All Right, lets get the way back machine on, a couple of years since it happened, a UP WB hit a BNSF mow equipment on the diamonds, it tore it up pretty bad, I thought about it watching these guys dodging the UP’s as they scrambled back and forth across the diamonds today.
I came in when the whole area was being worked with back hoes and such.
The CAM then was still the black and white, 3 inch by 2 inch, soundless. I went into the forums to see what had happened and was quite a bit of detail, and it had been witnessed on the cam.
I also couldn’t tell what all the MOW equipment was doing on the BNSF line today, but couldn’t watch for very long. Looked like one of the trucks had a back bin full of ballast.
Back to shunting. I think I asked this question about three months ago; someone answered it–and I have forgotten the answer. I looked for the thread, but could not find it.
I have noticed, along the former Q and former GN, “shunt” signs at public grade crossings–and wondered what their significance is.
Are you talking about the rail grinder train that tore up some containers on a stack train a few years ago? If I recall, the grinder was on the UP and the stacker was on BNSF. It’s been a while.
Larry, they were generally close to the crossings. I don’t remember them as being far enough away to be where the crossing circuits begin. It may have been MC who responded–and he might take pity on me and respond again.
Heard a new term (for me) on the scanner today. The MoW crews were asking about the fuel levels on everying including the “knocker”. I had to look it up.
I take it that the arms in the cages on each side swing in opposite directions so that the ends wallop the sides of the rail heads at the same instant, then swing the other direction to hit the other side of the rail heads.
It “LOOKS” like a silly invention, but I bet it is a most useful (even if extremely noisy) piece of equipment. I’d love to see it in operation.
I wonder how fast the hammer heads hit the rail. Once a second? More? Less? Adjustable? Does it automatically move along the track while in use or is it anchored down in one place to deliver a specified number of blows and then moved to a new location?
The last photo was just taken, over to the right of the BNSF looks to be a lenght of rail.
Just spent a week in the hospital, had a cyst on my back implode. Have never heard of such a thing before, but the doctor said it wasn’t that unusual. I can tell you this, it had a lot of pain to it. Can barely move my left arm.
The WB UP runs a lot of container trains. Are those mostly empties going back home? If not empty, where are they coming from? I assume there must be some containers coming into the east coast?
Looks like we’ve aquired another spider or the same one returned. It’s not too obvious (to me) most of the time but when the sun is getting low as it is now, the reflections through the web make it almost impossible to see anything. We need a good rain with wind out of the west.
