refuel via tanker truck or at the pump

When and why do railroads, passenger in particular, regularly use a tanker truck to refuel their diesel locomotives as opposed to using a fixed fueling station?

It has been a long time, 2001 and earlier, but I remember at Amtrak Albany-Rensalaer station my through trains to Montreal or Toronto would have their locomotives pull off and go to the yard, then a different locomotive would come out of the yard, and couple up to the train. Then what looked to me like a home heating oil company's truck would pull up next to the locomotive, at or near the station platform, and fuel the locomotive. I wondered why the locomotive didn't come out of the yard already fueled. Once when I asked the crew person said that rules required unionized Amtrak employees to fuel locomotives, but allowed private contractors, presumably cheaper, to fuel locomotives attached to trains. Does anybody know if that was true?

In the NJT Double Header Question thread http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.ph ... 1&start=75 there's some talk of a deadhead fueling move from Bay Head to Meadowlands. Does anybody have any thoughts about why NJT runs the locomotives so far, looks like about 50 miles each way, instead of using fuel trucks at Bay Head?

This is a good question, but I think it really belongs in "Railroad Operations and Facilities". So, I'm moving it there and leaving a shadow topic here in General Commuter.

even if fueled by truck, the EPA requirements are drip pans and a oil water seperator.
So once this stuff has to be installed one may as well install a total fuel station, which is not always allowed due to watershed or other regulations.
next option is to deadhead.

In Salt Lake City the motors on the California Zephyr are fueled by contracted third-party fueler. There are no maintenance facilities in SLC for Amtrak.

Correct and without fuel pans etc the EPA will burn both the contractor and Amtrak and possibly the host railroad, if a spill were to occure even a small one.

so the contractor keeps a portable drip pan and spill kit in the truck, problem solved. Heavy equipment is fueled on site all the time and this is how they do it.

Thank you BigLou80. DutchRailnut I find it hard to believe Amtrak has consistently run afoul of EPA scrutiny all the years they must have been using trucks to refuel at Salt Lake City. There must be a right way and wrong way to get fuel from truck to train comparable to the right way and wrong way to get it from a fixed fueling station.

The only "facilities" in SLC for the fuel truck is the asphalt road next to the ballast/rail where he parks his truck, brings the fuel hose over to the motor, places a bucket below the hose and the fueling point for "drips" and pumps away.

The UP in Elko, NV also uses a combination of fuel rack and fuel trucks. The fuel racks are on Main Track #2 (eastbound) and they use the fuel trucks for the westbound trains on Main Track #1 and 40 Rail. The UP started doing this a few years ago in Elko.

Portable drip pan definition; Bucket. Spill kit; speedy dry and haz mat cloths..

On the BRSR, we (obviously) have no handy fueling station ... the train sits right on the main when it's not running.

so it's fueled by a tanker truck - it starts at the north end, fuels that locomotive, then drives right down the length of the train, fueling each car's generator tank (no HEP on this train), then ends with the south-end locomotive.

He carries whatever he needs as far as EPA required stuff with him ... I would presume the same precautions apply to whomever his customer is ... be it railroad, heavy equipment, construction, etc.

- litz

slchub wrote:In Salt Lake City the motors on the California Zephyr are fueled by contracted third-party fueler. There are no maintenance facilities in SLC for Amtrak.

As an aside, how many times does the Zephyr get refuled point to point?

Outside of SLC, I have clue where #5/6 get fueled other than Emeryville and Denver. I'll have to look at the MAP on the westbound #5 next trip to see where the guys have noted the fuel readings between CHI and SLC.