I learned about the story of westward expansion and the transcontinental railroad in eighth grade. While my ambivalence about the subject of expansion didn’t begin to develop until a few years later, I found myself sharing the excitement that the pioneering class must have felt when the locomotive suddenly brought the horizon into focus for them. Until that time, “there” had always been so many days or weeks away. The train brought it closer. Today, we’ve got trucks and planes that seem just as well-equipped for the transportation of goods across long distances. I’m not prepared to make the case for any mode’s priority over another. But I still find trains interesting, and so do innovators in the materials handling industry.
Take tank car mixers, for example. Tank cars are used to transport large volumes of chemicals, animal feed, industrial and agricultural products, fuel and many other kinds of materials. In many cases, these materials have to be stirred in order to keep from spoiling while in transit. In such cases, the vehicles used to transport them must be equipped with a stirring or mixing mechanism. The closest analogy to this equipment is the rotating cylinder on a cement mixer. Tank car mixers manage to keep functioning despite the inherent hazards of operating while in motion, and they can prevent large quantities of materials in transit from losing their value. In short, tank car mixers help keep trains relevant.
