At the beginning of summer I was hanging out on the above-ground reservoir in New London by the CSX Greenwich Subdivision.
Traffic was decent given that CSX operates fewer trains these days.
I heard a Wheeling & Lake Erie eastbound train get permission to enter CSX tracks at Greenwich for the trip to New London where it would get back on its own railroad.
My enthusiasm for seeing a W&LE train amid a stream of CSX action was tempered somewhat by the fact that both locomotives were running long hood forward.
Much of the consist of the train was gondolas loaded with limestone. That raised a question in mind as to how the stone is unloaded.
Most of the stone I’ve seen shipped by rail moves in hopper cars with doors that open at the bottom. Gravity then does the unloading.
But how do you get stone out of a gondola. My guess is either you use a clamshell bucket or you have to turn the car upside down as is down with some cars carrying coal.
My hunch is these cars are not turned upside down when unloaded.
