Unloading a Coal Train: The NS Sandusky Coal Dock in Action

I work there.(I operate the bandwagon) The orange machine that pushes the rail cars up is called the shuttle. And it pushes the rail cars into the heat shed which sprays water onto the rail cars as they enter. As well as in the winter heats the rail cars up to thaw out the coal. The pusher then grabs one rail car at a time and pushes them up to a point where the barney can grab them and shove the car up the incline to be dumped. The coal can be dumped into the silos or out on to the farm where we make them into a pile

Fascinating to watch. Regarding the little 'cart' that pushes the hoppers up the hill I have seen them referred to as a 'mule' or a 'barney'. The mysterious building the hoppers exit from before being pushed up the ramp is most likely a warming building. In the winter the wet coal will freeze from the mine prep plant to the pier while the inside will not freeze. Big electrical radiant heaters will heat up the sides of the cars thus melting the ice inside. This may have been mentioned in the comments before but thought I would mention it again to save people the need to scroll so far.

The building the hoppers move through before the barney pushes them up the grade to the dump is a thawing shed. Can't dump out a load of frozen coal. Sandusky gets bitter cold in winter.

Around the 4:30mark you question the purpose of that long shed through which the cars pass. At the power plant where I worked (Georgia) we had a shed of about the same dimensions that was lined with radiant heaters to thaw frozen coal (from Kentucky) in winter. I'd put money that is what is happening in you shed.

It is my belief that the inspection building has scales and a "Barcode" reader recording the car's information, such as routing/identification etcetera.

Another reason for spraying the coal is to prevent fires. Coal can spontaneously combust and if you spend any time around coal piles you will see "smokers." This is where you see smoke coming from the pile and was from coal that was hot enough to smoke. I used to haul coal in a 40' frameless dump from the mines to power plants. I loved talking to the miners and the power plant people about how everything worked.

Can this coal be simply dried and used for bbq as an example?

21:38 - The wheels on the little pusher gadget extend again. What an ingenious system of using multiple track gauges. Just think: this facility was designed and engineered with slide rules and hand-drafted blueprints. My ancestors were trainmen, so this is especially interesting to me! Thank you also for not filling the silence with needless patter or bad music!

Not only is the shed a thawing she it's a location where they can get quality assurance measurements. They can make sure the coal they are getting is what they ordered and they can also perform other checks. One time they were running radiation checks out of that building as they found some loads were mildly radioactive. In the early 2000's they were checking of higher than average lead readings. This only happened once. What goes on there now I don't know probably still thawing out.

Great video! That Pusher locomotive was built by Atlas Car and Equipment for PRR in 1938. It is 42" ga and is powered by two hot rails at 250VDC, the same voltage that is used to power most of the machinery there. Also, except for the extended cab and paint, the pusher locomotive still has original propulsion and air brake equipment from 1938. There were three other pusher locomotives at the dock, two were scrapped and one went to Bellevue, Ohio.

Sandusky has all the coolest rides.

A perfect demonstration of the basic Engineering principle that I use to counter salesmen's claims if the superiority of high-tech solutions to simple problems. GRAVTITY NEVER BREAKS.

i didn't know that old thing was still there i thought they replaced it with a bottom dump system!! get robbed at cedar point while you were up there?

That gigantic machine looks well taken care of😮 I tip my hat to the mechanics who take care of her.

That building is a thawing shed. In the winter, dumping coal is much slower since each car must spend time in the thawing shed. If not, 100 tons of coal comes out in one giant lump. Ask me how I know!

Where does the coal go after being dumped?

Admire that you uploaded an informative video yet weren’t afraid to ask for input on things you weren’t sure of.

I'm getting close to 78 years old now but when I was a kid, about 9 years old, I remember going fishing with my dad at Sandusky. That is when I first saw this machine in operation. The cadence of the cars going up, cars going down, and cars being dumped was mesmerizing to such a young kid. That may have been the start of my interest in how different things worked and later, getting into machine design. My dad explained how it worked but enjoyed this video for the extra comment.

Where finally all coal discharged to?

How does that car go by itself?