I remember seeing a piece of MOW equipment years back and never figured out what it was called or what it did. I was a simple cab with a long (70-90 foot) truss assembly in front of it. The truss assembly resembled a T.V. tower on homes. Any idea? I tried to find pics online but no luck.
Thanks
I recommend going to http://www.railcarphotos.com/ or http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?cid=15 to see if you can find anything that looks like it.
I suspect what you were seeing was a Tamper. The contraption that it shoves out in front of it carries lasers that are used for the machine to be able to measure the proper line and level of the work it is doing.
http://www.plasseramerican.com/en/p_tamping/00index.htm
Tamper was also my first thought - but the main frames for those are much bigger/ thicker/ heavier than the TV antenna described, as can be seen in the photos at the Plasser website that Sam referenced above.
I also thought of a Track-Laying Machine, but again those frames are much thicker.
Next I thought of an MOW crane, but with the boom all the way down flat in the ‘travel’ position, and maybe just resting on a small track car or buggy out ahead - esp. a crane for a Bridge and Buidling gang, which might have a longer boom for handling smaller pieces at longer reach/ distances than one used by track forces. Here’s a link to a photo that’s kind of what I mean:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1439389
But after reading BaltACD’s comment, I’m back to thinking it wa a tamper. Today’s tampers use very light square aluminum ‘push bars’ - maybe 2" x 2" or 3" x 3" square or so - and ‘buggy’ wheels to push the lasers/ light beams out ahead of them, but I believe when that method first started, the frame was more of light truss design. That would have been in the 1960’s time frame, so it may be tough to find an on-line photo of one, though.
Here’s a link to a webpage for a Mark IV Tamper that shows one of the modern “light buggies” in the deployed position:
http://westernrailwayequipment.com/2010/08/tamper-9/
And a link to a small photo of a Mark II “Torsion Beam” type:
http://westernrailwayequipment.com/2010/03/ballast-tamper-5/
And another one:
http://railgallery.wongm.com/track-machines/ballast-tamper/D109_0952.jpg.html
I’m now thinking that antenna-frame was an early version - maybe a Mark I ? - of the Torsion Beam Tamper. I’ll keep my eye out for a photo that I can scan in and post . . .
This thread here is a duplicate-could you delete it?
Thanks everyone. The more I think of it, it was probably a tamper but before the newer torsion beams. It has been very long since I had seen it so my memory of it is a little fuzzy.
I FOUND IT!!! It was a tamper, you can see it go by towards the end of this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1J_R48VnzM&feature=fvsr
Thanks for everyone’s help!
Not a laser, but instead a very bright white light. The Canron/Tamper/Fairmount type use the neon bulb projector light with a chopper motor ( a spinning 10 " dia disk with 4 - 1.5"circular holes in it ) to create a frequency that the light receiver at the back of the machine can pick up); Jackson does the same thing with strobe lights; Plasser uses a wire instead of a light beam (limiting its effectiveness IMHO)
Both the Tamper (now Harsco) type and the Jackson type liners do have an optional detachable buggy with a laser “canon” (same type used in sewer and pipeline construction) that can be set a quarter mile ahead to guide the front projectors on the liner which is connected to an ABS drive motor (think electric worm gear motor driven rack & pinion system) … This only is used for horizontal alignment.
All three of these machines, without external help, can only smooth an existing curve. NONE can independently change the alignment to some known mathimatical solution. (mechanical string lining, if you will) Once you get much over a six degree curve, the extension of the front buggies on the machines gets shorter because the “shadow boards”) that cut off the light near the cabs on the Tamper & Jackson machines can’t reach out far enough to cut off the light beam.
A Canron/ Tamper/Harsco machine, fully stretched-out, measures about 120 feet from ftont to back.
Answered your question - but started mine ! Your recollection is dead on - the tamper shows up suddenly as the video restarts at about 4:22 of its 4:55 length - most of the preceding 4 mins. is just watching a ballast regulator sit there. Unfortunately, the video doesn’t start until the tamper is passing the camera, so no number, name , or other ID is visible to me . . .
And yes - it surely does have 2 sections of light trusses that do look just like a home antenna tower between the tamper, a 4-wheel intermediate buggy, and the light buggy - I’ve not seen that before, as far as I can remember. The intermediate or spacer buggy is pretty heavy duty for this application, though . . . .
I believe this video is from NS, and those folks have a long history of modifying and adding to equipment as they see fit. I wouldn’t rule out that this is a ‘one-of’ machine, or close to it. My instincts are saying “Canron tamper” to me, but I can’t show one to you or prove it just yet . . .
Thanks for finding and sharing that video. Now to get some more answers . . .
mudchicken, thanks for that little dissertation on the light sources - more info than I knew, in less space than I’d seen before.
[:-,] Old joke - Question: “How do you keep the trackmen from cutting in front of the light beams and screwing up the tamper’s auto-jacking function ?”
Answer: "Tell them if they keep that up, it’ll make them impotent . . . "
Maybe more later about that alignment function . . . as Mac says, it’s kin
…you hand the offending trackman a small jack, a lining bar and a tamping fork and tell him he has to fix the defect before the ballast regulator arrives…The incursions stop quickly out of sheer embarrrasment[;)]
Link to a darn good still photo (not mine, of course) of one, with that antenna-like truss connecting the light buggies:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=83632
I’m not familiar enough with this model to ID the tamper without a better photo or more info, though, and there isn’t any in the caption . . . maybe mudchicken can ?
Link to a fair-quality photo of more typical tamper with its light-buggies and spacer bars folded/ placed on top of the beam in the ‘travel’ position:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1676568
Heavilly modified Mk 3 Tamper - If the Machine Operators tar them up enough, the motorcar maintainers get creative…not standard is the nolan rail trailer and the laticework radio mast booms. The front buggies are basically the same on a Mk1 - Mk. 3… The Mk 4 (IV) has the folding accordion buggies which have issues… A hot fudge sundae says the original buggies and spacrers were wrecked by the MO’s eithe colliding with something or derailing and bending things up beyond repair while working in ballast up to the top of rail. MO’s have a miserable time seeing forward because of the shadow boards and the junk up front.
Paul’s next picture is a Mk I or a Mk-II (same cab) all folded up in travel mode… in the hole. Have not seen a picture of a jack tamper (older than a Mk-1 but mure effective on lifting muddy yard track) or a pup/chase tamper (no buggies) …neither photo shows me if they are capable of being switch tampers. (ie can the tamping motor assemblies travel side to side on a special guide-rail and can they grab the bottom of the rail & lift in the cribs ?)
OK, I’ll gladly buy the hot fudge sundae for getting that critter ID’d. Though I suspect the antenna spacers were added so that they’d to be able to push the Nolan cart and all of its weight, as the standard tubing push/ spacer bar wold likely buckle under that load, on an uphill grade, in ballast to the T/R as you say.
Want more tamper photos ? That can be arranged ! I had to look at enough captioned simply as “MOW Equipment” just to find these two. Give me a day or two to pick out the best ones . . . [:-^]