Courtesy of an ad on Facebook: https://billypenn.com/2019/06/04/graffiti-pier-is-becoming-a-public-park-5-things-to-know/

For those unaware, Pier 18 was the Reading's coal port on the Delaware River South of Philly that utilized a unique form of gravity motive power and spring switches to return emptied cars, akin to the larger and more famous facility at Port Reading, NJ.

At one time 'Kickbacks' were common in unloading facilities where cars need to be uncoupled for unloading. These days they are certainly rare certainly rare but the system cannot be described as unique to this pier.

I am glad to see that Brother Broder and the Waterfront Corporation have reached an agreement.

GME

The coal dumper was a McMyler, which was scrapped decades ago when ConRail decided to retain PRR's Pier 124 in South Philadelphia, which could more easily load ships as well as barges. What remained at Pier 18 in Port Richmond was the concrete structure that had supported the track and dumper.

With a McMyler you set the loaded car over a barney (a cable-pulled car pusher) pit, then the barney comes up and pushes the car up a steep incline onto the dumper. The dumper clamps the car and behaving as an elevator raises the car higher, then rotates it 135 degrees so gravity dumps the coal into a funnel which dumps it into the barge. It then rotates the car back to 0 degrees and lowers it to track level, where it rolls down a steep incline then up into a steeper kickback track where it goes straight thru a spring switch, stops by gravity, then rolls back through the spring switch diverging into the field yard similar to a hump. RDG's (Port Richmond in NE Philadelphia and Port Reading in NJ opposite Staten Island) were both rider yards. The Port Reading McMyler is still standing; it was the last working dumper in NY Harbor and has been out of service over 35 years.
Phil Mulligan

You guys are terrible!! You mention something I've never heard of before, at least by the name, and give me a compulsion to look something up!!

In this case, it's a McMyler coal dumper.

Take note of the video link of a working model within the general link below.

https://abandonednyc.com/2016/02/11/por ... al-dumper/

https://www.preservationnj.org/listings ... al-dumper/

https://patch.com/new-jersey/woodbridge ... y-a-thread

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffs4653 ... 210433299/

If you think this is something, you shoulda seen the Canton Coal Pier near Fell's Point, Baltimore, with its endless chain of circulating mini-hopper cars.

Aarne Frobom
Bitumen County, Michigan

For a McMyler to load a ship, the ship has to be moved along the pier so the McMyler can access the different holds and spread the weight among them. McMylers don't move; the contemporary Hulett unloaders could move longitudinally alongside the ship.

Coal Piers like Canton and PRR's Pier 124 South used conveyors or those mini-hopper cars to access all holds of a ship without moving it, which is why ConRail (the spelling at the time) took the PRR Pier over the R.Co Pier.

Phil Mulligan

At some point a PRR crew tried to run a locomotive through one of those kick-back ramps in South Philly and dumped a locomotive into the Delaware River. I have some photos and possibly video of the recovery. I'll see if I can find them.