Drawbar Connected Airslides

[ljudice]

I was pretty much sure these cars were gone - but happened to find some photos, apparently a bunch are now marked VFLX and are apparently still around:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=VFLX


It appears their drawbars were replaced with couplers, but they still run in A/B pairs for some reason???

Possible re-stencil/weathering project out there...

[central.vermont]

I was just looking through the photo's in Lou's link and noticed that a lot of them have
had some kind of venting failure? Such as the one pictured below.

Jon

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2761719

[ljudice]

For what it's worth...  VFL Technologies apparently ships fly ash to from power plants....


Another shot of that additional vent or hatch on the roof:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=226705

[central.vermont]

Why would they ship it too power plants? That's where it comes from. Did you mean to say "from"?
Fly ash is a byproduct of coal burning.

Jon

For what it's worth...  VFL Technologies apparently ships fly ash to power plants....


Another shot of that additional vent or hatch on the roof:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=226705

[ljudice]

   Good question...   

Actually I think one of their services is to actually help power companies sell the fly ash they generate - that makes more sense.... 

[Robbman]

I was just looking through the photo's in Lou's link and noticed that a lot of them have
had some kind of venting failure? Such as the one pictured below.

Jon

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2761719

Not a failure... they were intentionally modified like that.  Center hatch is the only one used for loading

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not a failure... they were intentionally modified like that.  Center hatch is the only one used for loading

So the hump's correct?

[ljudice]

They don't all have humps...   Aren't these cars presurized during unloading?

[wcfn100]

I doubt they ever had drawbars, probably just 'permanently" coupled.  These look to be relatively recent pairings based on the notes with the photos.

For example, this car:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=460067

Was this car ten years earlier.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2752336

Jason

[Robbman]

They don't all have humps...   Aren't these cars presurized during unloading?

Not all have modified roofs... there's been other cars used for fly-ash in pairs... JTMX and AFIX come to mind.  Those also had centered hatches and many had the modified roof.  They basically just jerked the roof upward from the center.

Pressurized during unloading...  Airslides have a plenum chamber that run the lengths of the bays... there's a fabric between the plenum and the bay that when you apply air pressure acts like a big arse version of an air hockey table, effectively fluidizing the commodity for the first several inches or so, allowing it to flow down to the outlet valve.  You can have a hatch open and it'll still unload, if it's sealed, the escaping contents keep it from becoming pressurized.  If for some reason you just want to see what happens when you apply a boat load of pressure and mangae to seal the car completely... you're more likely to rip the side sheets off the bays than force the roof upward...     

[Robbman]

I doubt they ever had drawbars, probably just 'permanently" coupled.  These look to be relatively recent pairings based on the notes with the photos.

For example, this car:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=460067

Was this car ten years earlier.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2752336

Jason

Not recent pairings... GACX paired them long ago.  Note the blue car to the right in each picture, and both pictures the main car has the B end to the left.

[central.vermont]

I still think the humps in the roof are from over pressurizing the car. Not all humps are the same height of bulge from one car to the next if you look through them.

Jon

[wcfn100]

Not recent pairings... GACX paired them long ago.  Note the blue car to the right in each picture, and both pictures the main car has the B end to the left.

Okay, I don't doubt you, but the 'B' ends to the left could happen regardless of pairing.  It would be nice to find a photo in the GACX numbering that shows any of these cars clearly paired up (like two matching road numbers) but maybe they were in some assigned service that didn't get much camera play.

Of course, none if this means that the cars ever had drawbars.

Jason

[ljudice]

Whats the point of the pairing on shipper owned cars???   Counts as one car?

Isn't this bad for reliability - take two cars down if one has a flat wheel?

[Ntrainz1]

The flyash can be used to make pozzalanic landfill caps.

Bob.