Miner Celebrates 40 Years of AggreGate® Ballast Discharge Systems
Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
Miner's newest solar-powered stand-alone electric AggreGate®. (Miner)
Miner Enterprises, Inc. (Miner) on July 1 announced that it is celebrating 40 years of “proven, reliable and advanced” maintenance-of-way (m/w) discharge solutions in its Miner AggreGate® line of ballast outlet gates, control systems and accessories.
According to Miner, this product is available in electric, air-powered and manual operating models, and is suitable for both retrofit and new car systems. The company’s newest model, the solar-powered stand-alone electric AggreGate®, is “revolutionizing how railroads are bringing more efficiency and flexibility to their MOW of operations,” Miner stated.
“By bringing solar power to each railcar, it enables independent operation of every car from anywhere within the ballast train,” Miner noted. “This eliminates the need for grouping manual and automatic cars. The remote-control system, with pushbutton override, enables individual car and gate selection. Operators can effectively ballast inside, outside or both sides of the rail simultaneously.”
The dual cylinder air-powered AggreGate® is also available in either pushbutton or remote-control operation. The operator can select a specific car and gate, as well as control ballast flow, “ensuring more accurate ballast discharge from distances as great as 300 feet,” according to the company.
The manual AggreGate® is available with transition sheets designed to enable new or retrofit application to any open top hopper car. It features a three-position handle for easy opening and closing of doors. Spring tension holds the large, guillotine door in position at any opening for controlled flow of ballast.
According to the company, more than 7,200 carsets of Miner AggreGates® have been placed into service since it first received Association of American Railroads (AAR) certification more than four decades ago. Today, Miner AggreGates® are still “the most specified ballast gates in the industry,” Miner noted.
More information is available here.
