http://www.gophergas.com/funstuff/womenlivelonger2.htm
Check out photo #8 (the first one).
I suppose I could have put this in the “humor” thread, but I do not think many people visit there any more.
I beg to differ- I visit the “humor” thread religiously. The latest posts, especially your contributions, always brighten my day.
My employer seems to think that your link contains “gruesome” content, and therefore won’t let me access it.[banghead]
I’m with Brian on this one.
Heck! I’ve done number 5 before! 
Interesting shots of the backhoe mounting the hopper.I wouldn’t stand too close while he’s doing it tho!
Have a good one.
Bill B
Actually, I’ve seen #8 before, but on a gondola, I think it was in Trains or Railfan Magazine. There are special brackets added to the front scoop and the tractor portion to do this.
LMAO!!! I have seen the backhoe thing done like that numerous times,
just not on a railcar. I also did #2 once too…
I also visit the hunour thread whenever I see it updated.
…Isn’t the rendition of the backhoe climbing up on the rail car similar to how the Herzog people do it with their special backhoe type machines and then walk them along the top of the rail cars to unload ties, and whatever they have to unload…?
One thing about it…that operator has to know what he is doing. Just one touch of the wrong lever could send him down faster than he came up…!
Hate to bust any bubbles, but that is the normal way to get the backhoe or front end loader up there.
Note the brackets front and rear to keep it stable…they even move the cars with it up there.
This one below used a dirt ramp at the end of the cut…cheaper that a rotary dumper!
And here, the UP MOW gons have end ramps built in so the back hoe can cross from car to car more easily.
A while back on one of the diesel sites I frequent there was a big debate on those first four pics being a photochop, with a group saying it wasn’t possible at all. Then a video was posted to prove otherwise. I’ll try to find it.
Adrianspeeder
Bro…
You and the truck looking pretty sharp there!
The humor thread gets about 100 views a day. AFAIK, the only thread that gets more hits is the Diner thread.
…Just go to a Herzog website and you can find all kinds of illustrations of what and how they do the job of putting a “backhoe” up on top of a railcar and move it along the top and unload the rail car with it.
Hate to burst your bubbles on this last one, but those angular thingies (you can tell who my sister is!) aren’t a collapsing ramp, but are solar batteries for the radio-activated discharge outlets on these cars. Nearly all UP ballast hoppers have them (and let’s hope the gates work, so they don’t have equipment crawling up along the top!).
By golly, your quite right…now I have to find the photo of the ones with the ramps, which means I have to look through 4 big CDs worth of photos…shucks[:D]
I really do have a few photos of some gons with the ramps, some where…they are the plates off of old Trailer Train cars.
I could have sworn it was a UP Mow train, oh well, back to the archives.
What needs to be discussed here is what happens when the operating department or a work train takes off with a coal gon with a cartopper on top (and not lowered into the car)…
HERZOG has just a few horror stories about beheaded cartoppers and damaged undersides of bridges and pulled down wirelines (usually el-cheapo CATV bootleg crossings) [:I][:I][:I]
Aw…now Larry the Cable Guy wouldn’t “borrow” someone elses poles, would he?
Murphy Siding, blhanel, miniwyo, datafever:
Thanks for the replies. It’s good to know at least some people are still reading the thread (and even contributing!).
I think that I know how you feel though. Sometimes, just sometimes, it would be nice to get an acknowlegement that what one has posted on the humor thread has touched someone’s day.[:I]
Big Z…
Yup, been that burned out before…
. You have so much on your mind, you’ve forgotten how to pee.
I have seen the same kind of damage from “properly loaded” backhoes and trackhoes. If the booms are not locked into travel positions - they can cause some real problems.
dd