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  2. more on asphalt cars (Unloading Road Tar)

Re: more on asphalt cars (Unloading Road Tar)

Peter Hall
 

Tony,

I think it’s possible that the hose “connected” to the top of the tank car may be an illusion.  Since there is a grain elevator behind the car, it’s possible the “hose” is actually a line to the rooftop of the elevator, and just appears to connect to the car due to the angle of the photographer and the single eye of the lens, which gives no stereoscopic vision.

Thanks
Pete





On Sep 16, 2016, at 2:36 PM, Tony Thompson tony@... [STMFC] <STMFC@...> wrote:


Bob Chaparro wrote:

 
Could someone explain the flow of material from the tank car to the tank truck?

I see a hose on the top of the tank car and another on the bottom. This picture is a little too fuzzy to make out what is being done by what appears to be a mobile pump.


   Good question, Bob, and I wondered the same thing. The tank car isn't insulated, meaning that either it has built-in steam coils or some other method must be used to liquidize the asphalt/tar. Could the line into the dome manway be a steam line, to an immersion coil? These were used elsewhere for such a purpose. I agree with Bob also that it is too bad we can't see more clearly what the mobile "pump" or whatever it is is doing, but it might have a small boiler or hot-water heater to feed a coil.

Tony Thompson             Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
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