13.10.15. Rangeland Energy announced that the largest frac sand unit train shipped to date in North America arrived on 2 October at the company’s RIO Hub located near Loving, New Mexico.

The RIO Hub is part of Rangeland’s RIO System, which serves oil & gas producers in the Delaware Basin. The record 150-car unit train carried 16,500 tons of frac sand and was powered by five diesel locomotive engines. The unit train originated in Ottawa, Illinois, and was operated by BNSF, which transferred service of the train in Clovis, New Mexico, to its short-line railway partner, Southwestern Railroad, for direct delivery to RIO Hub.

The unit train was unloaded within 22 hours. The sand was stored at the hub and will supply an operator with a large quantity of sand for high-volume fracking jobs in the Delaware Basin. Demand for sand in the Delaware remains high, and unit train service provides a more cost-effective and reliable means of shipping large volumes of sand than manifest service.

13th October 2015