Hello, All. My RR requires gondolas to carry coal. I have a small fleet of them, most of the 33' variety. It was very easy to pry out the coal loads from the 33 footers and to glue some metal washers on the underside of the loads. That way: 1. empty arrives at coal mine 2. load drops onto it from a magic hand in the sky ;-) 3. car is hauled to an industry 4. this time, the magic hand carries a magnet, and the load is whisked into the air and back to the mine (through a wormhole?) My 33' Atlas and Bluford gondolas came with loads that were easy to remove from the cars. The gondola on the right in the photo below has lost its load this way. The 50' Atlas gondola on the left in the photo is a different matter. I have not been able to pry the load out of it, and I'm afraid of damaging the car trying to get it out. I have run an exacto blade deeply around its perimeter to no effect. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to remove the load?
A dental pick also works, assuming you asked your dentist for some old dull picks and probes. Easier if you spread the car sides slightly so you can get knife or pick in under the load. The loads usually are held in only by friction from the car sides.
If that is a 90 ton Atlas hopper, the loads have three rods that extend down to a round weight. Some of these cars have the weight and rods glued to the bottom of the car. You can usually use a screw driver with a thin blade to break then loose. I have done this to a couple hundred cars to add extra weights.
You might drill a tiny hole in the bottom of the car and then try pushing the load out from below with a thin rod.
I used to have a bunch of these before I back dated era. As rrjim1 said,(at least on some runs of these cars) the support-pins under the coal load are glued to an exposed metal rod running along the bottom of the car. It can be a pain to break some of them free. Then you need to decide if you care about the interior when running empty...
OK. I carved into the bottom of the car with a Dremel tool, far enough to see that there is indeed a metal bar there. I stopped excavating there because I didn't want to interfere with it. Also, the sides of the coal load are indeed completely free. So, the glue job is between the middle portion of the load and somewhere on the bottom of the car. I worked a hooked tool down along one side of the load and pulled very hard, hard enough that I feared for the integrity of the plastic. Everything -- car sides and load -- deformed. That's some glue job in there! I think I'll live with it a while, until I get desperate enough to risk sacrificing the car. Thanks again for the advice.
If you are not going to reuse the coal load, I would work though the middle of the load until you can get it out. Once you get a big enough hole in the load you can find the pins holding it in. Richard
Worked for me too. Been years, but I think I used a "chisel" blade in an X-Acto knife. Some cars had pins that were glued so heavily that they actually broke away from the underside of the load. Once the load was gone, no problem snapping them off the car bottom.
There we are! The picture, plus the testimonial about the low risk of damage, did it for me. Load is out! Thanks to all.
