in WA, but the fact that by the time the train reaches Washington it would have lost all of the dust (I'm not suggesting this isn't a problem closer to the loading point), and the enviromental damage caused by something going wrong with other fuels such as oil is alot worse than picking up a few tons of coal.

 

Walking along the tracks and picking the stuff up doesn't tell you much as there is no indication of how long it's been there, and years ago would have been counted as a blessing...

[pH]

...  the fact that by the time the train reaches Washington it would have lost all of the dust ...

 

Watch from 1:00 to 2:10 in this video

taken within 10 miles of the destination of the train at Roberts Bank in BC! Perhaps there were special circumstances - it's suggested in the comments that a sprayer on the CP mainline, used to lay the dust, may have been out of action - but the effect is spectacular. 

 

I didn't realise how much opposition there was in Washington State to the expansion of coal exports by rail until I was there about this time last year and saw the many protest signs, some of them miles away from any rail line. There are already several coal trains a day to Roberts Bank terminal from BC and Alberta mines over CP and CN and several a week from US mines over BNSF. As Pete (Trisonic) says, I'm sure Roberts Bank would be quite happy to see a few more from the States!

[Fat Controller]

There were similar dust problems with MGR wagons on some flows in the UK, which were largely resolved by fitting canopies with a opening at the top that was only about 2/3rd of the wagon width. All the new designs of bogie coal hopper in the UK are designed like that from new. It arose with other traffic as well; BR found itself being sued by a passenger at Berwick-upon-Tweed whose fur coat was allegedly ruined by limestone dust, whilst the sand trains from Redhill to St Helens had a number of barrier vehicles in front of the brake van to stop sand being blown into the guard's eyes as it shot along at 35mph.

[Adrian Wintle]

Various jurisdictions on the west coast have issues (real or imagined) with dust. It isn't just the railroads that get the complaints. Certain roads could not be used for car rallies because the dust raised would get into the streams which fed the water supply. Existing road use wasn't a problem (in fairness, some of the roads were privately-owned logging roads which didn't actually see a lot of traffic), nor was collecting the water in open reservoirs.

 

Adrian

[pH]

Just to clarify - the coal is not being transported as big lumps, with some dust in amongst them. It's been pulverised. Presumably, it's going to be used in fine form, and it must make economic sense for it to be done at the point of production. Here's a picture taken from above of a CP coal train passing through Kamloops last week - you can see how fine the material is: