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 RUclips.
(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.
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.
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?
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.
@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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Are there any power tools or good scrapping systems available in the world to empty wet coal filled in wagons. Its a serious concern as the delay in unloading the wagons causes cost increase by way of demurrage.
Is it small coal that is sticking together? The NCB/British Coal way was to add a percentage of larger coal to ease handling. All the coal goes through a grinder anyway before being burn in a power station.
This is still very inefficient compared to big mining operations in many places that unload multiple hopper cars at same time and empty much more quickly. But this is still pretty damn good
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
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 RUclips.
(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.
Notice how much the car's springs came up. Pretty neat!
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
😂
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.
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.
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!
Quite the intense operation, thanks for posting.
Good post. Nice to see some of how it's done as to just seeing them roll thru an area. Liked it.
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
Thanks. I knew how it was done but never actually saw it. Very cool.
ruclips.net/video/QYsFDwBtos4/видео.html.
I have captured something similar
6:21 CSX Upside-down.
You just showed millions of people how to have fun with parked trains.
@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?
Love the sound of metal and air from moving train.
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?
Shelly locomotive SD18M, CSX delivered the train and we staged train for departure..
Yup... only 110 more to go....
3006USMC more like 178😆
Good job
lol!
Nice video and fun to watch. Take care now.
This looks like FUN!
Very helpful, I'm researching unloading methods of ortners and gons for my model railroad - this was great!!!
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.
I get a weird satisfaction seeing the wheels smash that stuff.
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.
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
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.
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.
Thanks. Neat! So it is limestone. Regards. Good on ya mate.
Thanks for posting that. I hadn't seen it before.
ruclips.net/video/QYsFDwBtos4/видео.html.
I have captured something similar
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!
18 volts? Easy for troublemakers to open the doors
Untill the acess is feom clear the engine loco pilot
Superb Video!
This is really cool. Thanks for posting.
Excellent video I enjoyed this
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
thanks for posting....I really enjoyed this video!!
Gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘modern’ eh ?
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.
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
That feeling when your throwing up and it finally stops
What they unloading there?
Sand
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.
Управлениеэлектроклапанами пневмоцилиндров открывания и закрывания люков при помощи переносного аккумулятора?Спасибо.
This is very interesting..Do you guys load stuff like Salt and Sugar or is that for 100 ton Hopper Cars?
What engine were you using & why does it have a CSX EOT on it?
If you watch in faster time lapse mode, you can actually see the car springing back upward as the weight inside is emptied.
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.
B-Break End
C-Center
A-non-break end
*brake
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.
0:30 wow! seperated button/switch
Is that Frac Sand?
Nice video
Maikäfer im September fangen ist aufregender.
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.
How many volt do they use?
LSZocker2009 18 is what they said if your asking about that drill they were using
‘Stand Clear Of The Doors’ - just like commuter trains!!!
An excellent video. ♡ T.E.N.
This is like watching paint dry!
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.
Awesome video! Where is this at?
I wonder, what kind of discharge mechanism it is? Miner, Ortner?
it seems to be air powered
Martin Adamkovič Gravity.
How far is the sand hauled?
Incredible, no graffitti !!!!! By the way, thanks for posting, it was very informative.
All the kids living along the line must've been sufficiently spanked. Rare for these days.
Crazy Video...
Is this wheat or limestone?
What r they unloading
wow, this is pretty cool!
Que es esa cosa con la que abren las puertas?
Looks like the kind of job i want. I wonder how sweet sweet that paid is 😙💰😂
Trains4Fun 38 -42 dollars 💵 hour
Wow so exciting
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 does that power drill do?
In which country was it filmed? Please, i need to know it because of a homework!
Must be nice we have to use a heavy ass gate opener lol
What are the cars hauling?
Todd Behrends that would be sand screenings
What are they called
The guy with the John Deere shirt? it looked like he had it on right with the plastic strap where it was
Are there any power tools or good scrapping systems available in the world to empty wet coal filled in wagons. Its a serious concern as the delay in unloading the wagons causes cost increase by way of demurrage.
Is it small coal that is sticking together? The NCB/British Coal way was to add a percentage of larger coal to ease handling. All the coal goes through a grinder anyway before being burn in a power station.
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.
Is it an optical illusion or is there hardly any flange left on those wheels?
reckon your right , not a lot of meat on them !!!!
so a 2cell lipo will do the job, good to know :)
What's being unloaded?
Sand
What are t hey unloading?
Sand
Cement plant or other? Also I would be surprised if nobody said it was cocaine for the joke of it.
That receiving bay needs a redesign, with faster conveyer belts. Bad design for new cars.
Someone could tell me what kind of tool I use to drive the hoppers ?
This is still very inefficient compared to big mining operations in many places that unload multiple hopper cars at same time and empty much more quickly. But this is still pretty damn good
All while using what seems to be a drill half way taken apart with 2 wires rigged on the end. hahahaha
What was you unloading? Is it rice, salt, or sugar?
Sand
That is so cool
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
Not bad almost 5 minutes to unload 150 tons
Going to bring my drill to the railroad yard.
what railroad
Csx I think
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.
wow, what a tough job
probably union
Talesin- God of the Internet Nah, union would have required two men and a foreman
Looks like it’s dropping huge amounts of cocaine 😜
a broken impact driver with 2 wires sticking out?
DOORA..!!
Why are the doors listed B C A?
Originally those were vegetable haulers for broccoli, cauliflower, and asparagus.
Brake end, Center, A end. ♡ T.E.N.