The clips are of 2 NS trains hauling combines, the agriculture machines. My questions are this who unloads the machines? Does the railroad have people to do this or would the manufacturer do this or at these have someone over see the operation?
Also, I you look closely at one of the videos you will see that some of the combines have their wheels taken off, would railroad employees mount the wheels to unload? Or, again would Deere or Case have people to do that.
Finally, I assume the combines would be off loaded on a “team track” or something to that effect, or possibly a dedicate facility?, because of the time required to unload them. How long would it take to unload the machinery and how does the railroad account for this?
The one thing I’m sure of is that the railroad would NOT provide people to unload and assemble specialized machinery.
Not much need for combines here in the Dessicated Desert, but I’m sure the same principles apply to heavy construction equipment and the humongous trucks used by the mining industry. Whoever is taking delivery is responsible for unloading. If the unloading is done at a dealership, then the dealer would have a regular crew of trained mechanics and all the necessary cranes, humonguforklifts, wheel mount dollies…
If the unloading is done at a team track (or, more probably, at one of the tracks that serves the mine) it is still the responsibility of the receiver to get whatever trained personnel and special equipment are needed to the site, to do the actual unloading and assembling. It would also be the responsibility of the receiver to get whatever wide/oversize load permits might be needed to move the assembled equipment over public roads from point of assembly to point of use.
Considering that NS serves a number of major Atlantic ports, it’s entirely possible that those combines might be lifted by a ship or dock crane and loaded aboard a freighter, bound for foreign shores.
On my model railroad I have several oversize loads (including heavy machinery) that get loaded onto suitable cars in staging, run from one end of the modeled railroad to the other aboard a through freight, then are removed, not to be re-used for an indeterminate number of operating sessions. Unless you’re modeling Case or John Deere factories or dealerships, a trainload of combines would be a very `sometimes’ thing.
The railroad spots empty cars at the shipper. The shipper loads the combines and/or takes the wheels off.
When the shipper has the cars ready and waybilled they notify the railroad and the railroad moves the cars.
The railroad spots the cars at the customer’s track and the customer unloads the cars/puts the wheels on.
Other than moving and possibly measuring the combines (to see if they are high-wide loads), the railroad doesn’t load, unload or do anything to the combines.
I am always appreciative of your help. I kind of figured the RR’s would not unload the equipment by I just wanted to make sure.
Chuck - I was thinking along the same lines, that the combines were headed to points beyond the shores of the US. I do not see any other reason as to why there would be a complete train consisting of just combines. Here in the upper mid west I usually see machinery like this carried by semis on low by trailers one, maybe two at a time. If you were to drive by an implement dealer you may only see a handful of pricey new machinery “on the lot”.
I do not have the room (like many others) to model a whole factory, but one through freight of tractors/combines or something large every couple of sessions creates greater visual interest and more challenging ops.
Not infrequently a team track would include a loading platform, so the combines would be driven off the flatcar onto the platform. The platform would include a ramp down to ground level. Cranes are expensive to rent, not always immediately available, and the lifting slings could easily cause damage to the brand new combine. The consignee would be responsible for unloading the car, and would have to pay demurrage if he took too long before doing so.
While the platform was often beside the team track, occasionally it might also be at the end, with a recess for the coupler so the flatcar deck would be close to flush with the platform.
Loading platforms were relatively cheap to build and could be used for a variety of other commodities. Automobiles shipped to the local dealer would be unloaded from boxcars. If forklifts were needed they can drive inside the boxcar to collect the pallets.
When I worked for the Canadian Federal Government, we would get all sorts of “weirdo” stuff sent out from the centre of the universe to the west coast by rail. Ottawa would let us know when it was on the way and when it should get to the West coast. Once here the Railroad would call us up and ask where we wanted the cars spotted so we could unload it/them and what time would we like them delivered to that spot.
We often did the unloading in the middle of the night for security and logistical reasons. We also often picked out of the way team tracks/platforms. We had to make sure we had the appropriate staff on hand, in numbers and qualifications to do the job. Sometimes some assembly was required. Security seals had never been tampered with in all the years I was involved with this. The railroad was extremely accommodating and service was first rate.
Railroads might see a reason though. Combines may be “dimensional” loads that are excess height or width. They require special handling and may incur special charges. Trains with wide loads may not be able to pass other trains due to close track centers. Opposing wide loads may have to be held til loads in one direction clear.
So for the railroad, shipping 50 combines one at a time over 2 months may be a huge operational issue. The railroad might greatly prefer to run one train once with 50 cars to reduce the impact on the fluidity of the railroad. Since wide loads have special handling requirements the railroad can move them as convienient. The UP used to run a train once a week from Kansas City to North platte to carry wide loads and it would save up all the wide loads over the course of the week and then run just one train with restrictions.
Another reason to run a solid unit train of combines is to meet the ship on time. Nobody wants to keep any transportion waiting. When the ship is ready to load, the load had better be there.
Those combines are for export overseas as 99.9% of domestic shipments are carried by the lowboy trailers direct to the dealership.
So how do railroads define a wide load? Would they all define wide differently or is it an FRA standard. The combines seemed to fit on the flat cars with little to no over hang and they did not appear much taller than the locomotive. By contrast I have seen windmill parts, specifically the post to which the windmil mounts. Not to mention items like airplane fuselages being hauled by rail. Both item would cause little problems on straight sections of track but are a nightmare on curves.
As an interesting note, I read an article some years back describing how a large pressure vessel was delivered to a local power plant. The preparation including building a new spur to the building it would go in; a special set of cranes had to be built on site to handle the load; and of course all the preparations to get it there including modifying or rebuilding a couple of bridges and regrading a cut. Something like a million just on delivery costs.
