Lighting an oil refinery

[muktown128]

Link to Carl's gas refinery flare unit
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=50883.0

[carlso]

Scott thanks for remembering that post and for passing it on, I appreciate your interest!

Peteski and Randy - thanks for your nice comments, truly appreciated.

No the flame does not make any rumblings when it lights up. That MIGHT be the next attempt, it would be cool.

Randy- here are a couple of images of flame without the cotton.





Add a little cotton and you get something like this...


Yes, there are 5 LED's plus 2 very small mirrors that I wrapped the cotton over. I dry brushed a very small amount of red onto the cotton and then, after getting it shaped as I wanted, I dry brushed black fairly heavily. May need a bit more black but I will wait to see after it is put on layout. I wish I was smart enough to think of this process but I got it off of a Y-T video made by a guy making flame throwers for war games.

Thanks for mentioning the sound as I can remember here at the Chevron refinery the flare sounded like a jet engine, at times.

Be well,
Carl

[Lemosteam]

+10000.  aND i THOUGH MY Polar Express roof fire was kinda cool.  This think is AWESOME.  Yes on the sound.  Bury a speaker in the top of the chimney and wire it down to a mini bluetooth receiver or MP4 player on a loop.

[carlso]

John,

Thanks for the very kind words, they mean a lot coming from someone of your capability.

Sound might be possible as I have a very mini  MP3 player that I have added sound bites with "refinery noises" onto a memory stick. I could use one of your 3D printed enclosures and hide a Soberton on the back side of the control room or at the base of the stack. BTW there are way too many wires in the stack to place anything else in there.

Thanks for reminding me of the mini player, perhaps I can find the sound on "Pond 5" where I got all my other sounds.

Be well,
Carl

[SAH]

Well done Carl.  And yes, the sound is unforgettable.  If you happened to be nearby when one of the larger unit ops hiccupped you could feel the heat too.  Simulating the sound will do.   

A funny flare related story:  My first job as a freshly minted engineer was at an oil refinery.  This was long enough ago that the plant management club had an annual Christmas party/dinner at a local country club.  For many the high light of the evening was the open bar.  Seems like 100 years ago.  As the evening was winding down one of our hard drinking tech managers came to the bar looking for an after dinner drink, but was told by our event organizer the bar was closed - bar budget for the evening already exceeded.  He turned to our plant manager (who himself was right at home at the bar) and asked why we couldn't just raise the price of gasoline a penny a gallon tomorrow and open the bar for another hour tonight.  Our plant manager, who was a big bear of a Scotsman, looked him in the eye, turned to the event organizer and asked how much it would cost to open the bar for another hour.  $500, or something that seemed like a lot of money to me at that time, came the reply.  He growled "Well then, we blow more money than that up the flare in 30 seconds, and NOBODY has a good time.  OPEN THE BAR."

Things were different back then.