US heavy lift and heavy haul specialist, Deep South, recently orchestrated the complex delivery of an oxygen tank from Texas to South Carolina. 

The client, an unnamed customer within the oil and gas industry, required transport of a 375,000-lb (170-tonne) oxygen tank. The operation required transport from road to rail to plant, Deep South informed.

Initially, the 108’ long (32.9 metres), 12’6” (3.8 metre) diameter tank was self-loaded on to an 8-axle-line Scheuerle SPMT modified with wooden saddles. Deep South then moved the unit to a nearby rail spur, where it was lifted with a 500-ton gantry system onto the railcar.

The wooden saddles were particularly beneficial in that crews were able to use a shorter transporter (i.e., 8 axles versus 16 or 18 axles) and they were able to self-load the tank onto the transporter without the gantries.

After traveling by rail from Texas to the South Carolina-based plant, the Deep South crew was ready and waiting for offload.

Once again the 500-ton gantry was used to move the tank from railcar to the specialized 8-axle-line transporter equipped with the custom saddles. The SPMT moved the tank into the staging area for final installation.