Go to:
www.boatnerd.com/gathering/duluth01pic.htm
Scroll down to SMET tour and find the video. It’s about the coal loading process at Duluth. Check out the couplers on the hoppers.
Wow. I’ve always wanted to see rotodumps rotodumping!
Pretty kewl!!
Did ya notice the orange painted ends of the hoppers? That’s the car-end with the couplers that swivel.
So what’s the benefit of doing it this way - instead of using drop bottom hoppers? That would seem a whole lot easier to me…
Ken Brunt said:
Pretty kewl!!Did ya notice the orange painted ends of the hoppers? That’s the car-end with the couplers that swivel.
Yeah and all of the painted ends need to be facing the same direction on the train or you get one of those Oops! moments
Bruce Chandler said:Quicker dumping for one. Less manpower---no one needed to walk along and release the gates.
So what's the benefit of doing it this way - instead of using drop bottom hoppers? That would seem a whole lot easier to me...
jb
Very interesting.
I too had always wanted to see one of those rotodump things work.
John Bouck said:Bruce Chandler said:Quicker dumping for one. Less manpower---no one needed to walk along and release the gates.
So what's the benefit of doing it this way - instead of using drop bottom hoppers? That would seem a whole lot easier to me...jb
I’ll have to admit, it is pretty neat.
I’m not sure how much quicker the dumping is. Yes, once it is tipped over, it come out pretty fast. But, it does take time to tip it and bring it back. I probably would have just automated the gate release…
Bruce Chandler said:John Bouck said:Bruce Chandler said:Quicker dumping for one. Less manpower---no one needed to walk along and release the gates.
So what's the benefit of doing it this way - instead of using drop bottom hoppers? That would seem a whole lot easier to me...jb
I’ll have to admit, it is pretty neat.I’m not sure how much quicker the dumping is. Yes, once it is tipped over, it come out pretty fast. But, it does take time to tip it and bring it back. I probably would have just automated the gate release…
Yea, but how interesting would THAT be?..
Too true. But, I probably won’t be building one anytime soon. Just doesn’t seem right for a NG RR in the first half of last century.
I suspect I’ll keep the plastic coal in the hopper.
Ken Brunt said:Bruce Chandler said:John Bouck said:
Quicker dumping for one. Less manpower---no one needed to walk along and release the gates.jb
I’ll have to admit, it is pretty neat.I’m not sure how much quicker the dumping is. Yes, once it is tipped over, it come out pretty fast. But, it does take time to tip it and bring it back. I probably would have just automated the gate release…
Yea, but how interesting would THAT be?..
Interesting video! On how fast: just figure out the cross section of the gates compared with the full opening of the top, then figure the increased gravity of the free fall as opposed to the glide on the sloped walls.
Roto has to be much more efficient! No left-overs either!
I built a rotary dumper. It didn’t involve rotary couplers, as we found out that they were just too much trouble, and went to the single car-at-a-time method. The hardest part was designing the clamps to hold the car.
It isn’t in service at present; and hasn’t been for about 15 years. It awaits a location, and project number.
If you want to design a rotary dumper, using rotary coupler draft gear; you have to design the dumper to rotate with the coupler in the centre of the rotation.
Yes; using a rotary dumper is much faster and more efficient. Using the hopper doors is a long slow process, and the doors become a maintenence problem. Remember it isn’t just opening them; it’s closing them after too. They also tend to leak, and in freezing weather, with the moisture in the coal freezing; the coal doesn’t flow out of the hopper doors very readily.
You might now understand why some hopper cars you see, seem to have the paint rusted off the sides. It’s from using hot torches and other means to thaw the coal load, just to get it to flow out the hopper doors. I’ve even seen them use sledge hammers on the sides of cars to try to break up the coal, to get it out.
One brave foreman at the Canada Cement plant in Hull Quebec even tried using small sticks of dynamite to break up a frozen coal load. years ago…
Most unit coal train unloading facilities, use rotary dumpers, (I’d say all, but might be proven wrong) in fact a lot of the “Bathtub gons” used today don’t even have hopper doors. The days of the gons with hopper doors, in unit coal train service are actually becoming numbered.
Even the D&RGW NG used a rotary dumper. They dumped “High sided” gons. I forget the location, but it was a part of the transloading of coal from NG to SG cars.
There are pictures of the NG rotary dumper, in several of the great books on the Colorado lines of the D&RGW NG.
Bruce…when you are here for the “American Invasion”; remind me to show you the old dumper. It’s in the shop, under the work bench.
Fred Mills said:Cool. You should put it in place! You need to run it into the shed so you can deliver coal to the stove...
Bruce....when you are here for the "American Invasion"; remind me to show you the old dumper. It's in the shop, under the work bench.
John Bouck said:Up in 18th century Canada and over in 17th century UK right now our railroad car hopper-gates are automatically opened by an actuator ramp at the trackside at the appropriate time as the train is hauled though the 'dump-shed'...
Less manpower---no one needed to walk along and release the gates. jb
Please feel free to carry on doing it by hand in the USA, 'spose it keeps the Teamsters Union happy, eh?
Best from the 17th century…
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Guy I know in Kennett Square has a working rotary dumper on his Pennsyvania RR HO layout. One of the operations is to actually run the hopper cars through and dump them. There’s a bucket under the dumper to catch the coal.
Walthers, several years ago had a ‘h.o.’ scale rotary dumper as part of its timber processing series, released after the steel mill series. This would be a good starting point for the design of a rotary dumper.