Seems that one major downside of this method would be the capacity of the conveyor system. Perhaps it doesn't matter at this plant. Interesting system keeping in mind all the caveats listed in the comments below. Thanks for taking the time to film this process and posting it on TH-cam.
(Laugh!) Back in the 70s, I worked in the phosphate mines and one of the positions was unloading railroad cars. We had a steel pole about 6 feet long that we used to both unlock and open the hopper, and then swing and slam it shut (we'd get the door swinging, and at the right time bear down on the pole and the door would slam shut and a latch drop into place - sometimes we'd have to pound the latch to make sure it was solidly set). It was unpleasant work, especially when raining because the grating was slippery and we didn't have much room to move - and those doors were heavy! This was a far cry from the way we did it (we also had a small, gas powered half railroad engine, half car to move the cars through the unloading station - not a nice engine like seen here). Having a simple, easy control like that... NICE!
We still do it that way at the rock company I work for, actually we have cars that have had an air system like this ripped out to install manual door mechanisms (those are absolutely brutal to open and close). These air systems don't work so well if the unloading pit is smaller than the railcar. One incorrect wiring job on the door controls and you've got quite the mess. I'd assume Florida phosphate mines? What mine? My employer sends me out that way to unload quite often, always a nice breeze flowing through the gypsum stacks
@@intermodalman123 Swift, back in the 70s. I never experienced that breeze. The areas I worked were hot and humid during the summer - not bad during winter days, but the nights could get uncomfortable. Trying to stay dry was important, as if you got wet you could experience hypothermia in winter, and summer, well, you didn't dry out until you got home. With water pouring down from all areas (rock in the tanks separating out the water and leaks everywhere, plus occasional rain), a rain suit and boots were mandatory and needed.
There are three pockets or doors in the bottom of the car. Each door has a letter to open the pocket of choice. Not because of material but some times you only want to balance the unloading conveyor or Simply for ease of unloading.You never want to dump 115 tons on an unwarmed system as this creates problems on the belts in the system.
@522549 115 tons of stone per car.35 tons car weight equals 150 tons per car, 14,500 tons for 100 cars.. Figure move time of 40 to 50 seconds per car,plus staging time . I think you see how time adds up..When I get some time I may show how slow swinging a sledge by two men opening the pockets rather than one man using a battery. I'm sure you wouldn't want to swing a sledge , open , close and lock pocket doors either. At the end of the stone season here these guys have arms like a Black Smith.
So what the hell is the little orange drill looking thing and how does it make the doors open by just touching whatever that is on the side of the car ?
Appears to be "electric solenoid over air". Electric current provided by "the little orange drill looking thing" trips the solenoid, the solenoid trips air valve that opens or closes the three doors.
I really do not see this system working that well in the future, as electrical circuits and railcars do not mix well. I worked for ACF Industries (now American Railcar), where we built cars, then for a machinery manufacturer who built equipment for the RR, and I owned a shop myself that built equipment for both CSX and NS. A manual hand valve system, with the carman carrying a keyed handle, would be much better. There are too many things, including weather conditions, that can cause an electrically controlled system to fail. Solenoids have an affinity to go bad, on top of rust/corrosion, dirt/sand, ice, etc, interfering with the electrical circuit.
Electrical operation of the dumping mechanism is achieved using pick-up shoes on either side of the car. The pick-up shoes are used to transmit the electrical signal that opens or closes the doors to the control valve. When a positive (+) 24 VDC signal is present at the pick-up shoe and a negative (- 24 VDC signal is present on the rail, the signal to open the doors is routed through diodes in the valve’s internal wiring that allow the “open” solenoid to actuate. When the doors are to be closed, the electrical signal is reversed. The pick-up shoe sees a negative (- 24 VDC signal while the rail sees a positive (+) 24 VDC signal which is once again routed through the diodes to the “close” solenoid
So what prevents some random person from taking a 24 volt power source to these cars and opening them up whenever and wherever? Is there a mechanical safety mechanism that isnt shown here?
The problem for them isn't the cars it's their own conveyors or what ever they have underneath. It's nullifying the gains that have been made through the use of parametric doors on the cars
Yeah there's an awful lot of product on the ground. Someone probably has to come along with some kind of air sweeper to sweep that into the conveyor. Not very efficient.
Sorry, I should have been more informative. We were unloading limestone sand on this section of the train.. The train was loaded with three sizes of limestone and it just happen to be sand when I was able to video the scene. This sand makes a very durable product in asphalt and concrete as it does not break down. Rub some different types of sand between your fingers and you will understand why its in demand.
This is the first time I've seen something like this and I found it fascinating. In response to those who say that there is no time savings to this one, I can't help but think about how long it would take to do this by hand..... Maybe as technology progresses and with the "gotta have it now" attitude so prevalent in society, a lot is being taken for granted. Those who feel this way should, perhaps, do it "the old-fashioned way" for awhile so they get an appreciation for what they have and not expect even more time-saving technology that too, will become obsolete because the bar is always being raised.
Doing it by hand was also rather quick (at least the way we did it)... but very strenuous, uncomfortable, and even dangerous. This took seconds to do... the way we did it took about 30 seconds (closing) for a three door hopper car. Opening was quicker - just flip a latch and the door/hatch would drop open.
ERIE1264 So basically you are saying that one car contains 115 tons of stone and that gets conveyed underneath in about 4 minutes. And all the people are saying its a slow conveyor!!!
Yup! and they dont realize that whether its a hydraulic door like this or a manual door, the car is still going to empty at roughly the same rate resulting in the same flow on the conveyor. I swear people don't use their heads anymore!
@@awashbowler You're right but there's more. Go find the post by a guy who used to operate those doors manually. Crawling under railcars, at night, in the rain, and swinging huge metal doors till they shut. Dangerous and unpleasant. My back hurts watching the machine do it. OSHA and workman's comp nightmare. Expensive electronics is cheaper than injuries.
If I saw that correctly, the two wires coming from the thing the guy was holding (which looked like an old drill) touched the contact under the letters which triggered the door(s) to be opened?
Now some smart ass is going to take an old battery powered drill and rig up electric contacts and try this out somewhere, causing a shit ton of money in losses.
This is what us fellow RR employees have called "luxury cars" lol. Sure beats unloading with sledge hammers and point bars, or having to bust your ass if a door wants to be stuck open!
I don't think so. what happens if the "special tool" is mislaid? the material doesn't seem too keen to flow out and leaves a lot fouling the track. Now, *this* is efficient th-cam.com/video/J9HItagxAv4/w-d-xo.html
Dumpster would probably be faster, but you will need rotary ends on the car... That local Coal Plant in Rodermacher, LA gets 3 coal Trains every noun again, takes them about 24 hrs for 135-138 cars
Actually, there are six gated doors linked together in parallel to allow them act as a 3-set units. It's a common misunderstood detail we in model railroading make too.
Couldn't be CIA, cause instead of this screwdriver battery, they'd used different laser decoder guns for each door on each car, to make sure the taxpayer's money were spent on a proper equipment.
Could be. I live near a bakery that gets flour via train. It could also be corn starch. The company Ingredion gets trains of starch to their labs and they have giant silos full of it all over central Indiana
ERIE1264, honestly, you call this "modern hopper car unloading? come on man, it takes forever to unload just one hopper and I`m sure there is more than one or two!!!
Erie, I'm doing research for a novel. What is the tool the man used to release the air that opened the hopper, it looked like something electrical. Also, is there a manual override?
Looks like there is a ground plate which i think is the large plate on the bottom then there are 3 plates per door and it completes the circuit with that trigger tool
Seems that one major downside of this method would be the capacity of the conveyor system. Perhaps it doesn't matter at this plant. Interesting system keeping in mind all the caveats listed in the comments below. Thanks for taking the time to film this process and posting it on TH-cam.
(Laugh!) Back in the 70s, I worked in the phosphate mines and one of the positions was unloading railroad cars. We had a steel pole about 6 feet long that we used to both unlock and open the hopper, and then swing and slam it shut (we'd get the door swinging, and at the right time bear down on the pole and the door would slam shut and a latch drop into place - sometimes we'd have to pound the latch to make sure it was solidly set). It was unpleasant work, especially when raining because the grating was slippery and we didn't have much room to move - and those doors were heavy! This was a far cry from the way we did it (we also had a small, gas powered half railroad engine, half car to move the cars through the unloading station - not a nice engine like seen here).
Having a simple, easy control like that... NICE!
That reminded of the scene in the "Kill the Irishman" movie. Tough and dirty work, hats off to all the men who did it
We still do it that way at the rock company I work for, actually we have cars that have had an air system like this ripped out to install manual door mechanisms (those are absolutely brutal to open and close). These air systems don't work so well if the unloading pit is smaller than the railcar. One incorrect wiring job on the door controls and you've got quite the mess.
I'd assume Florida phosphate mines? What mine? My employer sends me out that way to unload quite often, always a nice breeze flowing through the gypsum stacks
@@intermodalman123 Swift, back in the 70s. I never experienced that breeze. The areas I worked were hot and humid during the summer - not bad during winter days, but the nights could get uncomfortable.
Trying to stay dry was important, as if you got wet you could experience hypothermia in winter, and summer, well, you didn't dry out until you got home. With water pouring down from all areas (rock in the tanks separating out the water and leaks everywhere, plus occasional rain), a rain suit and boots were mandatory and needed.
Tell the gerbils under there to pick up the pace.
I know I'm kind of off topic but do anyone know of a good place to stream new series online?
@Anders Gabriel Try FlixZone. You can find it by googling =)
@Krew Peter yup, I have been using Flixzone for months myself :D
@Krew Peter thank you, signed up and it seems to work :D I really appreciate it!!
@Anders Gabriel You are welcome xD
The nifty super-swift switch device looks pretty silly when your conveyor's so slow.
plazdook zr i
plazdook zr @.
or receiving hopper so small.
Thanks. I knew how it was done but never actually saw it. Very cool.
th-cam.com/video/QYsFDwBtos4/w-d-xo.html.
I have captured something similar
There are three pockets or doors in the bottom of the car. Each door has a letter to open the pocket of choice. Not because of material but some times you only want to balance the unloading conveyor or Simply for ease of unloading.You never want to dump 115 tons on an unwarmed system as this creates problems on the belts in the system.
@@GWRProductions-kg9pt
😂
I get a weird satisfaction seeing the wheels smash that stuff.
Very helpful, I'm researching unloading methods of ortners and gons for my model railroad - this was great!!!
Yup... only 110 more to go....
3006USMC more like 178😆
Good job
lol!
@522549 115 tons of stone per car.35 tons car weight equals 150 tons per car, 14,500 tons for 100 cars.. Figure move time of 40 to 50 seconds per car,plus staging time . I think you see how time adds up..When I get some time I may show how slow swinging a sledge by two men opening the pockets rather than one man using a battery. I'm sure you wouldn't want to swing a sledge , open , close and lock pocket doors either. At the end of the stone season here these guys have arms like a Black Smith.
ERIE1264 o
come to Britain & watch how it's done
Why is the video 6min long for one car?
So what the hell is the little orange drill looking thing and how does it make the doors open by just touching whatever that is on the side of the car ?
looks like it is sending an electrical current, grounds out on the lower strip, then touches each of the circles individually.
generates electrical pulse
Appears to be "electric solenoid over air". Electric current provided by "the little orange drill looking thing" trips the solenoid, the solenoid trips air valve that opens or closes the three doors.
It appears to actually be a milwaukee flashlight... basically a drill. They are just using it as a source of electric current.
I really do not see this system working that well in the future, as electrical circuits and railcars do not mix well. I worked for ACF Industries (now American Railcar), where we built cars, then for a machinery manufacturer who built equipment for the RR, and I owned a shop myself that built equipment for both CSX and NS. A manual hand valve system, with the carman carrying a keyed handle, would be much better. There are too many things, including weather conditions, that can cause an electrically controlled system to fail. Solenoids have an affinity to go bad, on top of rust/corrosion, dirt/sand, ice, etc, interfering with the electrical circuit.
They've been around for years now and work just fine long term.
That receiving bay needs a redesign, with faster conveyer belts. Bad design for new cars.
Electrical operation of the dumping mechanism is achieved using pick-up shoes on either side of the car. The pick-up shoes are used to transmit the electrical signal that opens or closes the doors to the control valve. When a positive (+) 24 VDC signal is present at the pick-up shoe and a negative (- 24 VDC signal is present on the rail, the signal to open the doors is routed through diodes in the valve’s internal wiring that allow the “open” solenoid to actuate. When the doors are to be closed, the electrical signal is reversed. The pick-up shoe sees a negative (- 24 VDC signal while the rail sees a positive (+) 24 VDC signal which is once again routed through the diodes to the “close” solenoid
So what prevents some random person from taking a 24 volt power source to these cars and opening them up whenever and wherever? Is there a mechanical safety mechanism that isnt shown here?
@@awashbowler my guess is that unless air is be supplied by the car activating the solinoids does nothing.
18 volts? Easy for troublemakers to open the doors
Untill the acess is feom clear the engine loco pilot
The problem for them isn't the cars it's their own conveyors or what ever they have underneath. It's nullifying the gains that have been made through the use of parametric doors on the cars
Yeah there's an awful lot of product on the ground. Someone probably has to come along with some kind of air sweeper to sweep that into the conveyor. Not very efficient.
seethetrain
Yall don't know much about bulk commodity transport
seethetrain p
There would be a wedge shape hopper that lets the product flow onto the the conveyor
You can actually see the whole car rise up as it's getting unloaded because the weight of the cargo is no longer present.
figure that all out in your own did you.
Sorry, I should have been more informative. We were unloading limestone sand on this section of the train.. The train was loaded with three sizes of limestone and it just happen to be sand when I was able to video the scene. This sand makes a very durable product in asphalt and concrete as it does not break down. Rub some different types of sand between your fingers and you will understand why its in demand.
ERIE1264 n
yeah but your conveyor is still slow
They're unloading meth!!
@@ronjohnson9507 No it's not it's coke!
Shelly locomotive SD18M, CSX delivered the train and we staged train for departure..
Notice how much the car's springs came up. Pretty neat!
This is the first time I've seen something like this and I found it fascinating. In response to those who say that there is no time savings to this one, I can't help but think about how long it would take to do this by hand.....
Maybe as technology progresses and with the "gotta have it now" attitude so prevalent in society, a lot is being taken for granted. Those who feel this way should, perhaps, do it "the old-fashioned way" for awhile so they get an appreciation for what they have and not expect even more time-saving technology that too, will become obsolete because the bar is always being raised.
Doing it by hand was also rather quick (at least the way we did it)... but very strenuous, uncomfortable, and even dangerous. This took seconds to do... the way we did it took about 30 seconds (closing) for a three door hopper car. Opening was quicker - just flip a latch and the door/hatch would drop open.
This is not race. We do 30 car cuts as we do not rotate the car. But,, We did have a best day when we unloaded two trains,122 cars in 12 hours...
ERIE1264 You guys busted your butts
Absolute blockbuster
ERIE1264
So basically you are saying that one car contains 115 tons of stone and that gets conveyed underneath in about 4 minutes. And all the people are saying its a slow conveyor!!!
Yup! and they dont realize that whether its a hydraulic door like this or a manual door, the car is still going to empty at roughly the same rate resulting in the same flow on the conveyor. I swear people don't use their heads anymore!
@@awashbowler You're right but there's more. Go find the post by a guy who used to operate those doors manually. Crawling under railcars, at night, in the rain, and swinging huge metal doors till they shut. Dangerous and unpleasant. My back hurts watching the machine do it. OSHA and workman's comp nightmare. Expensive electronics is cheaper than injuries.
Car is faster than the hopper auger, so no time savings here. Might be better at other facilities where they deliver.
It safes time. You cut down on the time between two cars, it is 55s now, assume it was much longer previously.
I safe time by not watching too many boring videos.
If I saw that correctly, the two wires coming from the thing the guy was holding (which looked like an old drill) touched the contact under the letters which triggered the door(s) to be opened?
Управлениеэлектроклапанами пневмоцилиндров открывания и закрывания люков при помощи переносного аккумулятора?Спасибо.
Now some smart ass is going to take an old battery powered drill and rig up electric contacts and try this out somewhere, causing a shit ton of money in losses.
That feeling when your throwing up and it finally stops
This is what us fellow RR employees have called "luxury cars" lol. Sure beats unloading with sledge hammers and point bars, or having to bust your ass if a door wants to be stuck open!
I don't think so. what happens if the "special tool" is mislaid? the material doesn't seem too keen to flow out and leaves a lot fouling the track.
Now, *this* is efficient th-cam.com/video/J9HItagxAv4/w-d-xo.html
How many volt do they use?
LSZocker2009 18 is what they said if your asking about that drill they were using
Awesome video! Where is this at?
Good post. Nice to see some of how it's done as to just seeing them roll thru an area. Liked it.
Nice video and fun to watch. Take care now.
B-Break End
C-Center
A-non-break end
*brake
Dumpster would probably be faster, but you will need rotary ends on the car... That local Coal Plant in Rodermacher, LA gets 3 coal Trains every noun again, takes them about 24 hrs for 135-138 cars
Actually, there are six gated doors linked together in parallel to allow them act as a 3-set units. It's a common misunderstood detail we in model railroading make too.
All while using what seems to be a drill half way taken apart with 2 wires rigged on the end. hahahaha
You just showed millions of people how to have fun with parked trains.
He has to release each one?What happens in blizzards?Old way was better.
William schlenger you cant dump frozen stone now can you? Old way or new way doesnt happen 😂
What's being dumped? Flour? Sugar? Sand? Salt? Molly? Coke?
bolivian cocaine at a CIA base...
Couldn't be CIA, cause instead of this screwdriver battery, they'd used different laser decoder guns for each door on each car, to make sure the taxpayer's money were spent on a proper equipment.
Quite the intense operation, thanks for posting.
This looks like FUN!
Thanks. Neat! So it is limestone. Regards. Good on ya mate.
How far is the sand hauled?
Must be nice we have to use a heavy ass gate opener lol
Love the sound of metal and air from moving train.
This is like watching paint dry!
What they unloading there?
Sand
Superb Video!
wow, this is pretty cool!
If you watch in faster time lapse mode, you can actually see the car springing back upward as the weight inside is emptied.
Very slow system....
Im surprised they don't have cars that unload from their sides by simply tipping themselves, like some farm equipment
I researched availability of a single suitable telescoping hydraulic I could bury on the side opposite tilting. Found everything. No problems.
They do have them, used coal.
What are they called
Que es esa cosa con la que abren las puertas?
Pull here
Jack here
LOL
Cement plant or other? Also I would be surprised if nobody said it was cocaine for the joke of it.
Nice video
I'm not real sure what they are unloading, but they should probably have dust masks on
Looks like sand to me
@@doubleutubefan5 Actually limestone. Which would be wise having a mask on.
What r they unloading
This video needs more effects
Че за херня мелочек глинку песок???
The union is probably the reason the feeder system is so slow ....
Looks like it’s dropping huge amounts of cocaine 😜
Thanks for posting that. I hadn't seen it before.
th-cam.com/video/QYsFDwBtos4/w-d-xo.html.
I have captured something similar
Going to bring my drill to the railroad yard.
Excellent video I enjoyed this
An excellent video. ♡ T.E.N.
thanks for posting....I really enjoyed this video!!
Gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘modern’ eh ?
Is that Frac Sand?
Is that flour?
Could be. I live near a bakery that gets flour via train. It could also be corn starch. The company Ingredion gets trains of starch to their labs and they have giant silos full of it all over central Indiana
No, sand
0:30 wow! seperated button/switch
Wow so exciting
6:21 CSX Upside-down.
What engine were you using & why does it have a CSX EOT on it?
Pablo Escobar's cocaine train unloading, 1986
日本の全鉄道会社に告ぐ。台車を新調しなさい。それと、車でいうならAT仕様にしなさい。
Looks like the kind of job i want. I wonder how sweet sweet that paid is 😙💰😂
Trains4Fun 38 -42 dollars 💵 hour
The guy with the John Deere shirt? it looked like he had it on right with the plastic strap where it was
so a 2cell lipo will do the job, good to know :)
Wow!
ERIE1264, honestly, you call this "modern hopper car unloading? come on man, it takes forever to unload just one hopper and I`m sure there is more than one or two!!!
‘Stand Clear Of The Doors’ - just like commuter trains!!!
Not bad almost 5 minutes to unload 150 tons
What are t hey unloading?
Sand
If the hopper bins were able to hold more material,this operation would go much faster.
Railroads have weight limits for cars. Different sections of track have different weight limits
@@ArtStoneUS correct... but i was talking about the storage bins not the railcar
I wonder, what kind of discharge mechanism it is? Miner, Ortner?
it seems to be air powered
Martin Adamkovič Gravity.
Is this wheat or limestone?
Must be an older outfit. ^.^
Crazy Video...
This is very interesting..Do you guys load stuff like Salt and Sugar or is that for 100 ton Hopper Cars?
Tasty sugar
What are the cars hauling?
Todd Behrends that would be sand screenings
DOORA..!!
Erie, I'm doing research for a novel. What is the tool the man used to release the air that opened the hopper, it looked like something electrical. Also, is there a manual override?
Looks like there is a ground plate which i think is the large plate on the bottom then there are 3 plates per door and it completes the circuit with that trigger tool
just looks like a battery with wires attached to open solenoid valves
Too many of the commentators have no idea of what they are talking about. Try opening doors on a frozen railcar in midwinter.
In central Queensland we tried rotary dumping on the coal traffic. We found bottom dumping was quicker.
The Swedes have solved rotary dumping. They use it for iron ore. It's AMAZING to behold.
so you must be a non-union guy, ever step back and think that your job maybe isn't paying you enough?
This is really cool. Thanks for posting.