Hi I was wondering how often do track cleaning trains get sent out Iwas wondering this because a week or two ago I got stopped by a track cleaning train down by the amtrak station here in milwaukee it had two engines one on the front and and on the rear end and in the middle it had about 10-15 mixed cars from passenger that holds the crew to couple of tank cars and even some cars that had brushes that scurbs the tracks clean. if you can answer this for me i would really like it ,
I live in Easton ,Pa. When the rail grinding trains come through there is a car towards the back that has brushes on it (similar to a PS2 hopper)which sweeps the tracks for metal filings. I’m told this is so the trains coming through later do not have breaking issues.
To my knowledge, there is no such thing as a track cleaning TRAIN.
(1) The “brushes” you are looking at are screens for fire and spark suppression. The tank car is on-board water supply that is piped under pressure to the front & rear of the train. The screens also act as a buffer in case one of the grinding stones breaks and flies off…IF THE GRINDER IS WORKING, GET THE HECK AWAY FROM IT!!! (100 Ft + or more)…you will also see water cannons (Larry knows these well [:D]) mounted at two or three places on the grinder.
(2) Close as I think you will see to a cleaning train is a Knox-Kershaw Yard Cleaner coupled to a set of air dumps… A yard cleaner is a morphodite ballast regulator (Kershaw makes probably the best ones on the market) that can be hauled as a highway trailer, is fitted with knuckes at each end, has a conveyor belt to relay the material kicked up by the regulator brooms to an attached air dump.
(3) Only other thing that might come close is a track undercutter towing a tool car and a ballast hopper or air dump…
(still grin about an incident in Los Angeles in 1995 where the traffic reporters and the news media with “breaking news” about a train of boxcars going back and forth that were “on fire with sparks everywhere” while on the ATSF Pasadena Sub in the median of the I-210 Freeway [(-D][(-D][(-D])
Frisco and other railroads used weed spraying trains to kill the vegatation near the tracks.
They also had a railroad machine with hugh cutting disks on a boom. There were 2 disks on each side that would cut down even small trees.
Before the 80s, before that on some railroads, the railroads used old passenger equipment to house MOW workers who would work on the tracks. The MOW train would move as needed to keep up with the workers.
Maybe it’s a protype for model railroaders,and their track cleaning.[:D]
Mudchicken,I’ve had the privlege once of seeing a Kershaw machine at work.
In the late 60s,one was on the C & O main from Covington to Silver Grove(Stevens Yard) That seemed to be an awesome operation.
They lowered the track so containers,trailers could move under the highway bridges in that area. That particular town didn’t have any grade crossings;all the streets
going across the railroad tracks were by bridge.
C & O SD-18 for motive power,very interesting to watch,especially for a high school kid.
(at that time.)
Check out the C.P.R. that vacuums the tracks around the Banff-Lake Louise area to remove spilled grain so bears aren’t attracted to the tracks and killed, there have been few grizzly bear deaths noted this year, someone must have info on the equipment used.
Well, when ever we do a speeder run on the RR’s north side we usally are cleaning up fallen branches and clean flange ways. During the fall we couple a few full cemet cars and ballast hoppers to get the wet leaves of the tracks if they get bad, but usally nature takes care of that.