Subject:
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Re: Coal Car Question
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Fri, 20 Apr 2001 12:14:55 GMT
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Viewed:
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616 times
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In lugnet.trains, Dave Schuler writes:
> This isn't really about LEGO, but it is about trains, so here goes:
>
> On the trolley home from work tonight, we passed over a train with a long
> series of empty coal cars. Looking down into them, I noticed that they really
> were empty--almost no loose lumps of coal or gravel, despite the irregular
> shape of the container interior. How are these cars emptied? Does part of the
> car--or the whole car--tip to dump its contents?
The car is rotated to empty it out. In the dusty archives of this group is a
link to a rotary tipper that someone built.
Note that in the prototype, often a cut of cars is rotated *in place*, that
is, while still coupled in the train. This requires that one of the coupler
shafts on each car swivel so the cars can remain coupled. Hence, sometimes
you will see lettering on the ends that say "rotary coupler end" to show
which end has it (you only need one end to have it if you keep the cars
aligned correctly and the small savings in capital cost apparently is enough
to offset the operational PITA to keep the car ends facing all the same way).
Cars with hopper bays still are in use, but as other posters point out, are
considered somewhat more troublesome. However if you don't have a rotary
dumper at your loadout site, you have to use these, so you sometimes will
see conventional hoppers in unit train service, not just roundbottoms like
J2's model.
++Lar
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Coal Car Question
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| (...) I had no idea there were so many options! The rotary design seems like the right one. I wasn't able to take a long look, but I think the body of the car was essentially one piece, rather than having an independent rotating section or a bottom (...) (24 years ago, 20-Apr-01, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: Coal Car Question
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| (...) So I'm thinking that the Coalporter's dramatic and unusual color schemes would be for easily identifying the rotary coupler end? Just a guess. -John (...) (24 years ago, 20-Apr-01, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: Coal Car Question
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| (...) Ah, you would be meaning: (URL) the Coal Unloader it be!) Note, I don't run the train through in one piece, but break it up. Depending on installation, the system varies. I doubt it is possible with the current lego parts available to build (...) (24 years ago, 24-Apr-01, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Coal Car Question
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| This isn't really about LEGO, but it is about trains, so here goes: On the trolley home from work tonight, we passed over a train with a long series of empty coal cars. Looking down into them, I noticed that they really were empty--almost no loose (...) (24 years ago, 20-Apr-01, to lugnet.trains)
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