Unloading Steel Coil Cars

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hello,

Any special equipment to unload the hooded coil cars?

I’m thinking some kind of Gantry Crane half in my factory

Thanks

Tom

2

The coil car hoods aren’t terribly heavy, but usually the job is performed by an overhead crane or hoist. The coils themselves are loaded/unloaded by overhead cranes, as well as fork lifts.

3

I have never seen a forklift unload a coil car. The covers are quite light and can be lifted off easily with a crane. The coil is lifted with a hook that slips thtough the eye and has a bale on top of 2-3" think steel that the hook can grab. The hook is shaped a little like those newfangled letter openers with the blade at the back of a pointed insertion part. Sometimes steel mills will place the coil withe the, “eye to the sky”. In that case a telescoping device that grips the inside of the eye and the outside of the coil is used. the coil weight pulls the arms down which only tightens them against the coil more. You still don’t go anywhere near it though. They do drop sometimes.

4

Usually the steel in coil cars is shipped that way because it is important not to damage the load.

I found a photo on this website

http://www.jamd.com/search?assettype=g&assetid=756268&text=unloading+steel+coil

Foreign Steel To Be Subjected To U.S. Tariffs

And this wonderful website

http://www.owensbororiverport.com/newsroom/media/photo_gallery/

has all sorts of photos of unloading facilities including this picture (not a railcar but you get the idea):

Dave Nelson

5

In our little town there was (until recently) a small steel products company that received coil steel off the BNSF. The coil cars were spotted on an extension of the siding used for grain cars at the elevator. There is still a gantry crane on the siding. The crane lifted the coils off, and placed them on a semi-trailer truck to be moved to the factory (about 1/2 mile by road, about half that straight across the highway). I included this to show that you don’t necessarily need to model the plant to have a steel unloader on your layout.

Gary

6

Thanks for the answers. Had a could of had a V8 head slap, I never noticed

google having a search images section. Returned tons of photos.

Learned two new things today! Steel coil unloading and this internet thing is pretty handy

Tom