As my layout progresses I am beginning to come to items I need that I haven't seen made but still need. It has come to my attention that I need atleast one rotary dumper possibly two. My first question is when did these beasts come into use in the coal industry and wood chip industry. I have a three level three era layout and the power plant is on the third '99 era deck and my paper plant is on the second '80 era deck, although all three decks are connected and trains of all three eras run over them when I am running each era (they run seperately and "live" in hidden staging when not in use) I still try to keep each decks structures et al faithful to the general era. My assuption is that rotary dumpers WERE used by 1980, but not usre. This leads me to my real question Walthers has a rotary dumper for HO scale (though a lil overpriced) but curious if anyone has done a N scale dumper. In leiu of that has someone seen plans for a rotary dumper in the mags? Seems tht I saw one but haven't been able to locate it. This would be buying the Walthers HO kit just for a plan! TIA Vandy
yes, I have seen the plans you are talking about, but dang blast i don't have them on me. It was in Model Railroad Craftsman, between 1987 and 1991 or 1994 to 1996, those are the closest numbers to my sets, But I know it is in there. It has got to be!!!
Rick Spano from Trenton NJ (many articles on N layout animation in Model Railroader)had an operating N scale rotary car dumper on the NTRAK layout at the 1981 NMRA convention in San Mateo CA. He designed and built his own operating mechanism and sold by direct mail a very very limited number of kits based on his design to other N scalers. That was 20 years ago, and to my knowledge the kits were never offered commercially. The key part of the kit was a white metal cylindrical casting with a round plate at each end, with a rectangular hole in each end for the car to pass through. The track was laid across the casting. The loaded car was spotted in the center of the dumper. 3 or 4 metal "fingers", which pivoted as the dumper moved, reached across the top of the hopper body and held the car in place on the dumper track as the dumper turned clockwise (facing the chute) and dumped the load into the waiting ship. Then the switchers pushed the string of loaded hoppers forward, spotting another car on the dumper and kicking the empty car down the slope, into a vertical kickback, and the car rolled back into the yard. Very inefficient, but quite fascinating to watch....... NS (N&W) still unloads hoppers by running cuts of loaded hoppers from their receiving yard through dumpers into waiting ships at their Lamberts Point terminal in Norfolk VA. C&O used to do it this way across the harbor at Newport News, but those have been replaced by two modern, privately owned high capacity terminals who stockpile their coal in huge piles on the ground, rather than in assembled masses of loaded hopper cars at the terminal. They can thus stockpile millions of tons of coal on the ground and bulldoze into receiving conveyors that serve the coal docks. 100-car sets of loaded hoppers are dropped off at the terminals, run through the dumper quickly, and returned to CSX quickly for a trip back to the mine. The Model RR magazine index page at this URL http://www.index.mrmag.com/ with a keyword search on "dumper" turned up the following 2 part article in Model Railroading magazine: Coal Dumpers - Part 1: An Overview And A Look At The Port Reading Facility Model Railroading, April 1993 page 44 Coal Dumpers - Part 2: The Dumper At Vestal Model Railroading, May 1993 page 59 I have seen a ground level tandem dumper (2 cars at once) work at the former Massey Coal terminal at Newport News VA. This dumper is inside a metal building, and the coal moves from the dumping pit onto an overhead conveyor. Incredibly loud and full of coal dust, but it gets the job done much quicker as the string of cars runs through the dumper twice as fast and you dump the whole train (2 cars at a time) while still coupled together. We have a similar ground level dumper at the local TEP coal-fired power plant here. If you need more info, email me directly at dondia@gateway.net eNjoy DB
Hello Vandy, welcome aboard I have a magazine article around somewhere on a scratchbuilt dumper, in O scale, I think. I will see if I can dig it out and maybe scan it.
Found the article. It was in O Gauge Railroading magazine, August 1991, built by Harry Roberts. Photos below may be of some help.
Hi all, they used a rotary car dumper on the Oroville Dam project. (Big earthfill dam) It dumped two cars at a time and was built by Wellman Engineering. This was in 1965 or so. The trains were 42 cars and had an automatic trainline connector so the coupler and airline were operated from the cab of the locomotives. The dumper could cycle 45 times an hour. It was big, noisy, dusty, and coooooool Bobby
At the MER regional convention in March I visited numerous layouts that all had Rick Spano's rotary car dumper in HO and N. He did offer the dumper commercially in both scales, but for a very very short time. They are impossible to find except from one source and that is Rick himself, if he has any more left. He still had a coupler when I visited him. BTW, the only N scale one I saw (surprise) was on Rick's layout and it looked really good. I'll see if I can get Rick's email address for you from a friend who knows him well. Mike
Thanks all! Don gave me a thought in that some are covered so the details of the loader wouldn't be so important. Alan, thanks for the pics will try to track down the article! Mike, I certainly would love his email address, couldn't hurt to try to see if he has one or more left. Think I will post on one of my lists to see if anyone has it handy, but if you get it I would appreciate you emailing it to me! Vandy
Rotary dumpers have been around for awhile. Southern was running unit trains of silverside gondolas (high sides) in the late 60's. They were loaded with rotary dumper.
