Jump to content
 

A small, easy-scratch-build, transload facility


Recommended Posts

Thanks for that Jack!

 

Now that's a fascinating idea.

 

Just a couple of thoughts as the pics aren't very clear:

 

How is it powered?

 

How do they get the container onto a truck?

 

What happens at the other end? Do they pick up the container and shake it??

 

steve

Link to post
Share on other sites

My interpretation is that the powering almost certainly by hydraulics, using output by flexible connectors from that big yellow thing in the background, which also lifts and drops the container into the rig / tilter, and later removes the filled unit onto whatever is used to get it to the port for shipping to China! 

Not seen or heard of any thing similar in the UK, we seem to compact our metal scrap into (metre cube?) bales.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I honestly don't know - I think I'll have to ask some questions! I imagine a small(ish) electric-powered, hydraulic pump would operate the tilting mechanism, and a similar system at the other end with the container dropped in the other way round , would empty it! What isn't obvious is whether the scrap is being loaded on or off the gondola, into, or out of, the container. A sudden thought - do they use old, being scrapped, containers and just melt the whole lot down without emptying, at the far end?

Edit - questions asked  :yes:

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ooh, that's a tease, Jack!

 

What it does imply is that railroads will deliver relatively small quantities of containers...........

Kato are bringing out individual container loaders/unloaders  too, in 1/160.....posable in any position without tipping over.

 

Bext, Pete.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Steve - found the answer to the "emptying" question  http://www.globe-guard.com/var/1536/618232-A-Ward%20unloaderer%2045%C2%B0.jpg  Googling "container tilter" and looking at <images> gives some useful views

 

Edit = this shows the complete operation - very handy video of a different version, but, no doubt, a similar basic idea 

 

 

#!
Link to post
Share on other sites

What it does imply is that railroads will deliver relatively small quantities of containers...........

 Actually no.  The railroad probably doesn't do diddley with the loading of the container.  All the railroad does it take the container once it shows up at the railroad loading ramp and and put it on a platform.  All the stuff shown in these pictures is arranged for by a third party shipping company.  The railroad isn't involved in providing the container, it doesn't load it and it doesn't haul it back to the ramp.  The railroad sees scrap being delivered to the transload facility in gons and see a loaded container showing up at the intermodal ramp, the rest in between is magic. 8-)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Actually, I'm wondering if the scrap that's loaded into the container is going overseas (likely to China, Japan, or Korea). It might well be rubber-tired to a port and loaded directly onto a ship.

 

My uncle figured out a way in the 1970s to ship hides to the far east in containers. He was trying to get loads for the empty backhaul, and hides came up as an idea. They were hermetically sealed in plastic, worked like a champ!

Link to post
Share on other sites

  When I wrote my original comment I hadn't seen the video. 

 

So gons' of scrap metal are delivered by rail then the scrap is moved into containers which are delivered by road hauliers? Correct?

 

Sorry I feel like crap today, I think I am coming down with the flu despite having been innoculated.............................please ignore me.

 

Best, Pete.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Having seen the videos it makes more sense (which initially it didn't). The first video seems to be demolition/builder's rubble. I'm trying to think why they would go through this for that material....

 

I like the way this mode of shipping has spawned so many ideas and machinery to cope with them - love the little door closers, for example.

 

Thanks, Pete.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  When I wrote my original comment I hadn't seen the video. 

 

So gons' of scrap metal are delivered by rail then the scrap is moved into containers which are delivered by road hauliers? Correct?

 

Basically yes - the transhipment will be for export to an overseas steel mill for recycling, and I presume the transload isn't that far from the port. There are scrapyards in the UK that also load boxes for export in a similar way...

Link to post
Share on other sites

The first video seems to be demolition/builder's rubble. I'm trying to think why they would go through this for that material....

Demolition debris is another comnodity shipped by rail, but to a different destination.This might have been rubber-tired over to a waste transfer facility to go onto MSW railcars. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

 

Demolition debris is another comnodity shipped by rail, but to a different destination.This might have been rubber-tired over to a waste transfer facility to go onto MSW railcars. 

It's all value-added cost isn't it? Someone must make money out of this waste.......apart from the hauliers that is. I wonder how it is recycled? Any ideas?

 

Best, Pete.

Link to post
Share on other sites

My guess is that demolition debris isn't recycled -- it goes to a landfill. The company that owns a lot of the MSW flats also has a large landfill operation in Utah which may be an old open-pit mine. So it would charge for the transport of the debris as well as the deposit into the landfill, the cost being borne by the construction company that's doing the demo.

Link to post
Share on other sites

That doesn't look like demolition debris, it looks more like metal scrap or slag.  Think the stuff that builds up around a smelter or on the outside of a bottle car. It probably has a large amount of metal with waste elements (carbon, silicon) mixed in.  Could be nominally hazardous/contaminated (dirty dirt), might have heavy metals in it (lead).  I have seen old brake shoes recycled (to get the asbestos), printed circuit boards (to get the gold, silver, copper and lead).   It is probably going to be recycled or its hazardous.  If it didn't have recycle value it would be just dumped in a landfill and there are cheaper ways to get it to a landfill than in 20 foot international shipping containers.  I think it has metallic content or can be ground up for some use (sand blasting grit?)  since its in an international shipping container, its probably being exported.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...