I am in the process of building a facility that represents a small ethanol plant. The spur to the unloading bin holds four hoppers but only one can be unloaded at a time. Assuming that the plant is too small to have its own switcher, would the switcher that brings in the hoppers then shove the hoppers to unload? ie it would arrive with the full hoppers and leave with the empty ones?
Bill
Yes the delivering train could spot the hoppers on the loading/unloading track. A Trackmobile or other small vehicle rail vehicle could be used to move them. Prototype wise it would be unlikely the train crew would be more involved than that, but then again it’s your railroad and you can do what you want.
Nope…We would pull the empties and spot the loads…Of course it could be as simple as spotting the loads or pulling the empties.Of course some days there may be no work to be done there.
Remember each covered hopper can take hours to unload since its a slow process.Three-four covered hoppers could take up to three eight hour work days to unload.
On doesn’t need a locomotive or track mobile to move freight cars-a car puller(winch) can do the same and is cheap to operate.
A plant that is too small to rate a switcher or afford one of their own could use a track mobile. But they are not cheap for something that has only one use. Cars can be moved with a forklift, a tractor or even a truck. More likely they have a winch, either electric or attached to a small engine, with a long cable or rope with a hook on the end to pull the cars to the unloading spot. They might even have something called a Rabbit. It is a metal bracket on a very large bicycle chain that sits up like a Rabbit and contacts the cars truck when it is being pulled and collapses flat when being returned to its starting point.
‘Small’ Ethanol plant are sort of rare, but there is one near me that was built about 20 years ago. It has two tracks. Like most ethanol plants, the corn is grown local and comes into the plant via truck.
The ‘output’ of the plant is tank cars of ethanol, and large 4 bay covered hoppers of DDG(Distillers Dried Grains) - this is used for feed lots. The usual ‘inbound’ loads are the occasional load of gasoline to mix with the ethanol.
Jim
Just east of Gettysburg there is the Dal-Tile plant (they make ceramic tile) serviced by CSX. They receive 3 covered hoppers on their spur. The first two cars are spotted beyond the loading shed. The last is unloded first. CSX spots the next loded car in the unloding shed and removes the empty car. The bottom line is that your local can do the shifting of the small plant.
Must be a slow unloading process since most locals runs once a day or 2-3 times a week with no service on the weekends…
Sounds like a good operation scenario.
What do they unload?
I have an ethanol plant on my layout. I have 2 spur tracks that will hold about 7 cars each. I then have a another spur that goes to the unloading sheds.
This is the walthers ethanol series. I also have the special green sw1200 ethanol switcher.
They can unload both corn and grain. That is then transferred to the processing center. There is also a corn storage silos. Corn can come in by truck or rail.
Brakie:
They unload the clay in powder form that goes into the four storage silos next to the plant. The cars are usually PROCOR or CSX hoppers. There siding runs infornt of the plant about 20 feet from route 30. Once in a great while I will see some other reporting marks on the hoppers. Some of the CSX hoppers that I have seen at the plant are in pretty bad shape, very rusty.
Thank you for the replies. Perhaps I should have said a small (compressed) model of an ethanol plant rather than a model of a small plant. It is similar in size and layout to the Badgerland ethanol plant on the MR club layout.
Looks like I should pull the empties and spot the full cars as suggested and position the cars between sessions simulating the use of a car puller winch.
Regards
Bill
You will have incoming empty tankers to spot also.
here are some photos from a club layout that has a small plant.
http://www.svmes.net/gallery_viewer.php?desc=Y&n_grp_id=5&d=Ethanol%20Plant
Thanks! I’ll keep that idea in mind…