I am trying to keep away from is the more modern style of rotary I have seen displayed on the internet, where numerous cars pull in and are all dumped at the same time, as they have special couplers attached. This is more of a dumper mechanism than rotary.
Thanks… bought it… being shipped. Appreciate this.
Building a “tilt dumper” will definitely be a wonderful thing.
Since you don’t want a regular rotary style, let me remind you of an option mentioned earlier: hoppers that dump directly into bins that dump into ships/barges.
As far as I know there have been 3 versions of operating hopper cars (none of them up there with Exactrail and Tangent in detail level):
Ulrich triple–it’s a big all metal hopper car. Of the three, it has the least evidence of operating mechanism showing. It’s designed to unload one car at a time by shoving the car onto an actuator. You can’t pull a string through a dumper. Well, not without a whole lot of cleverness.
Revell–it’s a double hopper and has the most “showy” mechanism. An arm sticks out each side of the car. When the arms intersect the dump mechanism, the hopper bottom is lowered and the car dumps.
Tyco–another double. It’s got gravity closing doors on the bottom. When the doors pass a ramp, they’re spread sideways to open. I’ve heard good things about the operability of these.
It’s my impression that the Ulrich is the most “leaky”, though I haven’t checked that out. What’s neat about the Tyco (Mantua) is that you can pull a whole string across a dump mechanism. And they’re probably the most available/cost effective.
For any of them, it probably wouldn’t be much of a challenge to do a multi-bin setup, if you were in the mood.
If you are planning on working with loose model coal, I recommend researching that early on. Especially the size(s). For example, if the Ulrich is going to leak, it will be worse with finer grains. My guess is that real coal is a poor choice because it makes (yes) coal dust. Not good on a layout, I think. I’m pretty sure someone makes plastic coal, and that would be my first choice.
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Great information Ed, thanks, I will look into these versions and se what I can see. I appreciate yourt time and patience with me. I am modelling in HO and have a dedicated garage 24’x24’ with a 10’ ceiling. I am just in the process of planning, but am working on building segments of what I want over the colder winter months. This is a project I want to tackle.
Got the book last Friday, it has some great ideas, thanks again.
Hello all,
One option that has not been mention are the 34-foot Tyco operating hopper cars from the 1970’s.
My pike is based on these vintage cars and their sole operation.
Unfortunately these cars, and the accompanying unloading docks, have become popular and expensive, enven in the stock form.
The drawback of the Tyco system is that the cars have to be shoved or pushed over the unloading dock. The unloading flanges, from the track, extend too far above the railheads for locomotives to pass over.
On my unloading level one head-end and two pusher locomotives bring the cars up the incline to the unloading siding.
The single head-end loco is cut, before the siding, and moves into position on the opposite side of the unloading shed to receive the empty hoppers.
The hoppers are then shoved through the unloading shed. When the first hopper clears the unloading shed the single, head-end, loco helps bring the remaining hoppers through the unloading shed.
The pusher locos are cut before the turnout at the unloading siding. They then back down the grade and return to the yard to wait for the empties.
Below, on a siding of the main line; designed to receive the load from above, a train traveling in the same direction is receiving the load being discharged by the cars above.
By the time the upper train discharges it load into the lower train, the lower train has cleared the lower siding, where the empties will return via a spiral trestle back to the mainline.
Another drawback of these cars is that they were equipped with Talgo style truck mounted Hook & Horn couplers.
I have updated theses cars to Kadee couplers and HGC trucks. This requires dri
Thanks for the information, i appreciate it, give me ideas.
I have 2 of these on my layout in the steel mill area and yes i am still touching up areas this year for smooth operations. now back to the subject they work fantastic and were built by tyco and 1 other company and can be found at swap meets and probably ebay rather cheaply. I would also consider scratch building a conveyor to refill them the areas can get tight for movement room when you get serious like i did.
Hello all,
Great working model!
I would still consider this a rotary type dumper.
Thanks for sharing!
Hope this helps.