GrainsWest Fall 2020

Fall 2020 Grains West 12 FARMERS ARE EXCITED THAT redesigned High Efficiency Product trains (HEP trains) are now able to carry substantially more grain than stand- ard configurations, said Monty Reich, general manager of South West Terminal near Gull Lake, SK. With a potentially above-average crop coming in to elevators in many parts of Western Canada, this will certainly help get the year’s crop to export position in a timely fashion. Earlier this summer, the farm- er-owned grain terminal and inputs retailer loaded a CP train with 22,223 metric tonnes of durum in 224 new, high-capacity hopper cars. In tandem with increased capacity, HEP trains are comprised of more cars than in the past. Now up to 8,500 feet long, the standard length was previously 7,000 feet. “It is a significant difference and improvement,” said Reich. “A couple years ago with the old-style hopper car, even a loaded 8,500-foot train could have handled about 10,000 tonnes. Now with these new hopper cars that increases to about 15,000 tonnes. That is huge improve- ment in efficiency.” The new cars feature a capacity 10 per cent greater by weight than the older-mod- el Government of Canada cars, and 15 per cent more volume. The cars carry this extra product on a frame five per cent, about three feet, shorter than that of older cars. More cars can subsequently fit into a train of the same length. The cars are part of a four-year, $500 million fleet upgrade investment an- nounced by CP in 2018. The money will cover 5,900 of the new high capacity hopper cars. CP had 1,000 of these in service by the spring of 2019. By the end of 2020 the company will have more than 3,300 high-capacity cars in service. The remaining 2,600 are to be put into service in 2021 and 2022. CP Rail loaded its first 8,500-foot HEP train at the G3 Pasqua elevator near Moose Jaw, SK, in late 2018. “By the end of 2020, we will have more than 3,300 of these high-capacity hopper cars in service,” said Murray Hamilton, the company’s assistant vice-president, sales and marketing, grain, in his online August 2020 grain update. THE FARMGATE Crazy trains Longer, higher-capacity rail configurations move insane volume of grain Facilities such as SouthWest Terminal near Gull Lake, SK, will be better served by newHEP trains. CN and CP continue to upgrade their rail car fleets. Photo:CourtesyofSouthWestTerminal