Published in June 2007 Australian Longwall Magazine

Couple this scenario with an even larger issue of train derailment due to ballast degradation and you know there is an issue that has to be sorted quick smart.

Both of these scenarios can be sourced back to the same cause – carry-back. When coal wagons are unloaded at ports, often they are not completely emptied, leaving remnant coal in the wagon. This remnant coal has the potential to leak onto the coal track and in wet weather can flood onto the ballast, which then degrades. This degradation can lead to train derailment.

If the coal doesn’t leak onto the tracks, it stays in the wagon and is mixed with coal and foreign materials from other operations, making for a quality control issue and those bubble-wrapped packages.

To address these issues, CSIRO and Queensland Rail have partnered under an Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP)-funded project to reduce carry-back and coal spillage in rail transport.

CSIRO scientists Garry Einicke and Chad Hargrave have developed a laser scanner system to monitor unloaded coal wagons.

“It was a real eye opener for us that no one actually measures carry-back – monitoring it is a new thing,” Einicke said.

The project team has just finished the first half of the project. During this first phase, the team measured carry-back at RG Tanna Coal Terminal in Gladstone.

The second half the project about to be embarked upon will involve the CSIRO team developing a robotic water jet to automatically clean any carry back from unloaded coal wagons.

The new technology will most likely be installed at Dump Station No 3 at RG Tanna Coal Terminal with the ACARP project completion date set for March 2008.