Working rail roads and their tracks.

[m7040]

This trolley used to travel over our farm before it was divided. It is running between Frederick and Hagerstown MD

 

[MossRoad]

We had a Heyl & Patterson at the plant but ours was enclosed. I hated working on anything in the coal yard. That dust is so fine with the western coal. When the plant switched to western coal around 95' they had to dig a big hole into the former flood plain next to the Mississippi. This was to accommodate the rotary car dumper and the pit that goes far down below it. Previously our coal came in on a barge. Before they started excavation they drilled about 14 shallow wells around the hole to de-water. They were looped around into two 2' or larger pipes where they then went up and over the levee and dumped into the Mississippi over 2000' away. The coal drops into a hopper and then goes onto two feed belts that are short. That drops onto the main belt at the bottom that hauls it up through a tunnel and dumps the coal about a half mile away on the ready piles.

So now I have to ask, having only seen pictures of that before, are the couplers on the cars equipped with a pivot so they don't have to be uncoupled when the car is rotated?

How are the airlines handled?

I take it the machine has sensors that read car position, and the machine is controlling the train motion, not a human, to get it to stop at just the right spot?

 

[MossRoad]

I don't know if this is railroad or ship, probably both, but it's a crazy system. Fascinating. Car gets pushed up hill into device. Lifts the car up high to dump it. Sets it down. Pushes it out and lets gravity take it up a hill, then it rolls back wards and switches to a return track. Crazy.

 

[ArlyA]

So now I have to ask, having only seen pictures of that before, are the couplers on the cars equipped with a pivot so they don't have to be uncoupled when the car is rotated?

How are the airlines handled?

I take it the machine has sensors that read car position, and the machine is controlling the train motion, not a human, to get it to stop at just the right spot?

One of the couples is a rotatory type. That end of the car will be painted a brighter color. The brake hose stays on and connected, if they didn't, the trains brakes would got on 100%

 

[caver]

along with what ArlyA said we had a 400? H.P. DC motor connected to a carriage that ran along side the train. It had an arm that would grab the knuckle between cars and pull it to the next position. The positioner would slow down and set metal chocks when it stopped. The chocks were on the cars in front and behind the car being dumped. The dumoer roates. While the car is being dumped the knuckle release and the arm raises. The carriage would go back one car and grab it's knuckle. Dumper is upright again, chocks release and the process repeats. A complete cycle took a little less than 2 minutes. Sometimes the color coding on the cars was askew and if the operator didn't catch it you had a busted knuckle. One person dumped the train once they got the first 2-3 cars dumped running the system in manual. It could run in full auto but they always ran where an operator had to "index" after every cycle. A programmable logic controller PLC was the brains.

 

[MossRoad]

A recent photo taken in the ironrange of MN.
A pair of GEVO's are on the point of a raw ore shuttle as it crawls forward, loading the last cars of the train through the dumper at the Thunderbird Mine in Eveleth, Minnesota. Once loading is complete, the crew will tone up dispatch for a light down the Missabe Sub to the Fairlane Taconite Plant. View attachment 793256

To get some perspective on the size of that mine VS the area around it google earth it and turn on 3D. Amazing holes out there.

 

[bcp]

Roberts Bank Rotary Dumper mishap

Well it looks like there was a mishap at Robert Bank Coal terminal in the rotary car dumper. The following photos show CN locomotive 8022 on...

princerupertrailimages.blogspot.com

"Unknown said...
A non-rotary coupler would just snap off, happens all the time. This is caused by a drunk and/or stoned longshoreman operating the coal dumper, who grabs the end of the locomotive by mistake. And it's not the first time Westshore has done this!"

Bruce

 

[California]

along with what ArlyA said we had a 400? H.P. DC motor connected to a carriage that ran along side the train. It had an arm that would grab the knuckle between cars and pull it to the next position. The positioner would slow down and set metal chocks when it stopped. The chocks were on the cars in front and behind the car being dumped. The dumoer roates. While the car is being dumped the knuckle release and the arm raises. The carriage would go back one car and grab it's knuckle. Dumper is upright again, chocks release and the process repeats. A complete cycle took a little less than 2 minutes. Sometimes the color coding on the cars was askew and if the operator didn't catch it you had a busted knuckle. One person dumped the train once they got the first 2-3 cars dumped running the system in manual. It could run in full auto but they always ran where an operator had to "index" after every cycle. A programmable logic controller PLC was the brains.

What happens to the air hoses?

 

[ArlyA]

What happens to the air hoses?

I can't tell you the mechanical reasons for it but that the way they are set up. Maybe someone can find a video of the couplers section while dumping? Nonetheless, if the cars or couper are separated, the hose pops off without damage and the brakes are "dynamited" on. Yet when a car is rotated over to be dumped, they are still conneted and holding PSI.

 

[bcp]

In case you win a locomotive at an auction...

Bruce