Burlington Northern 100-Ton 3-Bay 45' Rib-Side Hopper Set 2

100ton Hopper - original by Pennzee

Burlington Northern
Roadnumbers 522096, 529052

Revolving Dumpers ~ Rotary Couplers

In the course of coal unloading procedures at modern facilities, the revolving dumper was ideated. This was a piece of track enveloped by a huge turning mechanism which surrounded and locked the coal car in place, thus allowing the mechanism to rotate on an axis and dump the load from the topside, instead of the traditional gravity dumping via the hopper doors at the bottom. The use of a spinning rotary coupler in it's yoke, engaged the car within the mechanism allowing this method of quick and expedited dumping. Usually, the forward end panels of the hopper were painted a contrasting color to denote placement of the peculiar coupler. The use of this method has led to the end of the traditional hopper, and top gons, bathtubs and coal porters are taking it's place. Eventually, new technology using rotary couplers at each end of the car, allowed dumping without uncoupling from the consist, further saving time in the dumping routine!

The Burlington Northern Railroad was formed in 1970 from the merger of four large railroads. The Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Spokane, Portland and Seattle, and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy. It serviced the Central US, most of the Midwestern States, and the Pacific Northwest. It merged with the ATSF in 1996 to become BNSF, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the four major railroads in the USA!