Ben Pifher/MDN From left to right, Tom Ross, Minot mayor; Austin Burns, Minot Fire Department battalion chief; Ross McMahon, Operations superintendent at CPKC railway and Kelli Kronschnabel, chief of the Minot Fire Department, are at the department’s training facility Thursday.

A custom-built tank car valve simulator was fabricated by Jeff Forseth, a welder contracted by CPKC railway, paid for by CPKC and then donated to the Minot Fire Department. It was placed on Thursday at the department’s training grounds, just off the U.S. Highway 83 West Bypass, and will help the fire department train its personnel on emergency procedures for pressurized train cars.

The assembly is constructed with real valves, which can be changed out, depending on the “cargo” the firefighters are training for, according to Austin Burns, battalion chief. He said the two valve simulators that the department was given are anhydrous ammonia and propane, very hazardous chemicals commonly carried through the area.

“Everything you see hanging out underneath is actually what’s on the inside of a tank,” said Ross McMahon, Operations superintendent at CPKC, describing the different types of emergencies the simulator can help train for, like closing leaks during an emergency situation.

“We don’t get to train on rail tank cars, so this is as close as we can get,” Burns said.

The department will likely incorporate the new assembly in the next hazardous material training in the next couple weeks, according to Burns.