Railroad hopper car gate assembly and method of operating same

A method for controlling the distribution of ballast to a track bed over which a railroad hopper car moves, said railroad hopper car having a hopper with a plurality of discharge outlets on opposed lateral sides of said hopper and a gate assembly mounted on said hopper in operable association with each discharge outlet for controlling distribution of ballast from the railroad car, each gate assembly including a movable door assembly and an electro-mechanical reversible driver for moving said door assembly relative to a respective discharge outlet between open and closed positions, said method comprising the steps of:

• contolling the open/close position for the door assembly of each gate assembly and thereby selectively controlling the discharge of material from the hopper car either manually or by remote control, with the manual discharge of ballast from the hopper car involving selectively operating any one or more of a series of manual actuators mounted on said hopper car, with each actuator being capable of providing a first open/close directive to the driver of a respective door assembly there by allowing for selective movement of the door assembly of a respective gate assembly between the open and closed positions, and with the remote discharge of ballast from the hopper car involving using a remote control apparatus for selectively operating the door assembly of any respective gate assembly in response to transmission of a second open/close directive to the driver for such door assembly of said gate assembly thereby effecting movement of said selected door assembly between the open and closed positions from a location remote from the hopper car such that ballast from the hopper can be remotely discharged from said outlets while said railroad car moves along the track bed;
• and
• providing a controller operably coupled to said manual actuators and responsive to said remote control apparatus for controlling movement of the door assemblies in response to the open/close directives received from either said manual actuators or said remote control apparatus, with said controller including circuitry for inhibiting damage to said electro-mechanical reversible drivers when two opposing open/close directives are concurrently received by any driver from said manual actuators and said remote control apparatus.