Railway-News

United Wagon Company (UWC) has signed a contract with Slavneft-YANOS for tank cars for the transportation of molten sulphur.

Slavneft-YANOS is one of Russia’s biggest oil refineries. The tank cars will sit on 25t axle-load bogies. UWC will deliver on this contract in late October 2020.

The 15-6913 tank car is designed for the transportation of molten sulphur and other chemicals. The tank volume is 72 tons, which is substantially higher than tank cars fitted on standard bogies. The increase in payload reduces the amount of rolling stock needed by 10 percent.

The tank car is made of stainless steel that is resistant to harsh cargoes. The design of the tank car is such that it has thermal insulation with double casing. This creates an air gap to ensure that the cargo being transported is of a uniform temperature. To heat the cargo, the air in the air gap is heated via tubular heating elements, located under the tank. There are thermal sensors on the tank shell to monitor the heating level of the cargo.

The tank car is equipped with 18-9855 bogies, which have a 25t axle load. This means the maintenance intervals are increased to either one million kilometres or every eight years, whichever comes sooner. It also greatly reduces the car’s overall lifecycle (32 years) costs.

UWC has worked with Slavneft-YANOS since 2017 and has already shipped 39 tank cars to the oil refinery for the transportation of commercial-grade sulphuric acid and molten sulphur.