Okay, I saw yesterday that UP was doing a bunch of work on the UP Harvard Sub near Palatine and Arlington Heights Illinois. One of the pieces said Fairmont tamper on itI could see there were little piston like things pushing down. So it got me wondering:
What types of MOW equipment are in use with the Class 1 RR’s and what do each of them do. Don’t worry about the cranes, I understand what they do. I’m interested in gear like the tamper.
I also found it interesting to see that UP had their own fuel truck nearby and a coupling of guys working as pump jockeys. I’m thinking it might make an excellent scene for my model layout.[:D]
THERE ARE A WHOLE SLEW OF DIFFERENT MACHINES IN USE. A TAMPER BASICALLY LIFTS THE TRACKS AND TAMPS BALLAST(VIBRATES IT) INTO THE RAIL BED. THEN IT TAMPS THE TRACK BACK INTO THE STONE ON A FAIRLY LEVEL BASIS. MOST OF THE NEW TAMPERS LIKE THE MARK 4, ALSO LEVEL AND ALIGN THE TRACK. THEN YOU HAVE A BALLAST REGULATOR WHICH ACTUALLY PROFILES THE BALLAST ON THE TRACKS AND ALSO ON THE SIDE. THEY ALSO HAVE SPECIAL TAMPERS THAT ARE DESIGNED SPCIFICALLY JUST FOR TAMPING AND LINING SWITCHES. YOU ALSO HAVE BALLAST CLEANERS WHICH PICK UP THE BALLAST AND CYCLE IT THROUGH A GIANT TUMBLER AND LAY THE BALLST BACK DOWN. YOU HAVE MACHINES THAT WILL ALSO REMOVE AND INSERT TIES, SPIKES AND RAILPLATES. IT IS NOTHING SOMETIMES TO SEE A TRACK GANG WITH 20 OR 30 MACHINES OR EVEN 2 OR THREE DEPENDING ON HOW WORK IS ACTUALLY GETTING DONE
If you can get your hands on the children’s video, Mighty Machines : At the Train Yard, there is a small segment on MOW operations. Yes, it’s for kids, but you get to see how some MOW equipment actually works.
I believe that Pentrex put out a videotape about Maintenance of Way equipment. It was about a 2 hour video. It showed all of the equipment and what it does. It also showed the laying of welded rail. It’s a neat video
Two years ago MOW equpment was working on the branch near my house, which was abandoned in 1997. They ran a passenger train this summer on those tracks[:p], so back then the equpment was replacing ties. I might not get all the names right.
There is a ballast remover. It removes ballast on the side of ties and launches all the rocks farther away from the tracks, so you can see the ends of ties. You dont want be near that thing while its working[B)]. Then, some weird little machine removes spikes from the tracks, and loosens ties in ballast. I should say all those machines come in a convoy, one right after another. Next machine grabs one end of a tie, lifts the rail slighlty and pulls the tie out. The tie is then placed on the ground next to tracks. Next, the fre***ies that have already been placed on the ground a day or so earlier are inserted the same way the old ties were taken out. Then spikes are reinserted. The track is then inspected by railroad workers with big hammers[:)], and all missing spikes are driven into the tie. The old rusty spikes are just left laying around.
Ok, im done.
Good Nite, everyone[|)]
The old rusty spikes are great to clean up and have plated. I once was an electro-plater and know all the guy in the plating shop. So every now and then I get them to work on and plate a couple for me. They make great paperweights. People really like the 24 K gold ones. Yes it really is 24 k gold. The plating is done in a nickel tank then you put on a finish such as 24 k gold. It takes alot of grinding and sanding to get a nice smooth surface. Then they are plated. Then the finish. Pretty neat, huh? [:D]
Fairmont Tamper is the name of the company that built the machine you saw, Techguy. It sounds like a tamper; with those piston-like things vibrating and pushing the ballast down and under the ties. It’s more than geting the ballast under…it’s done precisely so the tracks are even and level. The machine probably was extended out in front to hold lasers that help align things.
Two years ago the UP did the West Line (Track 3, anyway) through here. The double tie gang was interesting to watch (there were pairs of just about every machine, and they’d work together to make it go twice as fast–still do only a couple of miles a day. Lets see…spikes on the old ties were pulled, new bundles of ties were broken up and distributed, machines pulled out the worn ties, then cranes lifted the old ties into large dump trucks on Hy-rail wheels. Other machines hollowed out trenches in the ballast for the new ties, which were then put into proper orientation by cranes for insertion by other machines. Tie plates were placed with hand tools. Somewhere in here was a magnet crane to pick up scrap steel (old spekes, etc.) and put it into a go it was pushing. Spikes were driven by the next machines, which clamped the ties to the rails while driving the spikes snugly. Rail anchors were pplaced as necessary, then adjusted by the next machines. Then came the tamper, and finally a track broom. The end result was pretty decent looking, and clean. All the while, trains were running on the other two tracks, and some machines (not all) had to stop work while they went by, especially on the adjacent track. Warning horns would sound down the length of the parade to get the workers out of the way. This description does little to show how well organized the entire operation was. It was very impressive to watch.
When CSX did their maintance blitz on the Clinchfield line back in July, they had a machine that picked up the old spikes. It had two 4 ft in diameter wheels on each side. These wheels came down beside each rail, one on the outside, one inside. The “tread” of the wheels were magnetic. The old spikes were picked up and rotated to the top where a plate scraped them off the wheels onto a conveyor belt. The belt dumped them into a cart being pulled behind the machine. The only manual labor job I saw was two guys placing tie plates on the ends of the ties once they were set in place.
THE TAMPER PICKS UP THE TRACK THEN THE CLAWS PLACE GRAVEL OR BALLAST UNDER THE TIES TO LEVEL THEM AT THE RIGHT ANGLE A BALLAST
REGULATOR SPREADS THE FRESHLY PLACED BALLAST SO IT LOOKS UNIFORM
WHEN TIE NEED REPLACING MOW GANGS HAVE MACHINES CALLED TIE CRANES
&(WAGONS TO CARRY THE NEW TIES) TIE PULLERS TO PULL OUT THE OLD ONES AND REPLACE THEM A SPIKE MACHINE THAT DRIVES IN THE NEW SPIKES AND THEN SOME TIMES A TRACK GEOMERTRY CAR ROLLS OVER THE WORK AREA TO CHECK THE TENSION AND ALIGNMENT OF THE RAILS THE OTHER DAY IN TYLER TX A RAIL GRINDING MACHINE CAME THRU AND GRINDED THE TOPS @SIDES OF EACH RAIL TO HELP PREVENT DERAILS AFTER A LOT OF TRAINS GO BY DURING THE DAY TIME HEAT THE METAL RAILS TEND TO STRETCH AND THIS CAN CAUSE WRECKS LIKE AMTRAKS BUT THATS ONLY ONCE EVERY FEW YEARS