For the past few weeks NS has had a pair of cars that look like your typical open top hopper.(In big bold letters near the top left is says TOP GON.)But there appears to be no opening to extrude the contents! It doesn’t appear that they are caring anything. The only thing I can think of is that they at one time had rotary ends, and were used in coal or aggregate service, and are now used as MOW cars.
Any ideas?
Justin
The road to to success is always under construction. _____________________________________________________________________________ When the going gets tough, the tough use duct tape.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Carl,
If they didn’t have rotary ends, and no opening floor, how could a dumper unload them? What did they haul?
They are used primarily in the export coal trains, which go two at a time through the rotary dumper. There are still lots of them coming here to Norfolk. Here is a series of pictures of a pair being dumped, then coming out through a spring switch, up a ramp, then back through the switch the other way into the departure yard.
These pictures were taken last year during a harbor tour.
John
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
We still see plenty of "Top Gon" cars going through the Lynchburg area. Is it possible that the name was a clever take-off of the movie Top Gun ?
Oh I see! You sure can tell I’m really green aren’t I. When you said rotary dumper I thought you meant the it took one car still in the train and using the rotary ends, dumped it, and then took a hydraulic ram and shoved it out. I see now, just one or 2 at a time not coupled to anything. I saw a DVD that featured a dumper like this in the Chicagoland area. It just sends the cars down an embankment then they sail up a ramp, the switch throws and then gravity takes over by sending them down the ramp and on to a holding area I suppose.
I bet it would really suck if the switch malfunctioned, or froze up…. BAM!
What kind of mechanism holds the car in place while it's roatary dumped?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding What kind of mechanism holds the car in place while it's roatary dumped?
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
bubbajustin Oh I see! You sure can tell I’m really green aren’t I. When you said rotary dumper I thought you meant the it took one car still in the train and using the rotary ends, dumped it, and then took a hydraulic ram and shoved it out. I see now, just one or 2 at a time not coupled to anything. I saw a DVD that featured a dumper like this in the Chicagoland area. It just sends the cars down an embankment then they sail up a ramp, the switch throws and then gravity takes over by sending them down the ramp and on to a holding area I suppose. I bet it would really suck if the switch malfunctioned, or froze up…. BAM!
The only facilities with the kickback track and spring switch are on Lake Erie, they use a sidearm car pusher or a cable device to move the hoppers to the dumper. The only similar transfer facility in Chicago is Rail To Water Transfer at 100th Street and the Calumet River, which uses car shakers instead of a rotary dumper. All cars remain coupled and are pushed through the car shaker by a locomotive attached to the cut of cars.
You can still see trains with a solid consist of TopGons running on the former Waterlevel Route and Nickel Plate lines across Indiana. They seem to be getting rarer, though.
CShaveRRNice pictures, John! Justin, rotary dumpers predate rotary couplers by a good decade..
A decade! Carl, I know you're just a young'un (like me), but rotary dumpers date to at least the 1910s. As far as I know, rotary couplers first appeared in the 1950s on some specialized applications, but did not become commonplace until the 1960s.
RWM
bedell [snip] Is it possible that the name was a clever take-off of the movie Top Gun ?
I remember when they were designated that way, and it was within a year or two after the movie, so I had the same conclusion. Until we hear from the guy who was responsible - one way or the other on that, I believe that is exactly what happened.
- Paul North.
they was around well before the movie. but its your fantisy.
Top Gon coal trains run on the NKP to the steel mills in NW Indiana and are regularly seen.
ed
Geez, here's a link to a webpage - ''Norfolk Southern Top Gons'' - that I found with more than I ever wanted to know about them. Carl - ''Enter at your own risk !''
http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/ns/coal-gon/topgon.shtml
This data under the Special Cars and then the REBODY headings about 3/4 of the way down says that the 2 protoype Top Gon cars - NS 20000 and NS 20001, NS class G84R - were 'rebodied' in late 1990 / early 1991.
This page also says down at the bottom that: "Top Gon" is a registered trademark of Norfolk Southern Corporation. It might be fun to find out when that happened as well.
The movie ''Top Gun'' was released almost 5 years earlier in May 1986, per the IMDB = Internet Movie DataBase for it, at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092099/releaseinfo
Here's also a link to NS' ''Coal Equipment'' website page, though it doesn't seem to mention the TopGons:
http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Customers/Coal/coaleq.html
Here's some more evidence in support of that theory, in a column from The Roanoke Times, after the 2006 re-release of the movie:
By Tom Angleberger
http://www.roanoke.com/columnists/angleberger/wb/121649
You'll have to read the column to find out about the 'other half' of the inside joke.
-Paul North.
Yep - Here's the 'TOP GON' trademark info - since Oct. 23, 1992 / May 10, 1994, from the United States Patent and Trademark Office's website, at:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4006:13fhe8.4.1
Typed Drawing
I have to wonder about the 'FIRST USE' dates above, though - as '19920909' they appear to be Sept. 9th, 1992 - why does it say that when it appears the cars were first built and lettered that way in late 1990/ early 1991, per the data on the website that I previously linked above ? A minor mystery, to be solved sometime later . . . much later, if ever . . .
- Paul.
P.S. - For what it's worth, this was amazingly quick - I don't think it took as much as a minute to find this ! And that's from a 'cold start' at something I've never done before.
Unloading slippery creosoted ties that weight 200 lbs. each and are almost as long as the car is wide, from a car with sides that high/ deep, etc. is a thoroughly miserable and dangerous job - unless it's being done with a tie crane that rides on the top of the car, or a Burro crane with a chain sling, or similar ?
waltersrailsMost Top gons used through the NS St. louis to Princeton IN line use about ten of them a week to haul ties.
LOL How about per day.
zugmannI so want one of those ramps in my yard...
AgentKid
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Top Gons have been used on the Belmont coal train going to the Allen steam plant also.
Russell
Paul_D_North_JrGeez, here's a link to a webpage - ''Norfolk Southern Top Gons'' - that I found with more than I ever wanted to know about them. Carl - ''Enter at your own risk !'' http://www.krunk.org/~joeshaw/pics/ns/coal-gon/topgon.shtml This data under the Special Cars and then the REBODY headings about 3/4 of the way down says that the 2 prototype Top Gon cars - NS 20000 and NS 20001, NS class G84R - were 'rebodied' in late 1990 / early 1991. - Paul North.
This data under the Special Cars and then the REBODY headings about 3/4 of the way down says that the 2 prototype Top Gon cars - NS 20000 and NS 20001, NS class G84R - were 'rebodied' in late 1990 / early 1991.
Thanks all. I will have to pay closer attention to things. I bet I have saw them before. I just havn't relised it.
CSSHEGEWISCH The only similar transfer facility in Chicago is Rail To Water Transfer at 100th Street and the Calumet River, which uses car shakers instead of a rotary dumper. All cars remain coupled and are pushed through the car shaker by a locomotive attached to the cut of cars.
The only similar transfer facility in Chicago is Rail To Water Transfer at 100th Street and the Calumet River, which uses car shakers instead of a rotary dumper. All cars remain coupled and are pushed through the car shaker by a locomotive attached to the cut of cars.
Does any one have a picture of a car shaker? I'm having a difficult time understanding how such a piece of equipment functions. Is it merely a machine that insures a bottom dump gondola empties more completely?
And open top hoppers. A Google 'Advanced Search' for ''car shaker'' as an 'exact wording or phrase' plus ''rail'' as a required word yielded these results that should provide what you're looking for, among others -
http://www.navco.us/hopper-car-unload-vibrators/overhed%20car%20shaker.html
http://electrolift.com/special-rail-car-shaker.php
EDIT - See also the bottom photo on this webpage - which looks like a pretty interesting website otherwise, too - http://www.glimpsesofmeridian.com/gom-7.html
Back in the day, it was often done by a gang of laborers with sledgehammers . . .
Looks like the apparatus fits over the car, and then a small electric motor on the frame then????
That's right, except that one listed on this site - http://www.klingermachinery.com/railroad.htm - says it's 5 tons and has a 20 HP electric motor. I bet that weighs a couple hundred pounds - so I'm not sure it could be called 'small' ? 'Course next to a 700 HP traction motor - yeah, that's small.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.