Putting the (big) train back on the track.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Something I do not know the procedure for… Putting US locos and cars back on the rails.

I’ve seen plenty f pics of the pipelayong type dozers lifting locos and cars but…

  1. How do they get to site?
  2. Where are they kept when not in use?
  3. How many are needed as a rule… to lift a car… to lift a loco?
  4. When the lift is up in the air do they move to re-align the car/loco and , if so, what sort of distance?
  5. What happens about any damage they do to crops or whatever getting to the derailment?
  6. Anything else…?

TIA [:D]

2

1.) Dozers - flat bed truck. Cranes on thier own wheels.

2.) The Hulcher or Terra (two of the largest derailment specialists) staging area.

3.) Depends on how messed up the car is. Usually, the dozers work in pairs. Cranes normally work singlely.

4.) Usually, they will only move far enough to get the car onto undamaged track.

5.) That’s the Railroad’s responsiblity.

6.) Hulcher and Terra say they will be on the road within an hour of the first call. It is facsinating to watch the ballet of heavy equipement as they rerail.

Hulcher: http://www.hulcher.com/

Terra Environment Services: http://www.goterra.com/

If it’s a minor derailment, all I need is a wedge, a tie butt, and a turnout frog.

Nick

3

You mean a big hand doesn’t come out of the sky and put the train back on the track? I suppose next you’re going to tell us that uncoupling does not involve giant bamboo skewers. Some people just have over-active imaginations, I guess. [:D]

4

Engines would carry rerailers in case of a minor derailment, flop it in place and move the train, tadaa back on.

5

The ‘wheel scoop’ rerailers work fine - IF:

  1. Only one axle is derailed.
  2. The derailed wheel is sitting on the tie plates, flange right next to or touching the rail head.

Otherwise, the car must be lifted and the truck set back on the rails - assuming that the truck frame hasn’t suffered significant damage and the wheels aren’t chipped.

FWIW, the JNR had some high-capacity track-mounted cranes designed for use under catenary. The boom didn’t lift. It slid out on rollers. Never saw one in use, but the (copyrighted) photos I have look like a length of bridge girder on a centipede flat car.

Chuck

6

Did the RR ever have their own modern (dozer etc) equipment? (i.e. post RR owned “Big Hooks”).

Trouble with that big hand from the sky is the size of the footprints that get left everywhere.

7

If it’s where a car just came of the tracks they put a rerailer, or blocks of wood under the wheels and pull the car back on the tracks with the locomotive. I’ve seen it done with both axles on the ground.

8

Now if the cars are heavily damage they are declared “scrap” and cut up on the spot and loaded into gons.

Another wreck service provider is R.J.Corman.

http://www.rjcorman.com/derail.shtml

Heres a picture of side booms in action.

http://nspics.railfan.net/rostr_ns/c40-9w/8984/8984.jpg

9

I haven’t seen rerailers on engines in a long time. And having used rerailers, it’s a little more complicated then that.

I’ve also used rereailers when both axles of a truck are on the ground. The main thing for rerailers is that the car must be upright on it’s trucks, and the trucks must be in-line with the track.

Maybe at the very beginning. Once the dozer mounted equipment, and tire mounted cranes came into widespread use, wreck clean up went to the outside contractors.

Nick