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I have a question about how coal is unloaded.
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<p>A few decades ago, there were rotary unloaders. They were used with special cars, that had a coupler on one end that would rotate. A train would be separated into cuts of a few cars, which were then run onto the unloader by a switcher. The big unloader would "grab" the car and turn it upside-down to dump it.</p><p>But they were expensive, relatively slow, and rather Rube Goldberg-type affairs. </p><p>Now, most are unloaded without uncoupling from the whole train, while it runs at 1 to 3 mph on a trestle-like structure, with automated arms that open the dump doors on the hopper bottoms, letting the coal drop through the trestle onto the ground. The coal is then scooped up by large front-end loaders, and either piled up until needed or dumped directly into the intakes. A whole 175-car train can be unloaded in an hour or two. </p>
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