Were large rocks as large as seven feet across ever carried in DIFCO side dump cars ?
I would say yes. As long as the combined weight of the rock
does not overload the car’s capacity, there’s no reason not to
haul stones of this size. In the video “The Rock Trains” by
Golden Rail Video, rock close to that size is shown being
carried in side air dump cars on the Tacoma Eastern branch
(ex-Milwaukee) near Mount Rainier in Washington State.
These trains were pulled by a pair of Steam Locomotives
owned and operated by the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. This
occurred in 1996 and the locos involved were a Porter 2-8-2
and a 3-truck Climax. This was to repair a washout on the line
where the track crossed the Nisqually River south of Elbe, Wa.
What a great video.
On Santa Fe, frequently dumped large rip-rap.
Just have to be sure rock clears the door on the way out or have a big front end loader nearby to keep that large boulder rip-rap from rolling back and fouling the underside of the car. Also you may have to chain the car down to keep it from “galloping” as the load exits the car. Best left to experienced track people or you gallop the car off the center pins on top of the trucks or bend the pin. Then you have troubles.
(Experienced trackmen can control the pistons well enough to dump the contents of the car in more than one location by exhausting the big cylinder triple valves with a deft touch.)
Mudchicken
Deft touch is an understatement!