I have a place on my new layout for a walthers coal flood loader, but I was looking for another facility for unloading coal. Which walthers kit would be appropriate for an HO modern unloading facility?
My cars are Exactrail Johnstown America AutoFlood II Coal Hoppers.
Thanks,
Michael
Since these cars have ‘gates’ and IIRC can also rotary dump - You have several options for an unloader. If in the cold north, you will have a ‘thaw shed’ to heat up the loads before they go through the dumper.
Jim
Modern rotary dumpers would likely be used by facilities that receive a lot of coal, like generating plants or steel mills. A very small operation, on the other hand, would be more likely to use the gates at the bottom. This would likely be an old business that has used coal for decades. But, there really aren’t very many small coal places any more, as home heating has transitioned to oil and gas.
Electrical generating stations with rotary dumpers are about the only industries that still use coal in large quantities and receive unit trains of coal from the Powder River Basin and other sources.
The Walthers Northern Light and Power would be a good destination point for loaded hoppers of coal.
You could also model a consuming facility which isn’t on the visible part of the railroad. The loaded unit train vanishes into a tunnel portal, never to be seen again. Some time later, an empty unit emerges from the same tunnel (or one on the other track of the double-tracked main) and makes its way back to the flood loader, there to be quietly exchanged for the loaded unit train which has been waiting quietly in the netherworld. In flat country, substitute an Interstste overpass for the tunnel portal(s).
On my layout, since the colliery (based on a prototype I saw in Japan in 1960) is at the top of a mountain, the travel path for empty and loaded unit trains includes a train elevator in the netherworld.
Having the destination somewhere in ‘the rest of America’ is much closer to prototype operation, since real-world unit trains usually run hundreds of miles between mine and end user. If the consumer is within sight of the mine, the usual procedure would probably be to connect the two with a covered conveyor system.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
So there are no specific kits for unloading? I think I would prefer a building I can pass through that would dump the cars from underneath. I don’t think I want the rotary dumper.
I’m getting the Ethanol Series kits for my ethanol plant, and they have the grain unloading shed kit, could I use this kit make another one for coal unloading?
Would the Empire Gas Works be a good destination for coal as well?
Chuck, I’m with you on this issue. However, a lot of people want to create a self-contained, limited world and don’t want more variety of railroad traffic.
Mark
Unless you are planning on an emptys in/loads out swap, you are going to have to find someway to unload the loaded cars regardless of the destination. If you don’t plan on using a rotary dumper,that means figuring out how to make the hatches in the bottom of each car work,and then how to operate them.
Just because a kit says it is a “grain unloading shed” doesn’t mean you have to use it that way![;)]
What would a Gas works use coal for?
As mentioned earlier, typical destinations for unit trains of coal are either steel mills or coal fired power plants - especially in the modern era. Another destination is a seaport where the coal would be loaded onto ships and sent overseas.
-George
Walthers made a rotary dumper many years ago but they are hard to find and wont be cheap, the kit has the potential of being operational but the gears will not hold up past about 8 trains with 25 cars before the gears start to give out…
A simple industry that receives loaded hoppers is a rail/river transfer operation.
I would model it as a loads in empties out by having the track run behind a large dike or flood wall…
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions. I think will get the Ashland Iron & Steel kit with Coke Oven & Quench Tower w/Larry & Quench Cars.
It says it comes with a simulated dump pit for receiving loads of coal. Sweetness.[:)]
" You could also model a consuming facility which isn’t on the visible part of the railroad. The loaded unit train vanishes into a tunnel portal, never to be seen again. Some time later, an empty unit emerges from the same tunnel (or one on the other track of the double-tracked main)"
Chuck saw something like this a few years a go when I visited a club open house. They had an unloading facility which was a large power plant located on the back side of the layout. From the observation point in the isle you saw a loaded coal train go into the shed a rather long one at that and out the other side emerged the locomotives pulling the empties. At one point you could see the empties pulling out of the shed while the loaded cars were still entering the shed. Everyone had that how did they do that look on their face. They were obviously not running real coal loads as I could definitely tell that for sure when the train passed right in front of me, it was definitely a head scratcher.
Well turnouts out they had a duplicate train of empties staged behind the back drop and what you couldn’t see was that the loaded came into the shed via a turnout and the loaded train left the shed via another turnout. If the choose to just have the loaded train enter and exit they simply just didn’t throw throw the turnouts. Pretty slick if you have the room to pull it off. One of the club members told us they usually reserve it for open houses etc. to get exactly the reaction that we all gave.
Woodland Scenics makes a kit called the “Otis Coal Company” which might work for you.
I have a small coal facility on my layout (“Burns Coal and Oil,” what C. Montgomery Burns did before he moved up to nuclear) that actually receives coal loads. I have a bunch of old Mantua/Tyco operating clamshell hoppers that will dump their coal loads on a special track which opens the doors:
It’s a simple trestle with a coal bin beneath it. In my case, the heap of coal beneath the trestle is hollow and has a hole in the middle, like a volcano. The coal falls through this into a box beneath the layout and can then be recycled to the loader on the other side of the layout.