Aviation fuel to run by rail from Isle of Grain?

[BRX]

Yes, they just seem to be being cancelled day-by-day. They still show up as WTT if you look a day or two ahead.

 

[Kent-on-tracks]

I travel into Grain by road several times a week as a delivery driver. There now appears to be a lot of construction activity going on in the Grain sidings. Old tracks have been lifted & it looks like they are digging new track beds. A new sign has been erected for the "BP GRAIN RAIL FUEL PROJECT". it also looks like Maritime Haulage has left the site next door. Is this to allow for further expansion ? I will try & keep you updated & hopefully get some pictures posted soon.

 

[BRX]

I travel into Grain by road several times a week as a delivery driver. There now appears to be a lot of construction activity going on in the Grain sidings. Old tracks have been lifted & it looks like they are digging new track beds. A new sign has been erected for the "BP GRAIN RAIL FUEL PROJECT". it also looks like Maritime Haulage has left the site next door. Is this to allow for further expansion ? I will try & keep you updated & hopefully get some pictures posted soon.

Good news that it seems to be going ahead. Yes, pictures would be great. Thanks for the update.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

It's good that oil flows are returning, but surely they are just top-ups to the pipeline system?
The vast requirements at major airports are all served by pipeline now, aren't they?
There can't be much business in supplying fuel to the RAF, or to minor airports like Prestwick.
It sounds a bit like the supermarket traffic, with rail getting token crumbs rather than the main flow.

 

[zaax]

Who supplies the small leisure airfields? There seems to be 100's of them

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I travel into Grain by road several times a week as a delivery driver. There now appears to be a lot of construction activity going on in the Grain sidings. Old tracks have been lifted & it looks like they are digging new track beds. A new sign has been erected for the "BP GRAIN RAIL FUEL PROJECT". it also looks like Maritime Haulage has left the site next door. Is this to allow for further expansion ? I will try & keep you updated & hopefully get some pictures posted soon.

Thank you. Welcome to the Forum. I see this is your first post.

 

[furnessvale]

It's good that oil flows are returning, but surely they are just top-ups to the pipeline system?
The vast requirements at major airports are all served by pipeline now, aren't they?
There can't be much business in supplying fuel to the RAF, or to minor airports like Prestwick.
It sounds a bit like the supermarket traffic, with rail getting token crumbs rather than the main flow.

Pipelines have a cost just like any other form of transport. Had the private rail freight companies come into existence earlier, it is entirely possible the pipeline network would never have been constructed. Secondly, perhaps the pipeline in question is coming up for some costly restoration work?

Whilst I admit that road will always be the dominant transport force, I would hardly describe the Tesco operation of 6 dedicated trains, plus the use of several other shared trans, to be "token crumbs".

 

[swt_passenger]

Pipelines have a cost just like any other form of transport. Had the private rail freight companies come into existence earlier, it is entirely possible the pipeline network would never have been constructed..

Most of the trunk pipeline network was a WW2 project, I thought. I expect it would have been seen as a strategic imperative, not much to do with economics.

 

[gsnedders]

Most of the trunk pipeline network was a WW2 project, I thought. I expect it would have been seen as a strategic imperative, not much to do with economics.

And part of that is the fact that's it's much easier to hide a pipeline than a railway. It's very existence was classified for a long time.

 

[cjmillsnun]

I wonder if the National Grid LNG plant may also get involved. There are numerous road tanker deliveries up to Scotland.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Who supplies the small leisure airfields? There seems to be 100's of them

They won't use much each and they're widely spaced; presumably standard petrol tanker type vehicles will supply those.

 

[Dave242]

It's very existence was classified for a long time.

I have know of its existence for at least 40 years, since I was a kid and would say that others more longer. Not something that is kept secret if your digging holes for a living.

http://www.linewatch.co.uk/index.php

Dave

 

[furnessvale]

I have know of its existence for at least 40 years, since I was a kid and would say that others more longer. Not something that is kept secret if your digging holes for a living.

http://www.linewatch.co.uk/index.php

Dave

The one at the back of my house was ruptured by contractors some years ago. The road ran with considerable quantities of red diesel!

Very handy if you happen to own a diesel engined canal boat!

 

[bavvo]

Where are these oil deliveries actually going to go, if all the major airports are already supplied by pipeline? They presumably have a market for it if they are actually doing all this work (which sounds fairly major).

 

[furnessvale]

Where are these oil deliveries actually going to go, if all the major airports are already supplied by pipeline? They presumably have a market for it if they are actually doing all this work (which sounds fairly major).

As I stated earlier, perhaps one or more or these pipelines are becoming life expired and in need of substantial expenditure?

 

[jimm]

Where are these oil deliveries actually going to go, if all the major airports are already supplied by pipeline? They presumably have a market for it if they are actually doing all this work (which sounds fairly major).

Some of the fuel used at Heathrow has been delivered for many years by rail to Colnbrook and is then sent to the airport in a pipeline. There are also longer-distance pipeline supplies from refineries and from the Buncefield oil storage site near Hemel Hempstead (the one where there was a huge fire in 2005).

And if anyone cares to look, there are already paths in realtimetrains from Grain Bp (assume they mean BP) to Colnbrook, so that's probably a good clue as to where the trains will be going once the loading site at Isle of Grain is ready

 

[Rich McLean]

They are currently carrying out a overhaul of the network, as stated on their website, so this development maybe a stop gap measure to cover any shortfalls

 

[BRX]

There's a diagrammatic map of the pipeline system here

http://www.clh.es/clhps/staff/section.cfm?id=1&side=2349&lang=en

Some info here on an impending modernisation

http://fueloilnews.co.uk/2016/05/in-the-pipeline-at-clh-ps/

This year around £30m is being spent on the Government Pipeline Storage System which was acquired last May by the Spanish CLH Group.

Now known as the CLH Pipeline System (CLH-PS) significant changes have occurred over the last 12 months including the establishment of a major modernisation of assets and implementation of advanced technologies. Taking place until 2018, this investment in infrastructure will also see a strategy to renew 30% of the network’s pumps; discussed recently by the board, this will be implemented in 2017.

 

[najaB]

I have know of its existence for at least 40 years, since I was a kid and would say that others more longer.

It's amazing what can officially be secret:

This is a timely and necessary debate on an issue which demands urgent attention. I agree with the many hon. Members who have said that the apparently peculiarly British disease of obsessive secrecy must be cured urgently. It is time that our citizens had free access to information that affects all aspects of their lives and that we recognised that information is power. The Government are anxious to talk about real empowerment, but they have done little to implement it and seem keen to withhold it from our citizens.

Hon. Members have given examples of seemingly trivial information that remains officially secret. An example that has not been mentioned, but which is so trivial that it is worth mentioning, is the absence of the British Telecom tower from Ordnance Survey maps. I hope that I am covered by parliamentary privilege when I reveal that the British Telecom tower does exist and that its address is 60 Cleveland street, London.

 

[Dave242]

It's amazing what can officially be secret:

http://www.secret-bases.co.uk/secret.htm

Dave

 

[BRX]

I've just seen this working in south london
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/O63450/2018/01/25/advanced
Which is a load of brand new TEA tanks.

So I'm guessing this may be the start of the aviation fuel workings?

 

[BRX]

Video of above:

 

[Oxfordblues]

It's very encouraging to see a long rake of new petroleum wagons, following the demise last year of 1965-vintage 2-axle tanks used in the former flows from Fawley and Grangemouth. Someone somewhere is finally investing serious money in the petroleum sub-sector.

 

[BRX]

What looked like a route learning run operated yesterday in one of the Grain-Colnbrook paths.

According to what I've seen elsewhere, it seems that the services should start running in August.

 

[BRX]

A rake of TEA tanks heading down to Grain just now.

 

[Freightmaster]

A rake of TEA tanks heading down to Grain just now.

It was a loading trial (the loaded train ran to Colnbrook in the early hours)



MaRK

 

[BRX]

It was a loading trial (the loaded train ran to Colnbrook in the early hours)



MaRK

Ah. Cheers.

 

[BRX]

Another rake of tanks down to Grain today.

 

[AM9]

They are not just cancelled - they have been deleted. It's a different transaction, but what it means I have no idea.

Surely the sheer volume required for Heathrow (and the other major international airports) is fulfilled via the CLH pipeline system. That's why there were problems following the Bucefield explosion when the Heathrow connector was temporarily cut off.

 

[Phil G]

My last house had 2 strategic aviation fuel pipelines running through the garden which meant all sorts of restrictions on what we could do. One of them was closed down and the other sold to a private operator about 3 years ago.