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Has anyone had experience with the operation of the rotary tipple?

I'm worried about the durability of it's componets. I would be unloading 32 cars a night, twice a month.

I guess my concern is from the overhead intermodel crane that had plastic gears that would strip easy.

Any opinions/experience is much appreciated.

And I also wanted to know if all MTH Coalporters have rotary couplers, if not , when did they start?

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The tipple comes with "coal" the size of boulders.  I think they are black beans.  It says don't use anything smaller cause they can get caught in the [plastic] gears and destroy them.

 

None of the MTH cars have rotary couplers unless that is very recent.  Only the Lionel's have them.  I know cause I bought a bunch of both to 2-rail and have the trucks left over.

David,
I only have one MTH Coalporter.  It doesn't have rotary couplers.  I put it between two Lionel Coalporters and it rotates fine.

All in all this is a great accessory.  I haven't had any issues with the plastic gears.  Lots of fun and a nice addition to any layout.  The newer Lionel coal is plastic and, as another forum member once mentioned, looks like rat turds.  That coal is fine for toy train operators(like me) but not realistic for scale railroaders.  Not sure, but you might be able to try aquarium gravel...just don't go to small.  I haven't tried it with my tipple yet.

Think Lionel could have gotten the name correct.

The accessory is a Rotary Dump.

 

 Coal Tipple is a structure used at a mine to load the extracted product for transport, typically into railroad hopper cars. In the United States, tipples have been frequently associated with coal mines, but they have also been used for hard rock mining.

Wow Susan, that's a great page for me right now. I have a MTH coal car with rotary coupler on it right now. The unit will not work unless I hold the car just right. I would probably do away with the switches. They seem like a needed thing though. I would hate to have a child press the button when a car wasn't positioned correctly.

 I will have to work on it I guess. Maybe the Lionel coal car helps it work better??

The Rotary Dump from Lionel is a really nice model.  I am going to use pre-formed scale coal piles within the dump cars so that when operated, I will "pretend" that the cars got dumped.  The reason for this is because I do not like the huge jelly bean-like coal that was supplied and I don't want to have to worry about damaging the gears with scale coal.  Here are a few pictures of my coal dump/mine/power station area:

 

Alan

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Last edited by leavingtracks

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