Grain railway wagons for use to export from Ukraine

[2192]

1. With shipping blocked from using the Black Sea ports, is the railway to the Baltic the only other route to export grain, although it means a change of gauge somewhere?
2. Are grain wagons a special design, or can general purpose ones be used? Presumably they need a roof to keep the rain off, and a means of loading/unloading.
3. Do many goods wagons exist that can exchange bogies, or have some other means of changing gauge, or would it mean transshipment?

(Thanks in advance)

 

[Gloster]

2 I think that grain is normally carried in hopper type wagons with opening tops that are dedicated to grain, or at least foodstuffs, traffic. How many of this type have interchangeable axles I do not know. Using wagons of the same type that are not dedicated to such flows would probably require special cleaning.

 

[gysev]

In general, freight has to be transloaded at the border. Starting this week, trains transporting Ukranian grain will start to run between the Ukrain/Slovak border and the ports of Gent en Rotterdam.

 

[Gloster]

Article on today’s Grauniad website: How do you get 20m tonnes of grain out of Ukraine? (Sorry, I can’t do a link.)

 

[Elwyn]

I have just returned from Constanta in Romania and a lot of Ukrainian grain is now being shipped out out from there. It is brought by road from the Ukraine and then either loaded into ships or into trains for onward transport. According to our guide, the number of containers going through Constanta at present has increased from 200 a day to 8000, with ships clearly anchored all round the bay waiting for berths. A mothballed railway freight yard has been re-opened in Constanta with a load of freight trains taking some of the grain away. (The port doesn’t have the capacity to ship it all out by sea).

 

[Struner]

Article on today’s Grauniad website: How do you get 20m tonnes of grain out of Ukraine? (Sorry, I can’t do a link.)

This one? If it works?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...f-grain-out-of-ukraine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

On Sunday Russia bombed a wagon repair workshop in Kyiv, claiming that tanks supplied by foreign countries were stored there. The head of Ukrzaliznytsia said that it repaired grain wagons.

Photos here.

This article from May mentions the obstacles to exporting grain by rail.

 

[Killingworth]

This one? If it works?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...f-grain-out-of-ukraine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Transporting large cargoes of grain needs very careful treatment. Grain dust can explode at any stage of the movement, see; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion

Cargoes can shift or be damaged by sea water so any old ship and crew won't do.

 

[Ediswan]

Transporting large cargoes of grain needs very careful treatment. Grain dust can explode at any stage of the movement, see; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion

There are plenty of examples of grain dust explosions at storage/handling/processing facilties. I can't find any examples where grain in transit by rail/road/sea has exploded.

 

[Killingworth]

There are plenty of examples of grain dust explosions at storage/handling/processing facilties. I can't find any examples where grain in transit by rail/road/sea has exploded.

1969 was a long time ago but I spent a day going round the iron ore and grain loading facilties at Duluth. We were made very aware of the dangers of dust explosions when loading cargoes. The fact that there may not have been any/many recorded is probably due to all the precautions taken. Wagons and ships are designed to prevent it.

 

[Ediswan]

1969 was a long time ago but I spent a day going round the iron ore and grain loading facilties at Duluth. We were made very aware of the dangers of dust explosions when loading cargoes. The fact that there may not have been any/many recorded is probably due to all the precautions taken. Wagons and ships are designed to prevent it.

Agreed that handling (loading) is a known risk. You need an accumulation of dust for a dust explosion. Backing up a bit, there is no realistic possibililty of an en-route rail car full of grain exploding.

 

[Killingworth]

Agreed that handling (loading) is a known risk. You need an accumulation of dust for a dust explosion. Backing up a bit, there is no realistic possibililty of an en-route rail car full of grain exploding.

Should have phrased it better. By having to use different transport methods more transfers between truck/silo/truck/wagon/ship are likely to take place, sometimes using equipment and personnel unused to dealing with such loads. I'd agree it's very unlikely there'd be any circumstances in which a properly loaded rail car should explode.

Shifting the quantities stored in the massive grain silos requires a lot of capacity. These at Duluth.

 

[Iskra]

I believe these are Ukrainian grain wagons, taken in Jan 2020 in Lviv

 

[ac6000cw]

I can't find any examples where grain in transit by rail/road/sea has exploded.

I've never heard of that happening on rail either - and given that a country like the USA moves around 22 thousand carloads of grain by rail every week (so over 2 million tons of grain per week) I think we'd probably hear about it if it happened with any regularity. Those sort of numbers certainly make you think about the size of the grain flows around the world...

 

[Killingworth]

Agreed that handling (loading) is a known risk. You need an accumulation of dust for a dust explosion. Backing up a bit, there is no realistic possibililty of an en-route rail car full of grain exploding.

This is not what I was saying. My point was that for over a century grain has been harvested, stored and transported in large quantities in well managed and organised operations globally, but mostly by water whenever possible. However, if we subject that process to war conditions and start using adapted and possibly damaged equipment with less well trained operators to move it all risks are increased. We've already established that there aren't enough tracks or wagons to remove all the grain that would ordinarily go out in large ship loads. Loading, transporting and unloading large quantities of grain in railway wagons or trucks possibly not designed for that type of load is just part of the problem being faced. Those big silos hold a lot of grain. Taking it in, moving it within the silos and sending it out are potential weak points as far as explosions are concerned, see the DeBruce Grain Elevator Explosion of 1998; https://www.osha.gov/grain-handling/geeit

 

[Graham H]

This is not what I was saying. My point was that for over a century grain has been harvested, stored and transported in large quantities in well managed and organised operations globally, but mostly by water whenever possible. However, if we subject that process to war conditions and start using adapted and possibly damaged equipment with less well trained operators to move it all risks are increased. We've already established that there aren't enough tracks or wagons to remove all the grain that would ordinarily go out in large ship loads. Loading, transporting and unloading large quantities of grain in railway wagons or trucks possibly not designed for that type of load is just part of the problem being faced. Those big silos hold a lot of grain. Taking it in, moving it within the silos and sending it out are potential weak points as far as explosions are concerned, see the DeBruce Grain Elevator Explosion of 1998; https://www.osha.gov/grain-handling/geeit

yes the fact that there is even a dedicated Grain Elevator Explosion Investigation Team (GEEIT) does indicate a very real threat to moving this otherwise harmless looking commodity

 

[2192]

Thanks, everybody, for your answers to my questions. OP.