I had to drive about 600 miles today and I saw somthing wierd on the back of a truck on a lowboy flatbed trailer, It had 2 wheels, they looked like the kind of tire you would find on a front end loader, and they are in a straight line. I bet it was probably about 15 feet tall, and looked like it was used for lifting things. I am assuming that it was used with TOFC as it had TOFC painted on it, right above the UP logo. Does anyone know what it is?
Also, How much do high winds affect trains? Do they have to use more power to keep a speed while fighting the wind?
And also I FINALLY got to see a BNSF Heritage 2 locomotive. It was a SD60 (I think) and it was tucked in behind 2 UP SD70s on an eastbound stack train.
Also, Congratulations to spbed on making 3 stars!!!
Here in Israel, the Railways uses these portable lifts to shift containers from container flatcars to trucks or just on-ground storage to permit yards close to seasonal orange and grapefruit orchads (pardes in Hebrew from which comes the English word paradise) to reduce road truck traffic and improve ship turn-around time in ports. (flat car to ship direct transfer) Since the business is seasonal and the time varies at different orchads, portable lifts make sense, insead of permanent cranes. Possibly the UP does the same now.
MC- if you know where I can see some pictures of those thing you mentioned I will look and try to ID them. I saw it as I was going by the truck cause he was only doing 60mph. [:D]
I am going to guess it is a “piggy packer” Then are used to also load containers onto piggy back cars. They are now sort of old fashion since most everybody has gone to the overhead lift machinery. In my hey day the “pggy packer” ws the machinery of the day.
I also like seeing a UPRR & BNSF consist together. Their was one yesterday on the M/T coal on the Rochelle going back to the fields.
It looked like the side of the straddle buggy. Except the part on top of the cross piece that is supported by the wheels was on bottom, and the part on bottom wasn’t there.
And yes only 60. It was on the back of a semi truck. and we were all fighting about a 45-50 mph headwind.
Could be a straddlebuggy crane used at pre-cast concrete plants or pipeyards.Similar but smaller. We may never know. Mini might look over the industrial applications that MiJack has.
Intermodal straddlebuggies are not the most stable things (I think doublestack would attest to that, he operates one- helpless with a flat tire) and are hell on roadsurface foundations.
Winds affect consists that are tall and light, especially TOFC and stacks. A quartering wind (headwind at a45deg angle) is worse than a direct headwind. High crosswinds have been known to blow trailers right off flatcars on certain bridges. This happened on Milwaukee’s Columbia River span at Beverley WA (foldout in March 05 Trains) and CNW’s KAte Shelley bridge over the Des Moines river in Iowa. The incident at the former caused the RR to install a high wind monitor device which could make the signals for that block show a stop indication.
As soggy ole memory would now serve, it was many years ago in Trains (?) that a senior engineer on the ATSF responded re: handling the Super Chief in high winds. (My paraphrase:) A strong trailing wind (from behind) will push you into the stations early. A strong headwind - straight on - and all the power the engines (locomotives) got may not keep you on time. A strong quarting wind (headwind at a 45° angle - thanks, doctorpb) will “grab” and "pull back"on every car in the train and there’s no way you can make the time.
I used to work in a classification yard using remote control locos (cool, but major point of contention in the unions). High winds have a huge effect on empties, especially centerbeam/bulkhead flat cars. The bulkheads act like a sail on a sailboat. If the wind is against you, the car will often stall out before joining into the class track, and smoetimes, before even passing the switch. If the wind is behind you, watch out; the cars can really get moving!
High crosswinds must really have an effect on Hi Cube Box empties? And when you see some boxes and hoppers really rockin from side to side (yaw) and other cars not, does that mean that they may not be loaded or its just a higher center of gravity or sumpthin, plus bad track conditions and/or engineer is speeding?
