Fuel 'em up and let 'em roll: BNSF's new main line locomotive fueling facility at Hauser Yard in Idaho dramatically improves train throughput

In a move toward increased service efficiency and better motive power utilization for its northern transcontinental corridor, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe has opened a main fine refueling facility at its Hauser Yard near Rathdrum, Idaho. Locomotives handling intermodal and other high-priority shipments now avoid the many hours of downtime involved with being serviced at conventional facilities in Seattle, Portland, or Spokane. Instead, trains pull into the Hauser facility, refuel, change crews, and depart in less than an hour. BNSF says Hauser was the best place to build the facility because there was already a freight yard there with ample room for expansion, and because the site is located along the so-called "Funnel" between Spokane, Wash., and Sandpoint, Idaho, where BNSF's traffic between the Pacific Northwest and the entire eastern half of the U.S. gets channeled onto a single corridor.

Refueling operations were phased in beginning Aug. 31, with full operation officially kicking off Sept. 1. Two run-through refueling main lines are currently in service at the 380-foot long platform, allowing trains to stop for servicing without fouling the corridor's existing double-track main line. A third refueling track handles light-engine consists brought in from the adjacent freight yard. That track, as well as a fourth refueling track, will eventually have its own main line approaches installed, doubling the facility's capacity. BNSF's goal is to have nearly half of the route's 60-plus daily trains refueled at Hauser. In addition to the main refueling shed, there's a 450-foot-long shed housing two spur tracks where diesel fuel is delivered by tank car, as well as a third track where wastewater collected from the facility's surface runoff is loaded into tank cars for shipment to an approved treatment facility.

Not only is the Hauser refueling facility a major boost to BNSF's Northwest operations, it's also a major achievement in engineering, public relations, and safety. After the project was announced in 1997, it drew steady fire from environmental groups and local citizens who feared the large-scale storage of diesel fuel over the region's main aquifer would threaten the sole source of drinking water for nearly half a million people. The facility's original design already surpassed local requirements for fuel containment and groundwater protection, but the final design went even further. Today, many of the people who were previously opposed to the project now embrace it as a model for others to follow. BNSF Assistant Vice President-Technical Research Development and Environmental Mark Stehly says, "This facility does set the standard for handling petroleum products."

Conceptual design, engineering, and construction for the $42 million project were performed by Hanson-Wilson, Inc. Specializing in major infrastructure for the rail and petroleum industries, H-W has built similar refueling facilities for BNSF at Belen, N. Mex., and Commerce, Calif. H-W and BNSF both say that Hauser is far more advanced. From the double-layered, 60-mil, high-density polyethylene membrane installed below ground to the double-walled pipes and double-bottomed storage tanks above ground, everything is designed to prevent fuel from reaching the aquifer. Five-foot-high concrete walls surrounding the tank farm can hold the maximum contents of all tanks if they were to fail, exceeding the regulatory requirements by approximately 300%. Interstitial space within the double-lined piping is pressurized with nitrogen at 20 psi; any change in pressure plus or minus 5 psi might indicate a leak and will automatically trigger all valves to close and activate a plant-wide alarm. In fact, valves throughout the facility are designed to "fail-safe" in their closed positions when locomotives aren't being fueled or any time there's a malfunction or electrical failure. The latter should not be a problem, since Hauser has a large diesel-driven generator that can power the entire facility.