A superlative effort
(Big, bigger — biggest!)
The largest single piece of machinery ever handled by Clure Public Marine Terminal Operator Lake Superior Warehousing Co., Inc. — and also the largest single load ever carried on North American railroads — was offloaded at the Duluth terminal in November and onto the world's largest-capacity railcar.
The Stellaprima was the second of the two Jumbo ships bringing in the huge pieces of equipment, including the hydro cracker, which, with the tension skids and loading bars shown here at right, weighed 805 tons. The 36-axle Schnabel railcar was on hand to transport this piece of equipment.
 
The Fairlane (in photo above) was the first of two Jumbo ships to arrive with equipment for the Long Lake Upgrader oil sands project in Northern Alberta. Movements of this freight marked a record-setting rail shipment of 61 rail cars.
 

The hydro cracker reactor arrived in Port aboard Rotterdam-based Jumbo's vessel Stellaprima. The reactor weighed 805 tons, including tension skids and loading bars, and was transported on Westinghouse's 36-axle Schnabel car to OPTI Canada's Long Lake Upgrader oil sands project in Northern Alberta. This oil extraction and upgrading endeavor is one of several under way in Alberta. It involves removing oil-impregnanted sand from the earth, separating the two and then using new technology to upgrade the oil to a usable product.
Oil-recovery equipment bound for northern Alberta is loaded onto a waiting railcar.

The Stellaprima was the second of two ships bringing in gigantic pieces of equipment manufactured in Japan, Italy, the Netherlands and India destined for the Long Lake project. Jumbo's vessel Fairlane arrived in Port earlier in November with the first portion of the dimensional pieces. Movement of the freight in addition to the reactor also marked a record-setting shipment of 61 railcars. This broke the previous record of 56 railcars required for a Syncrude UE-1 oil sands project that moved through Duluth to Northern Alberta in November 2002.

The previous largest single loads carried on North American railroads also moved through the Port of Duluth-Superior in October 1990, when two Japanese-built cylinders destined for the BiProvincial Upgrader oil project in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan, arrived aboard the Dutch vessel Starman Asia. The Schnabel car — the world's largest capacity railcar, according to the Association of American Railroads — was also used to transport these 773-ton cylinders.

"The Long Lake shipments represented the largest (in terms of length and weight) loads ever carried over U.S. and Canadian railways," said Ed Clarke, Calgary, Alberta, logistics coordinator for the Long Lake Project.

"Duluth was once again selected as the North American port of entry because of a combination of its facilities for dimensional cargoes, the professional services provided by Lake Superior Warehousing and the excellent rail service and clearances available," said Mr. Clarke. (For more on Mr. Clarke, see Page 6.)

"Duluth has the equipment, technology and, most importantly, the people to make such projects a reality," said Gary Nicholson, Lake Superior Warehousing president. "Clearances for oversize loads from Duluth are often the best available, whether the product is moving via rail or truck. Coupled with the strong work ethic of Lake Superior Warehousing's employees, shippers of oversized cargo are provided with a powerful combination of reasons for choosing Duluth," he said.