A couple of days ago on I-80/94 in Indiana I passed about 6 low boy trailers headed west with an entire MOW set of Rail units two to a trailer. Never saw this before. Thought it might be of interest. It was dark and I didn’t see any RR reporting marks or other identifying marks on the equipment. All were well used and showed some age.
Could it be that they’re needed somewhere so urgently that travel by rail wouldn’t get them there soon enough?
Sounds like a tie gang on the move. UP and BNSF both have Denver based semi/lowboy sets around to shuttle equipment between extra gangs. The bigger equipment will travel on its own.
Plenty of circus trains, ramp cars and M/W work trains out here too!
Another possiblity is that they belonged to a private rail maintenance company. It is faster and less hassle to truck the equipment from one short-line to another.
The rail maintenance equipment used at Golden Spike in 2006 had to be trucked in as the Golden Spike is not connected to any rail line anymore.
dd
That is true, of course, but it is also a sad commentary on the state of the industry.