Heyl & Patterson Blog

Each year, nearly half a million barge loads of bulk material such as coal, grain, wood chips, crushed stone, sand and minerals travel to delivery points along our nation’s inland waterways.  River transportation is the safest and most efficient method for moving massive quantities of materials.  Ports and other terminals along the rivers utilize various types of unloading systems to quickly and economically offload the barge traffic that comes their way.  One such system for unloading barges is the grab bucket barge unloader.

Manufacturing Day is the first Friday in October, and is a national showcase for the importance of manufacturing in the U.S. economy, giving American manufacturers the opportunity to show their products to the world.  Americans continue to create new products and unlock new technologies that grow the economy, so Manufacturing Day celebrates those who proudly stand behind their goods and services, helping to revitalize American manufacturing.  This will inspire young people to pursue careers in manufacturing and engineering, because today’s science, technology, engineering and math graduates will power the next chapter of American production and innovation.  In 2015, the event will be celebrated on Friday, October 2, and Heyl & Patterson is proud to recognize our place and our brethren in the manufacturing industry.

Repositioning railroad cars in a rail-switching operation has always been a formidable task.  Prior to the development of specialized railcar movers, full-size locomotives were often employed to move the cars across relatively short distances.  Locomotives are very expensive and overpowered for the situation.  They often require a special rail yard design to allow them to move cars around or out of the way of connecting rail carriers, while older locomotives used specifically for this purpose may not have readily available parts.

Social media enables users to interact with one another online to create, share and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities.  Some people credit the birth of social media as we know it to the networking website Six Degrees, which pioneered the idea of social circles in 1997, but gave way to Friendster, followed by MySpace and later Facebook.  It actually goes back much further.  The concept of an online social network evolved from a number of sources, including the CompuServe file-sharing service launched in 1969, the world's first email sent in 1971 and the dialup Bulletin Board System (BBS) and Usenet newsgroups of the late 1970s and early 1980s, before the World Wide Web took over in the early 1990s.  Arguably, prehistoric cave paintings could even be considered the very first form of social media.

Maintenance involves any actions that are necessary to conserve the condition of a piece of equipment to achieve its maximum useful life, while compensating for normal wear and tear. Routine operations are performed to both keep the device in working order and prevent trouble from arising. Different machines often have their own best practices and maintenance schedules that are unique to their own operation. Similarly, upgrades are the replacements of mechanical or electrical systems with a newer or better version, in order to bring the entire system up to date and improve its overall functionality.

Unloading railcars is usually accomplished in one of two ways:  a railcar dumper turns cars upside down in order to spill their contents, or bottom dump railcars drop their contents through chutes and gates. There are obvious differences between the two methods, but also some surprising similarities. Choosing between these systems calls for a number of factors to be considered, namely capital costs, maintenance, climate, versatility and economics.  Heyl & Patterson recently explored both sides of the matter in an article published in World Coal magazine's June 2015 issue, entitled "Which Unloading System?"

The railcars in a unit train all carry the same commodity, originate from the same location and travel to the same destination. High-volume bulk materials such as coal, coke, iron ore and aggregates are typically transported this way, as well as bulk liquids like ethanol, crude oil and condensate.  All the railcars tend to be nearly identical, inside and out.  Unit trains save time and money for a railroad, and eliminates any delays and confusion associated with assembling and disassembling the trains at railyards at both ends of the operation.  This type of service enables railroads to more effectively compete with truck transportation and river barges.

Heyl & Patterson played host to Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18) and Carnegie, PA Mayor Jack Kobistek on Friday, May 8.  They sat down with company president John Edelman and vice presidents Linda Wienand and Len Walnoha to discuss community involvement and the state of the energy and manufacturing industries, following a tour of the company's offices.  As a business in the energy industry, Heyl & Patterson is seen as an important player in Pittsburgh and the local region.

An all-too-painful truth is that bulk material handling equipment breaks down over time, and whenever it occurs, it's almost always costly.  The most common problems that lead to breakdowns are actually quite preventable.  They include improper maintenance, overrunning a machine's capability, not replacing worn parts, poor electrical connections, and even operation by untrained personnel or not consulting the operator manual.  Almost all mean that someone has ignored the warning signs of an impending stoppage.  These problems account for most of the breakdowns seen in the field, and all are avoidable by taking some simple precautions.