Coal Rotary Dumper

[murray83]

Oh thats nothing,theres a Dynapac roller for Gulf with a huge ready john logo on its rear end and a new Cat 345CL with a "nothing runs like a Deere" sticker on her out at Canaport :wink2 I left my mark.

 

[coalburner]

Today

 

[Lashlander]

Nice pics. Are those cars aluminum? Where's all your snow? :bouncegri

 

[coalburner]

No snow here

That unit set in the pic wasn't our normal one. It was a nice one though I'm guessing less than 6 months old.

 

[Steve Frazier]

So the couplers swivel? I wasn't aware of that! Are the cars each strapped to the turntable? If not, what keeps them from sliding off the table? This is a very interesting thread but has raised a lot of questions for me!

 

[06bowtie_guy]

Cool pics. We have a rotory dump at our smelter. (nickel mine) All the muck goes up and is dumped into rail cars at the different local mine sites. It's then brought to the mill and they can turn 2 cars at a time. Pretty cool. :thumbsup

 

[Countryboy]

So the couplers swivel? I wasn't aware of that! Are the cars each strapped to the turntable? If not, what keeps them from sliding off the table? This is a very interesting thread but has raised a lot of questions for me!

Yes, the couplers swivel. Not all types of cars have couplers that swivel though. The ones we load at the quarry do not swivel because they are dumped from the bottom.

As for the hold downs, in the picture I posted there are 2 large arms on each side of the car that grab on to the top of the sides and hold it to the track.
I've seen a few other setups but don't have pictures.

Coalburner, whats the max weight that dumper will dump? Most rock hoppers will max out at 143 tons gross weight but I know coal is lighter. Would it dump a 143 ton rock car?

 

[coalburner]

Yes the cars are 286000 gross. I will try and get pic of the hydraulic cylinder and car clamp. We have on that the seal is leaking on so we will be pulling it soon.

 

[deeredriver]

Yes, the couplers swivel. Not all types of cars have couplers that swivel though. The ones we load at the quarry do not swivel because they are dumped from the bottom.

As for the hold downs, in the picture I posted there are 2 large arms on each side of the car that grab on to the top of the sides and hold it to the track.
I've seen a few other setups but don't have pictures.

Coalburner, whats the max weight that dumper will dump? Most rock hoppers will max out at 143 tons gross weight but I know coal is lighter. Would it dump a 143 ton rock car?

Not all couplers are rotary. The coal cars have 1 rotary coupler on them. Looking at the side on the car, and one end will be painted some color. That is the rotary coupler end. The cars must be matched up correctly or it is drawbar changing time!

 

[mattyjc]

This rotary way looks a load more intresting than the bottom opening wagons we use in the UK! I unload trains with 25 wagons (cars) and that holds approx 1700 tonnes of coal per train. Takes about an hour to unload. lot of walking up and down though!

Regards

Matt

 

[alan627b]

When I worked at our coal plant, I was told that one of the cars had been set into the train backward, and when it was unloaded, the coupler assembly was twisted off of the car. Oops.
alan627b

 

[srs_mn]

rotary couplers

Here's a short video of a railroad car dumper with rotary couplers in action... I had to watch it a couple times to really get a sense of what was happening - pretty impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhdtZJauNvE

 

[Railwayman]

When I worked at our coal plant, I was told that one of the cars had been set into the train backward, and when it was unloaded, the coupler assembly was twisted off of the car. Oops.
alan627b

Often the cars are arranged both ways in a train. As long as there is at least ONE rotary coupler between every pair of cars, no problem -- it doesn't matter whether the rotary coupler is on the car being rotated, or the car outside of the dumper. In each trainset there is typically one car that has a rotary coupler on each end, and it's supposed to be placed into the train between all the cars pointing one way, and all the cars pointing the other way, so the trainset can go through the rotary dumper without having to be uncoupled between two cars that are back-to-back standard couplers. The rotary-coupler end of the car is painted with a bright color band; the double-rotary car has the bright color band on both ends.

RWM

 

[AtlasRob]

Often the cars are arranged both ways in a train. As long as there is at least ONE rotary coupler between every pair of cars, no problem -- it doesn't matter whether the rotary coupler is on the car being rotated, or the car outside of the dumper. In each trainset there is typically one car that has a rotary coupler on each end, and it's supposed to be placed into the train between all the cars pointing one way, and all the cars pointing the other way, so the trainset can go through the rotary dumper without having to be uncoupled between two cars that are back-to-back standard couplers. The rotary-coupler end of the car is painted with a bright color band; the double-rotary car has the bright color band on both ends.

RWM

This is making my head spin :notworthy I thought a train was a train as with most things in life, its amazin what we dont know :thumbsup thanks for the insight into another life.

Ha ha, re read and saw the pun ( spin) sorry ointhead

 

[YankeeFlasher]

Rotary Dumper - Upside Down

Car is placed on rotary section,
side walls move in and clamp car in place
Circular part rotate to upside down position
Everything is dumped in hopper beneath
Rotary continues to original upright position
Next car is pushed on to rotary section

Main issue is that the car is full-plus and can be more quickly dumped than
through a bottom door chute system, and everything comes out - no bridging in the door...pretty neat the first time you see it.

Tom

 

[Railwayman]

Though the rotary dumper is faster than the old manual doors, it is much slower than rapid-discharge. A single-car rotary dumper peaks at 4,000 tons/hour, or about 32 cars/hour -- five hours to empty a 150-car train. A tandem (two-car) rotary peaks at 6,000 tons/hour -- 2.5 hours to empty a 150-car train. The same train if it uses rapid-discharge cars can empty in 30-40 minutes. Rotary dumpers are expensive, have to be maintained, and there are ways to damage them, whereas rapid-discharge is fairly foolproof. The drawback to rapid-discharge is the cars weigh about 4,000 lbs. more, which means every round trip made by a 150-car train it hauls 300 less tons of coal -- but you're still paying the railroad the same transportation charge. Rapid-discharge cars cost more to purchase, too.

RWM