Frozen coal in railcars
Frozen coal in railcars
(OP)
We are interested in talking to anyone who uses hot water to warm railcar steel so that frozen coal will dump out when the car goes through a rotary dumper (or has an opinion if it will work).





RE: Frozen coal in railcars
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
at the coal-fired plants here in AK, the railcars are brought into an enclosed building and left overnight to warm-up. there are large heaters below grade to allow the warm air to rise and warm the railcars. not necessary to warm the cars/coal that much above freezing. about -20°F this am and suppose to get colder (-40°F) by end of week. of course, this does depend upon the amount of coal burned daily - your situation may warrant a large bldg.
happy holidays!
good luck!
-pmover
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
athomas236
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
The water could be heated using small freon compressor - which could sit on/in another car, or outside on the top of the coal carrier.
Just a thought...
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
Railcars need to be lightweight and durable for handling the tonnages of coal that are delivered to Power Stations. For the most part, car dumpers do a reasonably good job of handling coal that gets wet and freezes during transportation.
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Corrosion never sleeps, but it can be managed.
http://www.trenttube.com/Trent/tech_form.htm
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
I would really like to talk to the company you referred to that currently uses hot water on their ore rail cars - can you give me a name?
Thanks,
Agrico
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
Some utility companies use "freeze conditioning agents" sprayed on the coal during freezing conditions, an effective but expensive method...
http:/
Some people use car vibrators...
ht
Other organizations have tries special coatings on railcars..
An excellent discussion of various methodologies is contained in:
http:
Gimme a star
My opinion only
MJC
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
http://www.transloadingservices.net
http://www.transloading.us
Or you could use CTS Industries to coat the coal with a environmental safe freeze conditioning.
http://www.ctsindustries.us
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
a few words about the structure: the shed is made out of concrete and so are the steam pipes (U or L-shaped concrete pipes made on spot; check the attached sketches for better understanding). there are 4 pipes, 2 on each side. they preffered two instead of a long one because of the presure needed to inject the steam (longer pipe needs higher pressure). there are also a couple of vents on the top that collect the used steam.
image link: http
RE: Frozen coal in railcars
In that case, I would guess that this is not a North American installation as the typical unit coal train is in excess of a mile in length. More likely they would work on a smaller cut of cars rather than the whole train.
RE: Frozen coal in railcars