Page 179 - 38. MRH13-04-Apr2013

Sulphur service
As large gas plants in Alberta began to accumulate large stock-
piles of solid sulphur, the gas companies formed a sulphur
marketing group, called Sultran, charged with selling this form
of sulphur to the world market. A by-product of the natural
gas refining process, the liquid sulphur gets either poured into
huge blocks or pelletized (prilled) and stored at the gas plant
until required by Sultran to fill any sales.
There were/are three sulphur loading gas plants northwest
of Edmonton on the Sangudo Sub at Windfall, Benbow, and
Kaybob. In addition, there are two sulphur-loading gas plants
on the Ram River Sub west of Red Deer near Rocky Mountain
House at Ram River and Strachan, and one plant at Bryan Spur
on the Foothills Sub southwest of Edson.
Each gas plant has/had a flood loader capable of loading 100+
car unit trains made up of Sultran’s bathtub and 4000 cu. ft.
gondolas. Loading of an entire train can take as little as five to
six hours or two days, depending on the loadout capabilities of
the plant and the frequency of mechanical breakdowns.
Some of the first trains to operate in sulphur service made
use of various types of CN-owned or leased equipment. UNPX
102000-102299 and UNPX 102300-102599 series 4000 cu. ft.
rotary-coupler-equipped cars got used in sets of 82 cars (18).
These cars got fitted with the unique Procor sign (19), or with
the newer Word Mark style of PROCOR printed in large letters
across the left side of the car (20). These cars came from the
coal pool and most had a lining applied to reduce the corrosive
effect of the sulphur. North American Railcar is producing both
of these versions.
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