Sunday 1 August 2021

Drilling mud silos

I was hoping to host an operating session this coming weekend, but due to COVID restrictions I've had to put that off for a week or two.  So I turned my attention to adding the drilling mud silos at Jacobson Concrete. 

Now I just have to add a concrete batching facility, and Jacobson will be "finished".

Thanks for looking,
Ron


 

4 comments:

  1. Very smart. The D&RGW used to carry drilling sand in bulk and in bags in box cars back in the early 40's what did the SF use back in your era Ron, hoppers I'm assuming. Those two bay hoppers we often talked about that were permanently coupled always look good.

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  2. Hi Rod, and thanks.

    According to Andy Sperandeo's article that inspired this structure, these silos stored drilling mud, which is a liquid, and that it was received in covered hoppers. I haven't found out much about how it was transported back in 1960, but I'm intrigued by the fact that the photos of the real silos show that they used bucket elevators, which seems to me to be a weird way to move a liquid. However, according to Wiki, drilling mud "can be very thin and free-flowing (like chocolate milk), though when pumping is stopped, the static fluid builds a "gel" structure that resists flow."

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  3. I was also taken with the drilling mud structure. Can you provide the article reference about the structure authored by Andy Sperandeo? I imagine drilling mud must be a big industry in the oil states of the US. Thanks.

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    1. Hi Brad. Sorry for not getting back to you earlier, but I've just noticed your comment. The article that I mentioned was Andy's Model Railroader series on building the HO layout "Washita & Santa Fe" in the early/mid 1980's. Andy says little about them, apart from the fact that they stored drilling mud. IIRC, the articles also contained information on how Andy modelled the silos for the layout. If you'd like to email me at gulflines(at)yahoo.com.au I can give you more information.

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