Railcars that travel in cold climtes arrive frozen as well the new laws being enforced for Semi-trucks to clear the sccumulation of snow & ice debris from thier trailers for safety reasons. We design systems that can be applied to both types of applications with proven past results & performance. 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 purchased asset. It also poses problems in manufacturing. Raw material known as the ASSET  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A customer in Gary, IN was interested in saving fuel and maintenance time on their outdated railcar thaw shed.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 modified  gas fired infrared tube heaters for his railcar thaw application. The RCTH unit, 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 RCTH 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, we supply a additional reflector cover to reflect heat away from the heaters valuble

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 RCTH17 / # 42361950 (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.

We can assist with everything from the initial concept design to installation racks to house the heaters and controls.

If you have an application that you would like to consider, feel free to give us a call @ 1-800-438-2503.