Matt;

I looked into that, also, and don’t think these cars were up to it.  They were old, old, and of early, not very rugged, design and construction.

I also cannot find any evidence that there were rotary dumpers used for coke back then.  They were very expensive, and seem to have been used exclusively for high-volume coal and/or ore/pellet dumping at large plants processing hundreds of loads a day.  Not true today.

PRR’s experience with rotary dumpers was painful.  Their “standard” hoppers got damaged, particularly in ore service.  Their solution, finally, was to try to segregate coal and coal hoppers, from ore and ore hoppers, in which the ore jennies could not be dumped except by a rotary dumper.  They had large “push pads” instead of end sills, to take the beating rotary dumpers and donkey engines, dished out.

Elden Gatwood