Model Railroading > Rolling Coal (literally)

The first car is dumped in a rotary dumper I've been working on. Then the camera battery died. It is far from done but it looks like it might actually work.

You might remember the threads I made about 5 years ago about the loadout I built. Now I can finally dump the train I loaded! I made the Walthers dumper work but it is more poseable than usable so I started over in metal and it took lots longer than I thought.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/18 22:31 by pmack.

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Here is a phone photo from right after the first clamp was assembled. I'm checking to see if a locomotive will fit through. I have two locos with horns in weird places that can't be on coal trains. Another issue I have with the Walthers dumper is that it's, as near as I can determine, about 8 scale feet too large diameter. I scaled at least half a dozen photos and consistently figured 30 feet diameter so that is what I made this one. The clamps work by gravity. Well, gravity doesn't exactly scale so mine use a spring assist. Normally the clamp is pushed up by the small pulley on the end of the arm just above the X-Acto in the photo but I haven't built its rest yet. That is what the block of steel in the above photo is doing, holding the rests for the clamps in place.

That 0-80 screw is huge in HO scale.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/18 23:00 by pmack.

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I'm curious about the working rotary couplers one would have to have to make this work like the prototype...a kadee in a coupler box isn't going to work.

You are correct, non-rotaries won't work. This has been an off again on again project since my daughter was a baby and now she just went out the door walking to high school. I figured out the rotaries when she was a few months old. I start with a KD#5 and disassemble it. Then I drill a .023"hole the length of the shank. I cut the head off and use a pin to reattach the head so it can swivel and put it back together. You can see in the top photo the coupler of the car in the dumper didn't move and the car behind has a rotary on the end toward the dumper so all three cars in the photo are connected.

It is funny that TO's spell checker thinks coupler is misspelled.

Very interesting. I'd love to see more photos and a video perhaps.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Very nice!

SantaFeRuss

That’s cool!

Posted from iPhone