NS loading the Algoma Innovator at the Sandusky Coal Dock

JCitron said:

Norfolk Southern using a PRR era cold loader to unload hoppers into the Algoma Innovator coal ship.

https://youtu.be/G9L9cSYE1W4

This is a really cool view of the coal loader using a drone. The loaded hoppers are pushed up a ramp by two small narrow-gauge engines. One engine is located within a track between the standard gauge track and the other is part of a carrier system which also rides on rails on the outside of the standard-gauge rails.

The hopper is pushed up to a dumper which tips the single hopper up and tips it over to dump the contents into a schute. Once the hopper is empty, it's released and the hopper roles up a ramp, switches tracks and continues back down a ramp and into the connected yard. The process is repeated one coal hopper at a time until they're all empty.

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RHKluckhohn said:

Man, that is slow, slow, slow! Dad took us down to Newport News VA in the mid-1950's to watch N&W transloading coal into ships -- they were only 40' hoppers but a heavy switcher would run the entire train up the ramp to the dump. Clamp the cars to the deck and rotate the whole shebang, three or four cars at a time (the couplers rotated too). Rotate back, unclamp and push in the next lot. Went a lot quicker.

:B~)

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