Rail car flood-loading chutes from HMA Materials Handling are used to load trains at up to 8 000 tph of coal into rail cars. These chutes are typically between 1 200 mm and 2 100 mm square, depending on the required loading rate.

The flood loading chutes from HMA Materials Handling have adjustable discharge heights to allow the chute to extend into the rail car during initial loading to prevent spillage and raise to enable the operator to completely fill the rail car. Since the locomotives typically stay attached to the unit train during loading, the flood loading chute must be able to move out of the locomotive clearance limits. Those clearance limits are generally between 6 m and 7.5 m above the top of the rail and 2.5 m above the rail centreline.

PICOR from HMA Materials Handling offers two models of flood loading chutes. The standard model is used for installations with standard vertical rail clearance requirements of about 7.5 m. The low head model can be used for vertical rail clearances as low as 6 m. To minimise spillage, both of these chutes can be sealed to the flood loading discharge gates.

PICOR’s flood loading chutes from HMA Materials Handling traverse horizontally to provide the required locomotive clearance and telescope vertically to control loading of the rail cars. The telescopic section overlaps the fixed vertical section and is raised and lowered by hydraulic cylinders. The standard model telescopic section overlaps the fixed section enough to provide lateral stability while loading rail cars.

Some typical applications include:

• Volumetric loading of coal from a single point into trains or individual railcars at rates up to 8000 tph
• Volumetric loading of coal from two points into trains at rates above 12000 tph
• Loading coal from a PICOR Conventional Batch Loading System into trains at rates up to 8000 tph
• Loading coal from a PICOR Precision Loading System™ (patented) at rates of up to 6 000 tph
• Loading coal from a PICOR Double Bin Precision Loading System™ (patented) at rates up to 10 000 tph