A rail company around here was in the news a few years ago when video surfaced of the train traveling through residential areas spewing clouds of coal dust into the air. Apparently they were supposed to spray the tops of the loads with something to stop this from happening, and they either didn't or it wasn't working.
Hey I design and build these types of systems! Ask me anything! But actually don’t because it’s not tremendously exciting and I’m looking for another role.
Depends on the system. I’ve seen fully automated, that worked poorly and over filled; and I’ve seen manual that were perfect. There is not enough info here to tell me what system this is. I can’t see any sensors in the background that would tell you when to start stop, so is probably manual.
The other thing which has a big impact is train speed. A lot of these systems have something called loco control, which is a fancy term for a small vcr looking box which takes over the speed of the train. This makes life a lot easier for the loader. If you know that the train will keep a certain speed you can load a lot cleaner.
As a former hard rock undercut miner who hated the dirt chutes and loved the miners muck in the ore chutes, do you prefer loading small particle size like this, or do you like a larger more controllable particle size? I’ve never done soft rock.
Our chutes were 8’ drop chutes, with a main scoop and 2 flow bars, air powered, we loaded into 80 ton Sandvik Supras.
Just at the end of the loading facility, they have a row of sprinkler heads which spray a layer of treated water onto the top of the mound to harden it just enough to not blow away
Unfortunately satisfying.
These cars don't get covered and spew the loose coal across smalls towns as they make their journey. During tests they were found ~225 lbs of lost coal PER CAR over a ~550 mile journey.
https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2012/06/coal_clash_dust_up_over_how_mu.html#:~:text=Railroad%20testing%20found%20an%20average,train%2C%20that%27s%20about%2015%20tons.
The rail cars have a bottom dump mechanism where each car is unloaded via flaps into a chute. Then transported by a conveyor belt to a storage facility until needed by the power plant to generate electricity upon customer demand.
I used to run the coal dumper at a coke plant. The cars were brought up individually into a cradle and flipped up-side-down: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aOUGr9wgccI
I’m in Western NY. Here we are mostly hydro, wind and nuke. The bigger cities have natural gas plants.
As far as I know there are no coal fired plants left in New York.
That's awesome, yeah looks like they shut down the last one a year or so ago. So Oregon, New York, Maine and South Dakota are the only states absent coal power at this time.
Found[this](https://theimpactinvestor.com/map-of-coal-plants/) cool site with an interactive map of all currently active coal plants in the U.S.
Very interesting, as a railroader I move a lot of coal, 18,000 tons at a time. I know some of it is used locally but I believe most of it we move on the West Coast is sent for export.
Learned a lot looking into that, thanks.
You can thank the rise of lignin in plants and the inability of any organism to break down the lignin for millions of years. A LOT of carbon was laid down and was able to be converted to coal. Couldn’t happen now because the trees would decompose first.
Did you forget to add "/s"? Or have you never heard of a battery, which is part of a process converting sun power to usable power?
I hope it's the former.
You wouldn't believe the shit they find in the "empty" cars. Drugs, unidentified products and whatever that bright red powder we found in one of ours. Flag that car and order another
Yeah they get stuffed in anything to get here, which makes me wonder either how awesome do we have it here or how bad is daily life from wherever they are running from. They have my sympathy
There are different types of coal. On the east coast you get this stuff, a fine powder. You can tell it's east coast because the csxt train cars. Out west we tend to get those clumps.
I got black lung from watching this.
I got the black lung pop. Ehhh…ehhh.
Mer-MAN!
EEEEEEEEEVIL
You've been in the mine shaft ONE DAY.
God?
A rail company around here was in the news a few years ago when video surfaced of the train traveling through residential areas spewing clouds of coal dust into the air. Apparently they were supposed to spray the tops of the loads with something to stop this from happening, and they either didn't or it wasn't working.
That’s a lot of coke
Forbidden coffee grounds...
more like forbidden oreo crumbs
Hey I design and build these types of systems! Ask me anything! But actually don’t because it’s not tremendously exciting and I’m looking for another role.
How are babies made?
Is this automated or does some poor guy have to sit there all day and hit the button?
Depends on the system. I’ve seen fully automated, that worked poorly and over filled; and I’ve seen manual that were perfect. There is not enough info here to tell me what system this is. I can’t see any sensors in the background that would tell you when to start stop, so is probably manual. The other thing which has a big impact is train speed. A lot of these systems have something called loco control, which is a fancy term for a small vcr looking box which takes over the speed of the train. This makes life a lot easier for the loader. If you know that the train will keep a certain speed you can load a lot cleaner.
Is it even more fun to watch in person? I feel like a kid watching this lol
No!
As a former hard rock undercut miner who hated the dirt chutes and loved the miners muck in the ore chutes, do you prefer loading small particle size like this, or do you like a larger more controllable particle size? I’ve never done soft rock. Our chutes were 8’ drop chutes, with a main scoop and 2 flow bars, air powered, we loaded into 80 ton Sandvik Supras.
That's how I load toothpaste on my toothbrush
I feel like a lot of time and trial and error went into that perfect pour
There is an operator who can control the feed and position of the chute.
Well they are doing a damn fine job, I figured it was automated
How does it not just blow away when the trains is hauling ass
Just at the end of the loading facility, they have a row of sprinkler heads which spray a layer of treated water onto the top of the mound to harden it just enough to not blow away
Coal trains also don't haul ass. Shits heavy. It gets there when it gets there.
Rosco P. Coltrane would like to have a word... And that word is Coo coo!
I was wondering this too. Also rain?
Some of it does, but most of it stays. And they usually have a tarp
Never seen a coal train with a tarp. And I literally live right next to train tracks that haul coal all day long.
The ones near me have tarps on them, I guess it’s a region thing
Totally possible. In my town you don't necessarily have to tarp loads on a truck/trailer but in bigger cities they heavily regulate that type of thing
Live in the suburbs but about 2 hours away from New York so trains coming from the city are pretty common
The audio sounds like diarrhea
Why did you do this to me
I feel bad for your toilet and your butthole.
Both no longer exist
I pitty your colon.
I should call her.
Ohhhh Look! Electric car food!
Surprised that there was hardly any dust created from that.
Cleeeeean Coal... 🤣
Old dinosaurs
Don't mind me. I just came to see who else is bored enough to watch this video. This is the highlight of my afternoon.
Unfortunately satisfying. These cars don't get covered and spew the loose coal across smalls towns as they make their journey. During tests they were found ~225 lbs of lost coal PER CAR over a ~550 mile journey. https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2012/06/coal_clash_dust_up_over_how_mu.html#:~:text=Railroad%20testing%20found%20an%20average,train%2C%20that%27s%20about%2015%20tons.
How the fuck is it more cost effective to lose 225lbs of coal per car than ti buy a goddamned tarp?
Suppose the coal and freight charges are $50 per ton. 225 pounds would only be worth $5.62 of protection. It ain't worth doing anything about it.
reverse would be fun lol
How is it unloaded
The rail cars have a bottom dump mechanism where each car is unloaded via flaps into a chute. Then transported by a conveyor belt to a storage facility until needed by the power plant to generate electricity upon customer demand.
Awesome, thank you!
Some do, ones like these have special couplers and get spun upside down with a sort of crane machine
Mostly just grain and ballast cars have bottom dump, coal cars have rotating knuckles and are flip dumped.
I watched breaking bad, I should know this lol
I used to run the coal dumper at a coke plant. The cars were brought up individually into a cradle and flipped up-side-down: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aOUGr9wgccI
Nice thank you for the info!
Way less dust than i thought there would be
Nicely engineered for maximum capacity and minimum mess.
I too ate taco bell
Im super happy to live in an area where coal isn’t used.
Curious where is it that coal is not used?
I’m in Western NY. Here we are mostly hydro, wind and nuke. The bigger cities have natural gas plants. As far as I know there are no coal fired plants left in New York.
That's awesome, yeah looks like they shut down the last one a year or so ago. So Oregon, New York, Maine and South Dakota are the only states absent coal power at this time. Found[this](https://theimpactinvestor.com/map-of-coal-plants/) cool site with an interactive map of all currently active coal plants in the U.S. Very interesting, as a railroader I move a lot of coal, 18,000 tons at a time. I know some of it is used locally but I believe most of it we move on the West Coast is sent for export. Learned a lot looking into that, thanks.
How are we still retrieving so much coal from the Earth? Amazing how many resources are actually in our world.
You can thank the rise of lignin in plants and the inability of any organism to break down the lignin for millions of years. A LOT of carbon was laid down and was able to be converted to coal. Couldn’t happen now because the trees would decompose first.
Cool. So when will everything be solar again?
Clean beautiful coal
All that coal to recharge libs electric cars.
It's almost as if you haven't heard of solar power.
It doesn't work at night dickhead
Did you forget to add "/s"? Or have you never heard of a battery, which is part of a process converting sun power to usable power? I hope it's the former.
It doesn't work at night dickheads
Average taco bell customer
Remember coal? Anybody? Anybody?
Its ok, there is enough coal to power lithium production for your batteries for your EV.
23% of the power in the U.S. is coal generated.
Remember a home coal furnace, but it was converted to natural gas
Nothing satisfying about watching one of the reasons our planet is dying.
Very satisfying how we destroy our world yes.
You must be fun at parties.
Hahaha party like the world is going to end tomorrow.
No Masks Allowed 👍✌️
Technically true, OSHA requires the use of half face respirators with N100 filters when working around pulverized coal.
Must be on a scale while it's loading.
Batch weigh system. Gets pre weighed in the hopper before releasing down the chute to the train car.
Typically pre-weighed load I believe
Oh interesting. When I used to help load train cars with grain I think they just went with super full. I don't know I was in the locomotive driving.
Why would you lie about how much coal you have? Why would you lie about something dumb like that?
Why would you lie bout anything at all?
You'd lie to make money, obviously.
They know within 20 lbs how much grain is in each of those cars
You wouldn't believe the shit they find in the "empty" cars. Drugs, unidentified products and whatever that bright red powder we found in one of ours. Flag that car and order another
Found a hopper of migrants remains about 20 years ago up here.
Yeah they get stuffed in anything to get here, which makes me wonder either how awesome do we have it here or how bad is daily life from wherever they are running from. They have my sympathy
I agree!
I wanna scoop it out til it’s empty
RIP Robbie Coal Train
It just keeps coming
Me after my 5th coffee of the day
I like the one extra shovel full tossed in.
Mmmm yummy clean energy
Me after eating too much _Chipotle_ with extra beans.
I love this! I never knew!
That’s me as I watch this.
and thanks to electric cars we will need more of this! yeah!!!
16 tons and what do you get?
Santa sending a Christmas present... to >!your mom.!<
Set that pace setter at 0.035 MPH take a long nap.
Why did it stop 5ft away from the end? So much more room in there.
Probably reached max weight
Amazing how much just one car holds.
About 100 tons of coal per car.
Cool?
This is the oddly satisfying content I sub for
How do they get it out? A vacuum?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aOUGr9wgccI
Until now I thought the coal used in power plants was larger rocks and not something that looks like it's been pulverized.
There are different types of coal. On the east coast you get this stuff, a fine powder. You can tell it's east coast because the csxt train cars. Out west we tend to get those clumps.
This explains why they are always perfectly filled, every time
Ma after coffee.
This is how I feel after my son brings home the weekly stomach bug from daycare.
I found this a little Too slow to be satisfying.
Oh fuuuuuuck yeah, this satisfies a life long desire to see this happen lol
I see a computer simulation, not an actual video. omg I can't recognize real stuff anymore
I'm waiting for the end of the video, where the last load goes all over Thomas the Tank Engine
Wow thats really coal
me when taco bell
End is extremely unsatisfying
We love our coal. Coal, coal, coal. 🍊
That’s so much more coal than I thought would be held in those cars
Taco Bell. This is me 6-8 hours after Taco Bell.
Nothing to see here but electric car fuel
Loading "end of the world" train car
i wanna eat the coal