Rail dispatch unit

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33064, 3 November 1972, Page 14

Rail dispatch unit

At a cost in excess of $250,000 a new railway waggon dispatch unit is being built at the Hornby fertiliser works of Kempthorne Prosser and Company, Ltd. Mr P. M. Roberts, manager of the company’s fertiliser division, who is shown at the unit under construction, said that the bulk part would include five large hoppers and one small hopper holding six

different types of fertiliser screened for delivery, which could be loaded into waggons at the rate of three tons a minute with the waggon being loaded standing on a weighbridge. This part of the installation will be completed in February. Also to be built is a bag dispatch unit also for loading railway waggons, which will stand on a separate section of track. Thus waggons will be able to be loaded with bulk fertiliser and bag fertiliser at

the same time and the combined loading out rate will be equivalent to one waggon load every five minutes. The bag unit is due for completion in March. A batch mixing plant will also be included in the installation so that mixtures of fertilisers can also be supplied as required. Mr Roberts said that the new installation would simplify the shunting of railway waggons with a reduction of idle time between rakes of waggons.