in the terminal includes a rotary car dumper and train positioner; a rail-mounted stacker/reclaimer; a radial stacker; an alternate reclaim system consisting of a ground level hopper, grillage and tunnel; and a stationary luffing boom-type barge loader. A barge haul system and interconnecting conveyors and transfer towers also are part of the facility.
The unit train dumping system is designed for automatic, centralized control of the dumper and positioner. Safeguards built into the system include automatic car clamps to hold a fully loaded frozen car, and a manual dumping cycle which permits the operator to visually inspect a car before dumping. Television monitors also are used in this phase of the operation.
When coal leaves the railcar it is discharged through a grillage into a 200-ton surge hopper lined with abrasion resistant plate. Three vibrating feeders, each handling up to 1,500 tons per hour, then move the coal to a series of conveyors and transfer towers.
Within the storage yard, which eventually will have the capability to store up to one million tons of coal, a track-mounted stacker/reclaimer places inbound coal in the appropriate storage location. When marine equipment arrives to load at the terminal, the stacker/reclaimer delivers coal to the barge loader at a rate of 4,700 tons per hour.
Barges are loaded continuously at a rate of 5,700 tons per hour through a system which uses a string of five barges. Unit tows serving the Cora Coal Transfer Terminal will have the capacity to haul up to 50,000 tons of coal.
The HNG mine-to-market coal handling system includes St. Louis Ship, which operates three shipyards specializing in barges, towboats, and other marine equipment.
Marine equipment utilized at the terminal, as well as other terminals, are operated by another HNG company — Inland Waterways Division (IWD) of Pott Industries. The Division has more than 60 years of operating experience and has a fleet of 650 jumbo barges and towboats ranging to 10,500 hp.