About three years ago we acquired this former GATX tankcar 23799, built in 1920 with a capacity of 8,000 gallons. The frame and trucks are long gone, the tank itself having been repurposed to hold diesel fuel for the east end yard office at the P&LE's Gateway Yard. We plan to use it as a feedwater storage tank for the J&L Narrow Gauge, however the presence of residue diesel fuel presents a bit of a dilemma.
The hatch opening is too small for me to enter, and I would not feel safe letting anyone into the tank. So cleaning it would have to be done from the exterior. I am looking at several options including steam cleaning, pressure washing, solvents etc. Then I stumbled upon the concept of microbial remediation. Basically, oil eating microbes can be introduced into the water in the tank and with time and agitation the microbes will eat the oil, getting the amount of residue down to the point where carbon block filters can take care of the rest.
I will be adding two small access points near each end of the tank to aid in post microbe pressure washing and to facilitate the installation of magnesium anodes. These will probably be heavy plate burnouts welded into a hole in the tank with bolted covers. From these access points the interior of the tank can be reached with a pressure washer for occasional removal of algae and other contaminants from the tank.
Once the water system is complete, we will be able to retrieve water from a small stream, pump it down to the tank, filter it, store it and then final filter before going into the saddle tank. By controlling water quality and ph it should go a long way toward boiler preservation.
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