I am starting a new railroad and need to find the who this will service. I am looking for something where I can load and unload freight. I was thinking of doing coal or something else similar, but i don't know of any structures which can load and unload without me having to go and take the car. If anyone can tell me of anything that could be used for this or any other "live freight" let me know. This is an HO scale layout with a dynamis DCC control system.
If you want to do a coal road, have you considered the idea of coal mine and something like a power plant on opposite sides of a backdrop or high scenery ridge? Both industries have the ends of their respective tracks hidden and they connect under the backdrop.
Strings of empty hopper car are shoved into the mine loading tracks which connects to the power plant tracks. The empties can then be pulled from the power plant and taken back to the mine, completing the cycle. Full hoppers go the other way - a loaded string is shoved into the power plant, then pulled from the mine and sent over the road back to the power plant.
George V.
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
On my layout, I can both load and unload coal. This is the loading facility:
and here is the unloading facility:
Unfortunately, these are now considered "gimmick" modelling. To some extent, I have to agree. I can load and unload, but I have to use these slightly non-prototypical Mantual cars. The Vollmer coal loader is now approaching 50 years old, and the cars and unloading track are the same vintage. Still, I like them, and I'm glad I've been able to restore the loader to operational status.
Modern coal operations use rotary dumpers, and you can find the rotary coupler joints and, as I recall, even a working rotary dumper. I'm not sure if anyone makes a flood loader for coal anymore.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
When someone figures how to reduce gravity by 87 times so material falls at scale speed, maybe then I'd consider "live" loading and unloading.
Mark
markpierce When someone figures how to reduce gravity by 87 times so material falls at scale speed, maybe then I'd consider "live" loading and unloading. Mark
Mark, your suggestion would be a good subject for a graduate student majoring in Physics to write their thesis or disertation.
Will
Here's one way to unload coal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLbqnw2bKeI
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
steemtrayn Here's one way to unload coal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLbqnw2bKeI
Live loads that could be are coal (as was suggested, a rotary dumper would be great in a modern setting), intermodal (Heljan's ContainerTerminal), a flat car with just about any load (and doesn't always have to be the same), the possibilities are endless...
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There was a Model Railroader article (reprinted in a collection on animation IIRC) where 'coal' from a bin in the top of the mine structure was dropped into an empty car using a large auger bit (turned in reverse by a small automotive motor) rather like a screw-conveyor stoker. I'm planning to kitbash a similar system into the Walthers coal mine (to be heavily kitbashed to approximate the appearance of a Japanese mine's loadout facility I photographed back in 1960.) The loaded cars will be routed to the cassette dock in down staging, there to be unloaded by the five-digit rotary dumper.
Another track under the same loadout will be the thoroughfare for a 'loads out/empties in' unit train. The other end of the exchange is hidden in the netherworld, with a 'to be constructed' elevator between.
Other 'live loads' will be inserted and removed by the five-digit crane during times when the schedule clock is stopped. These include, but are not limited to, vehicles, machinery, logs, mine and construction timbers and big wooden crates full of ???. Such loads will move as dictated by waybills drawn at random, and will move either from staging to an on-layout destination or vice-versa.
You can't tell a loaded house car from an empty, but open-top cars don't have that luxury. If the rails are supposed to be moving shipments from origin to destination, something should be visible in loaded hoppers, gons and flat cars.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Here is my web page for a gravel pit operation that I can load two or three hopper cars and dump elsewhere on the layout. Really simple to construct and cheep to build. Fun to operate!
http://lariverrailroads.com/gravel_pit.html
This is a device for loading and unloading flat cars:
http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/products/product_detail_accessories.asp?ItemNumber=DMW-101#
There's a video link in the upper right corner. It's pretty neat, actually.
It's designed for use inside a building, so you don't actually see the loading process. I suppose you could figure out a scenario where flat cars might by loaded like this, though.
I tinkered this very thing and realized...naaaaaw. I am not picking up spilled coal from derailments and so on. I decided on a put/take coaling operation with an industry that uses coal or a wharf that dumps coal to a ship. The cars are never emptied, they run thru a tunnel aand pop out at the coal mine ready to be picked up. Empties do the similar thing, into the coal mine and out the industry. No shimmying coal around.
JH313 I am looking for something where I can load and unload freight. I was thinking of doing coal or something else similar, but i don't know of any structures which can load and unload without me having to go and take the car.
If anyone can tell me of anything that could be used for this or any other "live freight" let me know. This is an HO scale layout with a dynamis DCC control system.
Tyco made a log loader/dumper for years. There is always the container on a flat car. I saw an automated container loader advertised about a year ago so they are out there.
Loading an unloading live loads can be done but it is one giant pain in the butt, I can speak form first hand experience as I helped a friend build most of the rotary coal dumper on the club layout.First you need to load the coal, which we found real coal or what you buy as coal for model railroading didn't work worth a hill of beans.which worked best for us was a product used for media blasting called "Black Beauty" it's actually silica carbide. Now the coal tipple had to be reinforced out the wazoo because no matter how real model look they structurally hardly ever have enough strength to hold much more then their own weight. We wound up completely scratch building a tipple using some of the components from a Sheepscot kit which in it self was a lot of money. All the hopper cars had to be reworked to handle the weight of the loads as well. Rememebr a coal load for example is typically a piece of foam covered with coal on top. To better get an idea what you'll be facing take a 100 ton hopper car and fill it with simulated coal and then weight it and now multiply it by lets say 40 . No respectable coal drag would be anything less. Now move on the unloading. The rotary dumper was a project with it it self as most of it had to be re-worked and replacement parts needed to be built. The plastic gears and such just wouldn't hold up so we had a club member who owned a machine shop make use new bronze gears. We had to incorporate automatic uncoupling magnets before and after the dumper. I choose to use electromagnets and momentary push button switches. One of our guys wanted to hook them up via bab control using stationary decoders but better heads prevailed as we threaten him with death or worse if he perused it.
Even using the Black beauty which was considerably lighter then the coal we still had to big mallets pulling a 50 car consist of 100 ton hoppers. I think it took me a week to wipe the smile off my face when we finally got everything to work harmoniously. not to mention the WOW look at that look on the faces of the kids and dads at out Christmas open house. it took four of us over a combined 1000 hours of work to accomplish it. Was it worth it we all thought so would any of us do it again no way .If I can get ahold of one of the guys I'll try and post some pics.
I'm not trying to tell you not to do it but be prepared for a lot of work ahead of you. I would think long and hard about doing it, maybe empty's in and loaded out situation may be a better/easier way to go.
Allegheny2-6-6-6 ... maybe empty's in and loaded out situation may be a better/easier way to go.
... maybe empty's in and loaded out situation may be a better/easier way to go.
Restaging between operating sessions and using one-piece removable loads are also more practical than the actual loading and dumping of loose loads.
The Heljan container terminal is on sale at Walthers right now:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/322-89001
It's also an interesting operation. But, with a list price of $750 and a reduced sale price of $500, it's not a cheap option. I can imagine that loading a whole train of containers might be fun, once, but you wouldn't want to do it every week.
And now for something completely different:
Have you considered the situation where freight cars not only carry cargo, but they are the cargo?
I'm planning a car float operation. This is a rail barge, where the cars are loaded and unloaded. I plan to make the barge itself removeable, and I would like to have two of them, so I can swap out one load of cars to the other port, and bring in another.
When you look at the facilities required to do this, a car float is a significant commitment in space. You need basically a small yard to allow for unloading the barge and reloading it with cars. Still, it's an interesting way to introduce cars during an operating session and remove them later. Once a float is removed from the layout, the "Hand of God" can take it away and "unload" or "load" hoppers, flats and gons with cargo.
Simple way to load and unload coal is to use a magnetic wand. Install a magnet under the coal load. When loading just drop on the load at the mine, unloading use the wand to pick the load off. You can get the wands at Auto Zone for around $3.00, they are used to pick up tools you drop in the engine compartment. I use whole earth magnetic for the load. They are left overs from my slot car days.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Regarding loose loads, let me summarize my opinion:
James McKay: [attempting to ride "Old Thunder"] Any advice? Ramón Guiteras: Yes! Don't do it.