Working rail roads and their tracks.

[Hay Dude]

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.

I gotta tell you that’s one of the most amazing railroad unloading systems I’ve ever seen.

 

[BravoXray]

What happens to the air hoses?

The air for the rotary coupler is routed through a rotary connection in the draft gear, so it stays stationary with respect to the coupler while the car it rotated.
I looked around, but couldn't find a good picture to show how they are made.

 

[California]

I gotta tell you that’s one of the most railroad unloading amazing systems I’ve ever seen.

Whoever designed that HAD to have had Lionel trains as a kid!

 

[MossRoad]

Whoever designed that HAD to have had Lionel trains as a kid!

 

[ArlyA]

The air for the rotary coupler is routed through a rotary connection in the draft gear, so it stays stationary with respect to the coupler while the car it rotated.
I looked around, but couldn't find a good picture to show how they are made.

Huuuuuumm Dennis, I changed a few draft gears out never seen any air lines in them. Here is car being dumped and the air line can be seen.

 

[MossRoad]

So there's enough slack in the hoses to survive the rollover. Interesting.

 

[BravoXray]

Huuuuuumm Dennis, I changed a few draft gears out never seen any air lines in them. Here is car being dumped and the air line can be seen.

I stand corrected.

 

[caver]

I never put much focus on it but that's they ours was. Long enough hoses to freely move during the dump.

 

[California]

Interesting article. They say one problem with trains 1~2.5 miles long is when braking, light empty cars up front get shoved off of curves if most of the weight is in the final third of the train.

The final part of the article has several examples.

The Real Reasons Long Trains Keep Derailing

Trains are getting longer. Railroads are getting richer. But these “monster trains” are jumping off of tracks across America and regulators are doing little to curb the risk.

www.propublica.org

 

[gstrom99]

Interesting article. They say one problem with trains 1~2.5 miles long is when braking, light empty cars up front get shoved off of curves if most of the weight is in the final third of the train.

What, they never took a physics class?