(Laugh!) Back in the 70s, I worked in the phosphate mines and one of the positions was unloading railroad cars. We had a steel pole about 6 feet long that we used to both unlock and open the hopper, and then swing and slam it shut (we'd get the door swinging, and at the right time bear down on the pole and the door would slam shut and a latch drop into place - sometimes we'd have to pound the latch to make sure it was solidly set). It was unpleasant work, especially when raining because the grating was slippery and we didn't have much room to move - and those doors were heavy! This was a far cry from the way we did it (we also had a small, gas powered half railroad engine, half car to move the cars through the unloading station - not a nice engine like seen here). Having a simple, easy control like that... NICE!

Notice how much the car's springs came up. Pretty neat!

Seems that one major downside of this method would be the capacity of the conveyor system. Perhaps it doesn't matter at this plant. Interesting system keeping in mind all the caveats listed in the comments below. Thanks for taking the time to film this process and posting it on KZfaq.

Good post. Nice to see some of how it's done as to just seeing them roll thru an area. Liked it.

Quite the intense operation, thanks for posting.

There are three pockets or doors in the bottom of the car. Each door has a letter to open the pocket of choice. Not because of material but some times you only want to balance the unloading conveyor or Simply for ease of unloading.You never want to dump 115 tons on an unwarmed system as this creates problems on the belts in the system.

This is the first time I've seen something like this and I found it fascinating. In response to those who say that there is no time savings to this one, I can't help but think about how long it would take to do this by hand..... Maybe as technology progresses and with the "gotta have it now" attitude so prevalent in society, a lot is being taken for granted. Those who feel this way should, perhaps, do it "the old-fashioned way" for awhile so they get an appreciation for what they have and not expect even more time-saving technology that too, will become obsolete because the bar is always being raised.

This looks like FUN!

Nice video and fun to watch. Take care now.

Electrical operation of the dumping mechanism is achieved using pick-up shoes on either side of the car. The pick-up shoes are used to transmit the electrical signal that opens or closes the doors to the control valve. When a positive (+) 24 VDC signal is present at the pick-up shoe and a negative (- 24 VDC signal is present on the rail, the signal to open the doors is routed through diodes in the valve’s internal wiring that allow the “open” solenoid to actuate. When the doors are to be closed, the electrical signal is reversed. The pick-up shoe sees a negative (- 24 VDC signal while the rail sees a positive (+) 24 VDC signal which is once again routed through the diodes to the “close” solenoid

Very helpful, I'm researching unloading methods of ortners and gons for my model railroad - this was great!!!

Thanks. I knew how it was done but never actually saw it. Very cool.

The nifty super-swift switch device looks pretty silly when your conveyor's so slow.

You just showed millions of people how to have fun with parked trains.

Excellent video I enjoyed this

thanks for posting....I really enjoyed this video!!

Tell the gerbils under there to pick up the pace.

Love the sound of metal and air from moving train.

Yup... only 110 more to go....

Shelly locomotive SD18M, CSX delivered the train and we staged train for departure..

Superb Video!

Thanks for posting that. I hadn't seen it before.

wow, this is pretty cool!

Sorry, I should have been more informative. We were unloading limestone sand on this section of the train.. The train was loaded with three sizes of limestone and it just happen to be sand when I was able to video the scene. This sand makes a very durable product in asphalt and concrete as it does not break down. Rub some different types of sand between your fingers and you will understand why its in demand.

That feeling when your throwing up and it finally stops

This is really cool. Thanks for posting.

Absolute blockbuster

This is what us fellow RR employees have called "luxury cars" lol. Sure beats unloading with sledge hammers and point bars, or having to bust your ass if a door wants to be stuck open!

@522549 115 tons of stone per car.35 tons car weight equals 150 tons per car, 14,500 tons for 100 cars.. Figure move time of 40 to 50 seconds per car,plus staging time . I think you see how time adds up..When I get some time I may show how slow swinging a sledge by two men opening the pockets rather than one man using a battery. I'm sure you wouldn't want to swing a sledge , open , close and lock pocket doors either. At the end of the stone season here these guys have arms like a Black Smith.

An excellent video. ♡ T.E.N.

I get a weird satisfaction seeing the wheels smash that stuff.

That is so cool

Thanks. Neat! So it is limestone. Regards. Good on ya mate.

Actually, there are six gated doors linked together in parallel to allow them act as a 3-set units. It's a common misunderstood detail we in model railroading make too.

The problem for them isn't the cars it's their own conveyors or what ever they have underneath. It's nullifying the gains that have been made through the use of parametric doors on the cars

If I saw that correctly, the two wires coming from the thing the guy was holding (which looked like an old drill) touched the contact under the letters which triggered the door(s) to be opened?

Wow so exciting

I really do not see this system working that well in the future, as electrical circuits and railcars do not mix well. I worked for ACF Industries (now American Railcar), where we built cars, then for a machinery manufacturer who built equipment for the RR, and I owned a shop myself that built equipment for both CSX and NS. A manual hand valve system, with the carman carrying a keyed handle, would be much better. There are too many things, including weather conditions, that can cause an electrically controlled system to fail. Solenoids have an affinity to go bad, on top of rust/corrosion, dirt/sand, ice, etc, interfering with the electrical circuit.

Crazy Video...

18 volts? Easy for troublemakers to open the doors

Awesome video! Where is this at?

Nice

You can actually see the whole car rise up as it's getting unloaded because the weight of the cargo is no longer present.

This is like watching paint dry!

This is very interesting..Do you guys load stuff like Salt and Sugar or is that for 100 ton Hopper Cars?

Nice video

‘Stand Clear Of The Doors’ - just like commuter trains!!!

This is not race. We do 30 car cuts as we do not rotate the car. But,, We did have a best day when we unloaded two trains,122 cars in 12 hours...

Dumpster would probably be faster, but you will need rotary ends on the car... That local Coal Plant in Rodermacher, LA gets 3 coal Trains every noun again, takes them about 24 hrs for 135-138 cars

Now some smart ass is going to take an old battery powered drill and rig up electric contacts and try this out somewhere, causing a shit ton of money in losses.

0:30 wow! seperated button/switch

Управлениеэлектроклапанами пневмоцилиндров открывания и закрывания люков при помощи переносного аккумулятора?Спасибо.

So what the hell is the little orange drill looking thing and how does it make the doors open by just touching whatever that is on the side of the car ?

Looks like the kind of job i want. I wonder how sweet sweet that paid is 😙💰😂

Incredible, no graffitti !!!!! By the way, thanks for posting, it was very informative.

ERIE1264 So basically you are saying that one car contains 115 tons of stone and that gets conveyed underneath in about 4 minutes. And all the people are saying its a slow conveyor!!!

Maikäfer im September fangen ist aufregender.

Must be nice we have to use a heavy ass gate opener lol

B-Break End C-Center A-non-break end

If you watch in faster time lapse mode, you can actually see the car springing back upward as the weight inside is emptied.

What they unloading there?

In central Queensland we tried rotary dumping on the coal traffic. We found bottom dumping was quicker.

wow, what a tough job probably union

Wow!

How far is the sand hauled?

Car is faster than the hopper auger, so no time savings here. Might be better at other facilities where they deliver.

Que es esa cosa con la que abren las puertas?

Pull here Jack here LOL

Going to bring my drill to the railroad yard.

DOORA..!!

6:21 CSX Upside-down.

All while using what seems to be a drill half way taken apart with 2 wires rigged on the end. hahahaha

Not bad almost 5 minutes to unload 150 tons

Is that Frac Sand?

What engine were you using & why does it have a CSX EOT on it?

What does that power drill do?

so a 2cell lipo will do the job, good to know :)

How many volt do they use?

The guy with the John Deere shirt? it looked like he had it on right with the plastic strap where it was

Is this wheat or limestone?

What r they unloading

I'm not real sure what they are unloading, but they should probably have dust masks on

What are they called

I wonder, what kind of discharge mechanism it is? Miner, Ortner?

This video needs more effects

Cement plant or other? Also I would be surprised if nobody said it was cocaine for the joke of it.

What's being dumped? Flour? Sugar? Sand? Salt? Molly? Coke?

Cars look brand new.

Erie, I'm doing research for a novel. What is the tool the man used to release the air that opened the hopper, it looked like something electrical. Also, is there a manual override?

This is still very inefficient compared to big mining operations in many places that unload multiple hopper cars at same time and empty much more quickly. But this is still pretty damn good

What's being unloaded?

What are the cars hauling?

Im surprised they don't have cars that unload from their sides by simply tipping themselves, like some farm equipment

What are t hey unloading?

In which country was it filmed? Please, i need to know it because of a homework!

what railroad

Looks like it’s dropping huge amounts of cocaine 😜

Why are the doors listed B C A?

What was you unloading? Is it rice, salt, or sugar?

The union is probably the reason the feeder system is so slow ....