Re: Unloading with one chute

Yes you can only partially open the doors...... But......

The whole system works by chains attached to the "Dump Doors" on the bottom of the cars... These chains are attached to the rod running along the bottom edge of the car, There are two on each side, each controlling three doors on each end of the car. Note in the photo, at the very end of the car a long broad lever bar, this bar has a ratchet paw on it to wind up the attached chains that controls the opening and closing of the dump doors. in normal operations you would ratchet the handle and lower all three doors at once, dumping that corner/side of the car load. If you were using the car to spread ballast along the track, you would open the doors only part way as the car was being moved along.

Now.... if you only opened the doors part way and didn't completely unload all the coal/gravel/sand ( or whatever ) re-closing the doors was really difficult. Due to the weight of the load, and part of the load getting trapped in the door opening not allowing it to close.