Rotary dumper in slow motion


kjd

kjd

Go make something!
I had recently changed the guards/sheilds/things-that-keep-coal-out-of-the-clamps and made a video with my phone to see how they were working. It turned out kind of neat so linked a couple clips together and added some epic music and got this:

The new parts are just styrene quarter rounds and can be seen on the yellow clamp bars. Looking at the slo-mo it looks like they work pretty well. I was surprised to see all the errant bits of coal bouncing around.
 
Very cool Paul!
I even haven’t tried mine yet but I’ll keep an eye on it for that.
So what are you using for coal, looks great and empties nicely!
Mine will be for wood chips but not sure what I’ll use for those, sawdust is too staticky.
 
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Thanks, BigG. Rico, I use Harbor Freight walnut shells meant for media blasting. I sifted out the fines and dyed them black. As they come, they are probably close to the color of wood chips. I couldn't get the Walthers dumper to work with coal though, it would get in the gears and in the clamps and, well, just didn't work so I ended up scratchbuilding this dumper. I think Walthers dumper might work with much coarser material, what I was using was small enough to get where it shouldn't.

Static electricity makes the coal do funny things. Most of the spillage at the loadout is the coal just jumping out of the cars or off the loadout chute. Well, sometimes I miss the car too and that can make a mess but the static electricity doesn't help. My layout is in the garage and another issue is spider webs. I can't see them but occasionally see a strand with several pieces of coal on it hanging over the side of the car. Another interesting thing is that dyeing the walnut shells black makes them slightly magnetic.

I recently saw a video with an N scale wood chip dumper that rotated but the cars had solid loads so didn't actually unload. When I saw that I wondered if it would work if the pit bottom was open and the solid load just fell through, maybe onto a pillow so they aren't damaged.

There is a link to a build thread in the video description on YouTube and other videos of it and the loadout on my YT channel.
 
That’s something I’m considering too Paul, just one piece loads that fall out.
I designed a magnetic unloader for my coal cars where a magnetic bogie travels down a guide and picks up the load then on return passes a fork that pushes the load off.
Cant find the plans for it tho, maybe I’ll try to draw it out again.
 
Tom, do CSX coal gons have rotary couplers? A quick look and lots of them don't seem to have a color distinguishing one end as rotary. Scale Trains has some silver ones with a yellow square but I didn't see any prototype photos in a quick search. I don't think the TopGons have them either.
 
kjd said:
Tom, do CSX coal gons have rotary couplers? A quick look and lots of them don't seem to have a color distinguishing one end as rotary. Scale Trains has some silver ones with a yellow square but I didn't see any prototype photos in a quick search. I don't think the TopGons have them either.
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Yes they do, they either have a white end or yellow end. CSX 378008 in RR picture archives for example.
 
They get uncoupled and dumped one at a time. I've read at one time that the coal can be sucked out but can't confirm that.
 
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