Each rail car has a solid drawbar on one end, and a rotary knuckle on the other. The rotary end of the car will have a large stripe painted on it. That's so the train masters can visually verify that all the striped ends are facing the same direction. Two solid ends connected together is never a good thing. The dumper snaps drawbars like they are tooth picks. Conversely, if two rotary knuckles are connected and rolled over, they may not roll back upright with the car. Upside-down knuckles will quickly disconnect, setting up the brakes at the same time.

How are the air hoses not disconnected?

Yes it is

Hey thanks. Most of the vids are pulled off my iPhone, but I have used the GoPro at times. Appreciate the comments:)

39-45 depending on the type of coal

6000

@@bruiseyis woowww 6000 mt/h 👍👍

🤨 WHO ARE "THEY" ?

It’s a 24 hour operation so about 120 workers can cover the three shifts (including maintenance personal).

It takes a few years before one becomes familiar with all the components of these machines. I have been here over 20 years and still learn something almost every day. Coal is very abrasive and hard on all the equipment so you are correct that maintenance planning can be a handful. And when these machines break, it can be pretty spectacular…

@@bruiseyis Thanks for the thoughts Bruce. I would imagine that when one of those belts lets go, it would make a mess, not to mention being pretty lethal...

Panamax vessels can be loaded in under 24 hours while Cape class ships can take 2-3 days. It all depends on how many sources we feed the berth with. Direct hitting trains is more efficient than reclaiming from stockpiles.

Westshore Terminals in the Port of Vancouver BC

@@bruiseyis thank you so much bro.

This seems like it would take two days to fill a big ship. Why can't they use more than one nozzle assembly? I don't know anything about this process.

The rains have no impact on loading. The stockpiles of coal are outdoors and exposed to Vancouver's rain-soaked winters. The coal is bought and sold with an allowable moisture content, that is continuously sampled during loading.

@@marknorthrup7646 It only takes a couple of days to load even the largest cape class ships. The rates shown in the videos are dialed back to 2000 tonnes/hour for more accurate hatch trimming. Regular loading is usually in the 6000 TPH range. Yes more loaders would be faster but would also require the supporting infrastructure to feed it on the back end.

Yes it's a much quicker process than bottom dumping.

I'm not sure, most of the crews are from the Philippines.

We don’t unload ships here, but good call on the Hulett. I would love to operate one. They look like an amusement park ride:)

there are different ways to dump some a separated and dump individually some are left coupled and dumped individually as you saw here, others stay coupled and bottom dump two together or more, various ways

They usually do wear masks or respirators depending on conditions. Loading coal ain't pretty lol I find I have to keep reminding myself to wear hearing protection, and trust me, its very loud there.

The coal is loaded in cargo holds, typically 9 of them on a cape class ship. The doors are called hatch covers or hatch lids or doors.