----- Original Message -----
From: "soolinehistory" <destorzek@...>
To: STMFC@...
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 4:30:51 PM
Subject: [STMFC] Re: IC GS gons



--- In STMFC@..., water.kresse@... wrote:

So the goal is higher utilization of empties on the return trips?  If you look at the coal cars going up to Toledo, at best, a sixth of came back down with iron ore and every so often some few more with limestone.



Can you put these cars through a lift and tilt or rotary dumper?



Al Kresse

Or utilization at all if there happens to be no coal to haul at the moment.

Yes, you can rotary dump a wooden gon; I just saw an image on Shorpy a while ago of a wooden gon in a rotary dumper, but the site seems to be down at the moment, so I can't search for a link.

But consider this... most eastern coal went to large industries... steel mills, power plants, coal wharfs for export, the kinds of places that had the volume to make a rotary dumper worthwhile.

Most western coal went to small businesses, because by and large, the big businesses didn't exist out west in the time frame we are talking about. Even the railroads don't count as big businesses... they bought a lot of coal, but wanted it delivered to a thousand little facilities in every Podunk town across the land.

There was a rotary dumper on the narrow gauge at Salida, CO, that dumped NG gons into standard gauge cars for wider distribution, so such a thing was possible, but required the concentration of business that was less likely to be found out west. Here's the best image a two minute search could find:

http://carendt.us/scrapbook/page99/salida450.jpg

Dennis