Here is a material transfer car I been working on for a while. I still have to add lights and paint it. It started out as a Roundhouse Rapid discharge hopper. I extended the frame to add the control cab and a motor compartment. One of these days I plan on powering it, but as of now it is a good addition to my steel mill.





Here is a N&W material transfer car used in one of there coal ports. (Picture is not mine I have no ideal where it come from)



Don Dunn

Great work Don

Cheers,

Kev

That's really impressive. Looks great!

That's an interesting piece of equipment !! Nicely done !!

Gidday, my new thing I've learnt today, very 8-)
Cheers, the Bear.

Great job! Don. I don't ever recall seeing one of them, tings.
Frank,zstripe

Awesome!

It looks like your N&W car is running off catenary and some small pantographs. I guess its a "Material transfer Trolley"

Either way, thats an interesting unit. What exactly was its purpose?

Both the N&W and Virginian had similar cars. Their purpose was to move coal from dumpers to more elevated coal piers, from which the coal could be dumped by gravity into oceangoing ships for export or barges for transfer up to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and New England. They were similar on both the VGN and N&W, similar appearance, capacity, and power:

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Most other coal and ore piers either dumped from railcars directly into bunkers on the pier, as on the Great Lakes, or dumped directly from a dumper into the vessel, as in many other places like coastal New Jersey or Lorain, OH. The N&W and VGN cases are the only ones I'm aware of where this type of transfer car was used. I remember seeing the VGN transfer cars in use at Sewells Point from the water about 1960. In later years, they were replaced by conveyor belt loading.

Very interesting powered cars! It must be nice to see it running by its own power and without an engine in front!

Interesting looking project you have under construction 8-)