It looks awesome, Al.
Peter
Al, something else that would be cool to add to your creation, would be a vibrator motor. I don't know if their used all the time, but during the winter months when the wet coal freezes to the sides of the hopper car, a vibrator activates when the rotary reaches full dump position to break loose the frozen coal and help completely empty the car out. If a motor was mounted under the tracks that was activated by a switch at full dump, giving the effect and the sound, it would be awesome.
Thanks for the suggestion Dave
Very nice indeed.
Dave Zucal posted:Al, something else that would be cool to add to your creation, would be a vibrator motor. I don't know if their used all the time, but during the winter months when the wet coal freezes to the sides of the hopper car, a vibrator activates when the rotary reaches full dump position to break loose the frozen coal and help completely empty the car out. If a motor was mounted under the tracks that was activated by a switch at full dump, giving the effect and the sound, it would be awesome.
I have been around a few coal dumpers, and the only ones I know that use vibrators are bottom dump systems. A rotary dumper like this uses a that shed to warm the cars up before turning them over.
That looks great.
Thank you guys.
JHZ, I received your photos today. Those are fantastic! I still would like to take you up on your offer for a tour of the dumper at your facility. I will call and work out a time later this week. Good to know also about the vibrator on the dumpers.
I did spend quite a bit of time today with my computer engineer going over the electronic controls and circuits. I also talked to Dennis Brennan today about the use of scale coal in the dumper. 1-100 ton car holds 22oz of real coal, which won't be an issue with our gear motor. Ran motor tests today and it looks so cool running. 
Looks very impressive! A worthy addition to any layout. Looking forward to seeing in operation. BigRail
Well here it is folks. Our new rotary coal dumper from Millhouse River Studio. Fresh out of the paint shop and into action. This hopper car is loaded with real reading coal from Brennan's Model Railroading. 22oz. of coal! The rotary dumper has a sensor that tells if the car in in far enough into dumper to rotate. it will also let our car sled (coming soon) know how much to pull cars up into dumper. It also acts as a safety sensor, in case car should move during dumping. Our push button switch also has safety built in so if there is a need to stop dumper anytime during operation, just push button a second time and it stops movement. 3rd press returns car back to level and un-clamps car. We will have this at York for demos!
That is looking amazing!!! Can’t wait to see it in action!
Super nice Al!
My coal train wants one bad.
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Looks great Al!
Most impressive, wish I could see it at York!
Dave Zucal posted:My coal train wants one bad.
Wow Dave, your coal train needs one! 👍🏻
My wife and I stopped by Friday morning to see the rotary dump in action. It is an impressive and well designed piece of equipment. As promised, Al's prototype was fully functional, and he demonstrated its operation, and also showed how the built in safety mechanisms work. This system will work on just about any hopper, including two and three bay cars, and as noted above in a previous post, even in the real world, some cars need to be cut from the drag, as would be the case with most three bay cars, and all two bay cars. The hold downs are positioned so they will accommodate any length car. The rotation is smooth and prototypical. This is a winner! Great work Al.
Thank you Rail. It was great meeting you and your wife. Here is a video of the dumper at our display at York.
Thats awesome stuff Al! You cvould even speed up the rotation a little, and don't forget the sprayers to blow off the coal on the top rail once the cars are upright. 
https://youtu.be/DbJl_Astx_w
Al, is it possible to increase the motor voltage to increase the rotary speed? I'll be dumping quite a few cars.
Thanks for the comments guys. I will have to check with my computer engineer to see if we can boost power going to motor to speed it up a little. If we can we would have to use a higher voltage power supply. I don’t know if that’s possible with the same power being reduced to power the boards.
Thanks Al for looking into that. Another option would be a different ratio gear motor. The motor looks like the same type used on a pellet stove auger. Very powerful little buggers. Great choice. If changing the ratio became too fast, a pot could be used to slow it down and allow us to adjust the speed to our liking. My plan is to dump through the layout, at a power plant, onto a cupped belt conveyor that will move the coal back to the loading area of the layout, at coal breaker, where an empty hopper car will get loaded with the coal that just got dumped.
I did make it to York and saw the very impressive demo. Good work!
Here is Al's next project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxxspw-K5GA
Hokie, neat project, but I've got my plate full 
My next new item will be the flood loader, guys have a way to load their hoppers.
It will be similar to the structure Harry Roberts did in brass, but with a different shoot mechanism. Looking at a footprint of 6x12" with a hopper depth of 10" deep
I'm looking forward to conveyers> I have always wanted that but could never figure out how to make them.
Thanks for keeping us updated Al. Looking good.
I saw this at York and it is very well made and you will not find anything like it in the market place.
Hey Al, nice photo of the Harry Roberts flood loader. ;-) Reach out to me and I can point you to the guy who gave me that photo. He had it for sale but I could not afford it. I also believe that Harry had sensors that detected the end of the car to cut off the flow of the “coal”. Have a great evening, Randy
You can see the sensors in that photo. They are black and are located just under the catwalk on the model.
Fedex dropped off a highly anticipated package today!
Millhouse Studio tipple is in the house - up and running without issue on the repair bench.
Thanks AL at Millhouse.
Jim
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I model 1920's so it would be manual rope operated chute or steam donkey. Any ideas ?
Jim, Al may not be pleased to see a non-CSX hopper in there! 🤪 At least we know now that other railroads’ cars work in it!!!
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BigTruckPete,
Al is gonna have to suck it up! Come on its a Canadian National which is basically across the river from Buffalo....
Still working on getting it mounted in. It's gonna sit elevated currently, not flat. Just not ready to totally redesign the layout to change as of now. This is replacing the Lionel one which was about 2.25" taller.
Jim
