| Posted by Tom on February 24, 2015 | |
Nice photo, Dan. I'm always glad to see an interesting picture like this that has an explanation. I had no idea these cars were unloaded in this manner. I wonder if they ever find any foreign objects tossed or lost in the cars while in transit ?? Friends of mine who haul grain in the Midwest are sometimes talking about keys and cellphones that are lost in the unloading of grain at grain elevators.
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I used to work at Georgia Power's Plant McDonough in Smyrna, GA. We dumped hoppers in this same way. I remember a couple of times when the cables on the clamps broke and a car fell into the hopper below. It took a lot of work to get them back up on the table and up righted again.
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| Posted by LJ on February 24, 2015 | |
If you note, some of the aluminum hoppers have one end painted, if memory serves me that indicates there is a rotary coupler on that end. This facilitates rotating a car while it is still coupled in the consist. As for objects found, there is CCTV that allows the operator to view inside the car for such things. On one TV show the operator of the rotary dump said a passed out drunk was found in a car prior to it being dumped.
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The cars used in this operation are called bathtubs. No bottom doors to unload the contents. I, too, would like to see this.
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A life size accessory. Great shot.
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