Grain Elevator Servicing of String of Covered Hoppers

[yukontookon]

How do railroads service industries that get a string of cars - i.e. grain elevators ? Does a railroad dedicate an engine to periodically work the siding to move the string of cars to the loading chute or does the industry move the string of cars using a winch & cable arrangement ? Same question for strings of hoppers at a quarry.....

Would an engine on a local freight run stop off & do this work for a while (while out on its run), or would they dedicate an engine specifically for that sole purpose of working the string of cars at the industry ?

 

[davesnow]

How do railroads service industries that get a string of cars - i.e. grain elevators ? Does a railroad dedicate an engine to periodically work the siding to move the string of cars to the loading chute or does the industry move the string of cars using a winch & cable arrangement ? Same question for strings of hoppers at a quarry.....

Would an engine on a local freight run stop off & do this work for a while (while out on its run), or would they dedicate an engine specifically for that sole purpose of working the string of cars at the industry ?

Most grain facilities around here use a Shuttlewagon, RailKing, or Trackmobile.

I have even seen some using an old John Deere tractor!

 

[BN1970]

Some buy old sw1200's (or older) from the Class 1 railroads and use them to shuttle cars. They are restricted from entering mainlines, though; they can only move between derails.

 

[n8phu]

Some buy old sw1200's (or older) from the Class 1 railroads and use them to shuttle cars. They are restricted from entering mainlines, though; they can only move between derails.

You would be surprised what is bought to switch these facilities... One place was using a Alco HH660.......Alco S1/2/3/4s are common too.

EDIT: If you look at some of the grain cars (Pulman Standard / Trinty) you will notice that over the trucks there is a hole that a hook and cable can be hooked to to drag a car into position. Usually used at a facility that doesn't fill many cars.

 

[rgcx]

It depends on the size and ops of the facility. Smaller ones may request the host rr to switch them; larger ones are more likely to use trackmobiles, tractors and a wide range of switchers.

Quarry might be different as open hoppers and gons can be loaded by cats; there is less of a need to move the cars as long as there is access to the cars.

 

[JCitron]

You would be surprised what is bought to switch these facilities... One place was using a Alco HH660.......Alco S1/2/3/4s are common too.

EDIT: If you look at some of the grain cars (Pulman Standard / Trinty) you will notice that over the trucks there is a hole that a hook and cable can be hooked to to drag a car into position. Usually used at a facility that doesn't fill many cars.

I saw plenty of this out on the Great Plains. I even saw an old Baldwin switcher at one of the facilities. At another one, I saw a backhoe pulling a hopper under the elevator. The track leading up to the grain facility didn't even look like anything was running on it for years, but there were cars parked all along the line along with a boxcar. During these trips, it was stuff like this that was sometimes more interesting than seen storms.

John

 

[Enzo1]

You would be surprised what is bought to switch these facilities... One place was using a Alco HH660.......Alco S1/2/3/4s are common too.

EDIT: If you look at some of the grain cars (Pulman Standard / Trinty) you will notice that over the trucks there is a hole that a hook and cable can be hooked to to drag a car into position. Usually used at a facility that doesn't fill many cars.

One over here in Bliss has an old EX GT GP9 doing the job. Its pretty kool seeing such old equipment still in use today.

 

[bendorsey]

This isn't limited to grain elevators. The local concrete plant uses a truck of some sort to move hoppers of sand and gravel around.

Ben

 

[JCitron]

This isn't limited to grain elevators. The local concrete plant uses a truck of some sort to move hoppers of sand and gravel around.

Ben

I've seen that too at a loco concrete supplier. This was before they got their trackmobile.

John

 

[magickmaker]

I remember when I lived in Greenwood MS, one of the larger cotton gins had an old John Deer tractor with a knuckle coupler on one end that they would use to lug a single covered hopper around with.

In some cases, companies will purchase old plymouth switchers. I remember seeing one such situation where the switcher only had a coupler on one end. Since it either pulled the cars or pushed them around from the same end, it didn't need to run around them. Thus, no need for another coupling.

 

[Konni]

Hi,

I do not know about grain transports, which would in most cases represent the lower end anyhow. In the lignite mining industries trains are used to transport lignite from the open cast mine pits to power plants. With these trains, locomotives and hopper cars are more or less permanently coupled by massive iron rods ending in rings at both ends. At the mine pit, the train rolls underneath the chute, which fills the slowly rolling hopper cars. At the power plant, the train drives across a bunker, where it stopps a few minutes, to allow the trainmaster to open flaps, allowing the discharge of the lignite into the bunker below.

Some of the content built to 06 standard needed to build open cast lignite mines as well as a lignite fuelled power plant is on the DLS. More advanced content can be downloaded from the ot2007.de site

Cheers,

Konni

 

[BDP]

The one up where I live uses a Ford 350 Super duty and that is how they shuttle the cars around and it is not even a high rail truck

 

[MountE]

I knew a guy who worked at a plant that received tankers and they used a pickup truck to shuttle. He lost his job when he derailed a tanker while switching it out. No spill but the safety paper work made a lot of work and expense.

Rob