What is this?

[dave 911]

I took these pictures today after work. Does anyone know what this thing is? It had it's own special train to haul it.
Train is northbound, just off of the Ohio River bridge in Cincinnati.

[dave 911]

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Rosie O'Donnell clitoral stimulator.

[E38Driver]

A dickfer?

Dave

[herr_oberst]

Tunnel boring machine.

[M.D. Holloway]

I've seen something similar at cement plants. Looks like a rotary kiln.

[nota]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

I've seen something similar at cement plants. Looks like a rotary kiln.

yes we had one at a water plant

basically a big dryer

[Grog]

Might be the rotating part of a ball mill.

[sc_rufctr]

No idea but it is impressive and probably very expensive.

A guess... Something to do with chemical manufacturing or filtering? Maybe separating heavy metals.

[Eharrison]

It's a kiln for a cement plant. Not a ball mill.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by M.D. Holloway

I've seen something similar at cement plants. Looks like a rotary kiln.

Yep. It might be coming to my back yard, as we have a big cement plant here that is expanding. Lots of local controversy. They aren't good neighbors.

[M.D. Holloway]

More info on cement production:

The first step is to quarry the principal raw materials, mainly limestone, clay, and other materials. After quarrying the rock is crushed. This involves several stages. The first crushing reduces the rock to a maximum size of about 6 inches. The rock then goes to secondary crushers or hammer mills for reduction to about 3 inches or smaller.

The crushed rock is combined with other ingredients such as iron ore or fly ash and ground, mixed, and fed to a cement kiln.

The cement kiln heats all the ingredients to about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit in huge cylindrical steel rotary kilns lined with special firebrick. Kilns are frequently as much as 12 feet in diameter—large enough to accommodate an automobile and longer in many instances than the height of a 40-story building. The large kilns are mounted with the axis inclined slightly from the horizontal.

The finely ground raw material or the slurry is fed into the higher end. At the lower end is a roaring blast of flame, produced by precisely controlled burning of powdered coal, oil, alternative fuels, or gas under forced draft.

As the material moves through the kiln, certain elements are driven off in the form of gases. The remaining elements unite to form a new substance called clinker. Clinker comes out of the kiln as grey balls, about the size of marbles.

Clinker is discharged red-hot from the lower end of the kiln and generally is brought down to handling temperature in various types of coolers. The heated air from the coolers is returned to the kilns, a process that saves fuel and increases burning efficiency.

After the clinker is cooled, cement plants grind it and mix it with small amounts of gypsum and limestone. Cement is so fine that 1 pound of cement contains 150 billion grains. The cement is now ready for transport to ready-mix concrete companies to be used in a variety of construction projects.

Although the dry process is the most modern and popular way to manufacture cement, some kilns in the United States use a wet process. The two processes are essentially alike except in the wet process, the raw materials are ground with water before being fed into the kiln.

Here is what Clinker (or Klinker) looks like. (I've been to all types of plants, sometimes I bring back a souvenir for the kiddos. This was one. )

[Eharrison]

That really doesn't look like clinker, that's more like a ball from the mill. Clinker is shaped more like a snowball, irregular.

[chocolatelab]

Originally Posted by E38Driver

A dickfer?

Dave

Huh

Whats a dickfer?

[GWN7]

Rail car looks like part of a heavy haul system. Specialty built cars for long and heavy loads. Some of the cars articulate going around a curve if they are carrying long loads.