It Looks like a RV!

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/60018/limit/recent

2

Jav,

These are some nice photos ,I REALLY like the late afternoon and evening shots ! WOW !

Thanks for sharing…

3

… and I’ll bet that there are a fair number of people who would like to take that rig on vacation on a couple hundred miles of mainline.

4

I’d like to take an RV chassis and build on it an 8/10th scale SD40-2 and drive around in it. That thing would turn heads everywhere.

5

Recently, there was a pair of these track inspection vehicles working over on the Ark City sub towards Whichita; as well as on the Emporia Sub around Mulvane, Ks.

6

Having spent some time on these, the looonnng step up from the ballast shoulder after getting down to hand-test to confirm or negate an indicated or possible defect gets a little old after a few dozen repetitions - although I see that this one has a flight of steps in the center rear down to within a foot or so of the tops of the ties - nice ! Also, the ride, cramped quarters, and generally permeating aroma of “Essence de Railroad” (diesel, creosote, coffee, stale wood, etc.) is nothing to write home about.

And I’ll be that those people wouldn’t much care for some of the hours and weather that the track becomes available for such low-priority traffic (to the DS, anyway) - middle of the night, rain, wind, and snow don’t matter, etc. One experience some years ago was after the contracted services crew had spent all night testing on a major East Coast transit system, then ran down to do our little 1/2 day job - then were going to another transit system nearby to test that night. So somehow I doubt that those crews were subject to the Federal “Hours Of Service Law” back then - anybody know if they are now ?

  • Paul North.
7

I really don’t know, but I’d hazard a guess that the crew in the back isn’t. The driver probably is.