Coke Train at Deer Park Jct
Running with Kinder Morgan (KMTX) locomotives and hopper cars but with a PTRA crew, the PTRA coke train shuttles petroleum coke (a refining byproduct) from Lyondell Basell's Houston oil refinery to Kinder Morgan's Deepwater Terminal export facility, about 6 miles away. The crew first takes the loaded train from the refinery over to Deepwater, then jumps onto a second trainset that has already been unloaded for their return trip (a KM crew will unload the first train later to then return the following day).
Formerly an afternoon job, the on-duty time was moved back to 2359 a few years ago and the coke train rarely sees daylight these days. However, on this cool Christmas Eve the train is running a bit late. After dropping the loads at Deepwater, the empty train is seen here exiting the export facility here at Deer Park Jct for a short run on UP's Strang Sub.
Leading the train is KMTX 2022, a rebuilt SD45 painted for Kinder Morgan's 25th Anniversary and acquired by the company in 2022. The locomotive was built as SCL 2017 for the Seaboard Coast Line in October 1968.
PTRA Job #343 (Lyondell Basell to Kinder Morgan Deer Park & return))
KMTX SD40M-2 #2022
KMTX SD40-2 #3002
Deer Park, TX
December 24th, 2024
Coke Train at Deer Park Jct
Running with Kinder Morgan (KMTX) locomotives and hopper cars but with a PTRA crew, the PTRA coke train shuttles petroleum coke (a refining byproduct) from Lyondell Basell's Houston oil refinery to Kinder Morgan's Deepwater Terminal export facility, about 6 miles away. The crew first takes the loaded train from the refinery over to Deepwater, then jumps onto a second trainset that has already been unloaded for their return trip (a KM crew will unload the first train later to then return the following day).
Formerly an afternoon job, the on-duty time was moved back to 2359 a few years ago and the coke train rarely sees daylight these days. However, on this cool Christmas Eve the train is running a bit late. After dropping the loads at Deepwater, the empty train is seen here exiting the export facility here at Deer Park Jct for a short run on UP's Strang Sub.
Leading the train is KMTX 2022, a rebuilt SD45 painted for Kinder Morgan's 25th Anniversary and acquired by the company in 2022. The locomotive was built as SCL 2017 for the Seaboard Coast Line in October 1968.
PTRA Job #343 (Lyondell Basell to Kinder Morgan Deer Park & return))
KMTX SD40M-2 #2022
KMTX SD40-2 #3002
Deer Park, TX
December 24th, 2024