International Railroad Discussion > MRS ore balls train in my area (Brazil)

Hi, today MRS started to work with new cargo in my area: ore balls. I found train O481 leaded by C44EMi 3913 and C26-7 3664 and 3640.
Pics enclosed.

Pedro

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/17 17:46 by pedrop.

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Interesting stuff Pedro.Is this like low grade Taconite pellets ?
Regards,DK

Yes DK, this is taconite pellets. We call them "pelota" (ball) here.

DKay Wrote:
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> Interesting stuff Pedro.Is this like low grade
> Taconite pellets ?
> Regards,DK

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

Great pics showing how some other company approaches moving bulk commodities. Would love to know what the actual weight of the load is verses the capacity of the car. Seen loads like this in US usually coal that are definite overloads.

Is the right of way covered in balls that fall from the cars? It looks as if the cars are loaded to the maximum and that balls would fall out.

KG

You can still see spilled ore pellets along the old Pennsylvania RR right of way in the Philadelphia area.
Imported ore pellets from Brazil were loaded on trains at the Port of Philadelphia and sent west to Cleveland and maybe Pittsburgh steel mills. This continued into the Conrail era, possibly into the 1990s.
There were loads of them under the High Line elevated freight route around 30th St. Station, and I found some recently in Downingtown, PA, which is about 35 miles east of the port.

Checking the train order, I noted the heaviest car had 128 gross tons, about 95 tons of pellets.

jtwlunch Wrote:
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> Great pics showing how some other company
> approaches moving bulk commodities. Would love to
> know what the actual weight of the load is verses
> the capacity of the car. Seen loads like this in
> US usually coal that are definite overloads.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

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Very interesting. I didn't know about brazilian pellets sent to PA.

Pedro

RRTom Wrote:
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> You can still see spilled ore pellets along the
> old Pennsylvania RR right of way in the
> Philadelphia area.
> Imported ore pellets from Brazil were loaded on
> trains at the Port of Philadelphia and sent west
> to Cleveland and maybe Pittsburgh steel mills.
> This continued into the Conrail era, possibly into
> the 1990s.
> There were loads of them under the High Line
> elevated freight route around 30th St. Station,
> and I found some recently in Downingtown, PA,
> which is about 35 miles east of the port.

Posted from Android

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

I walked the treacherous ore ball littered sloped walkway under the 30th Street Highline in the 1990s and was aware of what the balls were but didn't know their source or destination.
Thanks for "the rest of the story."

Some, maybe most of that Philly ore traffic was headed to Bethlehem, IIRC.

Another train of pellet balls arrived here today.

Pedro Rezende
Vespasiano MG,
https://youtube.com/c/minasgeraisrailways1

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march_hare Wrote:
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> Some, maybe most of that Philly ore traffic was
> headed to Bethlehem, IIRC.

Small world. I worked in the HV electrical power distribution gang at Beth Steel in Bethlehem in the 1960s in between attempts to finally finish school - which I eventually did.
Beth Steel paid well and they were always hiring.