Railcar thaw sheds were originally designed to thaw raw materials from coal to paper pulp. When the railcar is transported from a variation of cold climates, the problem exists that a fair percentage of raw materials are frozen to the inside of the railcar. This can become extremely costly for the company receiving the material. Raw material can be lost in an improperly thawed railcar that is still housing a percentage of their purchase. It also poses problems in manufacturing. Raw material that is still frozen and unclaimed can cause time and manufacturing delays.
Many railcar thaw sheds still utilize the inefficient gas fired, open flame heaters that heat from beneath the railcar. This causes several concerns. First, an open flame heater can cause damage to the hydraulics of the railcar that can result in additional damage charges from the railroad. Second, these heaters have a perforated emitter that gets clogged & causes a decrease in Btu output and performance. Third, this type of heater is no longer manufactured, and parts are becoming increasingly difficult to locate. Finally, the heaters are a maintenance nightmare & working on them is incredibly dirty.
A customer in Gary, IN was interested in saving fuel and maintenance time on their outdated railcar thaw shed. PRP assisted in designing and providing the Space-Ray RSTP17 gas fired infrared tube heaters for his railcar thaw application. The RSTP17, which has aluminized, calorized steel tubing, is capable of thawing materials in a timely fashion, provides a quick payback in fuel cost savings, and is much easier to maintain. The RSTP17 has the highest ability to provide the heat to thaw a variation of railcar contents successfully. The heater is delivered completely assembled and is quite simple to install & maintain. To safeguard the control boxes from damage when there is no railcar present, the customer covered the control boxes with a material that would not absorb heat.
As shown in the photos, this is a railcar thaw shed that was installed in Fall 2002. A total of 188 - 250,000 Btu heaters were replaced with 122 Space-Ray RSTP17 (175,000 Btu each) infrared heaters. This proved successful while using nearly 1/3 less heaters, resulting in much less fuel consumption and increased performance. This customer is very pleased with their new railcar thaw shed. They anticipate the new system will pay for itself in fuel and maintenance savings $$ in less than 1-1/ 2 years of use. If you have an application that you would like to consider, feel free to give us a call @ 1-800-438-2503.

See Application Drawing and Project Photos