For cars like gondolas that could be overloaded if filled to the top (with something like rock/stone), how do they know when the car is to the maximum weight without exceeding that weight? Semi have scales buitl in but I’ve never seen that on railcars.
Shippers know the weights of the commodities that they are shipping. They know how much each of their 8 inch thick, 8 foot wide, 20 foot long steel slabs weigh and thus how many of them it will take to max the capacity of the car. That same principle applies to all commodities.
When I was working in Baltimore, the B&O was moving ‘Ground Storage Iron Ore’ being shipped in open top hopper that previously had hauled coal and had been inspected by the Car Dept. as being suitable for Iron Ore loading. Cars were being loaded by front end bucket loaders, the buckets had a known cubic capacity and the iron ore had a known cubic weight. The operators of the bucket loaders were instructed to put ‘X’ number of bucket loads over the trucks of each car. After the cars at a particular loading pad were pulled and replaced with fresh empty cars, the loads would be weighed on a track scale at the loading yard. Yes, the bucket loaders sometimes lost count and overloaded some cars, these would be set out to be adjusted by the loading contractor.
Commodities such as scrap metal will be weighed near the origin and adjusted if necessary. Remember, weight of lading, is the primary means of assessing freight charges for whomever is paying the freight bill for a car - it is also an attestation of the amount of product shipped and received for the Shipper and Consignee.
Very, very, very, very few. I doubt if one in 100 does.
Yes, very few. And many shippers (especially the smaller ones) don’t really know what their product weighs either. We always add 2.5% to what the shipper tells us… and sometimes even that’s not sufficient.
Yes. Rarely. It’s just those that carry loads that can vary greatly like semis that carry timber. They load until they reach the target weight.
The B&O weighed coal cars going over the hump at Connellsville, Pa. Any that were overloaded were spotted on a track next to the boiler house where the excess coal was removed and used to fuel the boiler.
In recent history, there has been a small surge in using load cell type in-motion scales. (no scale pit, just a series of load cells on a concrete slab) … the technology continues to evolve. From what goes on around me, it’s largely the mines and the major shippers buying these things as opposed to just the railroads. The penalties for overloaded cars can no longer be dismissed by the corporate spreadsheet watchers.
For products that vary in weight (like coal that gets wet along the path), how do they handle cars that were loaded to capacity when dry and now may be over that weight?
here have been many cases where trailers and containers have high density loads all in front. Had friend that had several of his drive tires blow only driving 10 miles due to overloaded trailer in front. What about rail cars that might have same happen with most weight on one truck.
For the most part - coal is not loaded dry. Most coal goes through ‘prep plants’ at the mine and it is loaded in a damp condition to facilitate it movement through the machienry used as well as to keep down ‘coal dust’ and its potential for explosion.
Open top rail cars, while secure for the commodities they haul are not water tight and water will drain out of the cars over time.
Dust in any form can be explosive. CSX coal terminal in Baltimore had an explosion at its transloading facility from rail cars to ships. Over the years many grain elevators have exploded from the grain dust generated by its handling. Even sugar plants have exploded from the dust created in their manufacturing processes.
Blowouts are obviously not going to be an issue. There may be handling problems while braking due to the load variations.
What would be affected by overloading would be the wheel bearings, not the wheels. Cars with heavier load limits have larger axle sizes and bearing areas than do cars with lower load limits.
If the end with the load/empty sensor is overloaded, wouldn’t it have the chance to slide the wheels on the less loaded side under heavy braking?
zug - who doesn’t have a mechanical hat on.
I have shopped a car or 2 for imbalanced load, and picked up a few more the detectors nabbed. They get put on the RIP tracks for the customer to deal with (usually via contractor).
Would that involve a contractor who has a bunch of guys with shovels?
If it’s a lumber car - sometimes a van full of mennonites?
But for heavy things like coil or paper roll cars, there’s special companies with cranes that come out. Pretty nifty operations.
How imbalanced can a load be before it causes issues? I saw a lumber car I thought was loaded funky. Instead of the car being loaded with 4 layers of lumber units filling the entire length, this car had about 3-1/2 rows. The lumber guy in me figured the top row had about 5,000# at the lef front, 18,000# at the right rear. My first thought was that I hoped the cre unloading paid attention.
I worked at a lumberyard next to two truck stops on a busy interstate. We did a lot business moving loads that had shifted on semis. We occasionally got to buy a unit of lumber off trucks that were overloaded. The lumber mills apparently did’t have scales but the highway patrol did.
It seems like someone shipping big items like paper or coils would have a lot of experience to fall back on when loading. Paying a specialty contractor to come in and fix things probably eats all the profit on that order.
[quote user=“Murphy Siding”]
zugmann
Murphy Siding
Would that involve a contractor who has a bunch of guys with shovels?If it’s a lumber car - sometimes a van full of mennonites?
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Railroad intermodal has always been a way to move overloaded trailer/containers. Railroad intermodal is rated per box, not per pound. Various shippers have been using this to their advantage for decades.
Worked around the B&O trailer ramp in Baltimore in the 1970’s which used circus loading. The ‘yard’ trucks had hydrau
Interesting party trick - I don’t recommend that just anyone try it - put some flour in the palm of your hand, light a candle, and blow the flour over the flame.
Probably should do it outside…