I was in Bath, Maine on Saturday, March 5th, when a yellow and black train rolled through on the trackage operated by the Maine Eastern RR, headed from Rockland, ME to Brunswick,ME(or beyond). It had approximately seven cars(I couldn’t see well past all the traffic stopped for the rail signals), all of them had the name LORAM on the sides of all of the cars(which looked highly modified, some even looked like they had large wire spools on them and a tank type car which appeared to hold tar, or some other black material, which was spilled all over the sides of it) . I have never seen any equipment like it and I wondered if anyone knows what the train is used for?? It figures that I saw it WITHOUT my camera!!! [banghead]Thanks in advance!!
Rail grinder.
Dave H.
Here is the Loram website. The FTP link apparently has vidieos. The files are way to big for my connection (3 fr download):
http://www.loram.com/
This link has pictures of one of their rail grinder trains:
http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/railrunner/LORAM/loram.htm
This link has a lot of rail grinde pictures
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/mow18.html
Hey guys, thanks for the info[:D]. The links worked fine and that is exactly what I saw. The websites were very informative. I learned more than I expected. Thanks again[:D].
was it grinding…or just on the move… to see one grind is neat…and to see it at night grinding is just wild as hell…
csx engineer
Ask trainfreak409 I bealive he works on one of these
It was only on the move. If it was grinding I might have figured what it was on my own. I can imagine the show from grinding after dark…COOOOOOOOL!!! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
This is probably a dumb question, but seeing as I have never seen one or never even heard about them until I joined the forum but what purpose does grinding the rail serve? I mean, wouldn’t it wear down the rails faster, or is there something else to this whole process?
it is something to see…untill you get the chance to see it at night for yourself words cant quit discribe it…lol
csx engineer
Rail can become corregated with cyclical high and low spots and griding makes the surface smooth again. Corregated rai is noisey and causes wheel wear and additional vibrations in the train equipment.
The grinding actually extends the service life of the rail (can more than double expected tonnage life), reduces rail failures and makes the rail/ wheel contact patch better.
…now if some car owners took better care of their wheelsets!
[banghead][banghead][banghead]
Yesssss…that is the big yellow caterpillar we saw go through the yards here. It wasn’t grinding, just traveling! Still pretty awesome!
Moo
One of its cousins is grinding south, Denver to Texas. Tied-up in Castle Rock, CO on Friday night at the base of the “rock”.
In 1991 i was railfanning Tehachappi. I was on the knoll above the loop and a fellow railfan walked out the trail to where I was at. We talked in between taking pictures. He hung around for several hours. When it started getting dark he said he had to get to work. As he was leaving he asked “have you ever seen a rail grinder in action”. I had never seen a rail grinder at all. I told him no. He then told me he was the forman in charge of Loram’s RG-8, and they were working on the loop. He told me to meet him around 9 in Tehachappi and he would give me (and my dad & uncle) the grand tour.
Well who could pass up that oppertunity. We got a bite to eat and headed to town. We got the grand tour alright. We spent a couple of hours in the cab of the engine just BSing after we got a walk around tour. He even gave us each a Loram baseball cap. I wore mine for many months after that. I still have it and consider it one of my favorite treasures. These machines are truly AWSOME to watch at work, especialy at night.
I have encountered this machine two times science. Once in 1997 on Beaumont hill, and again in Cascade Locks Or. but never saw the guy that gave us the tour that day.
I wonder where I’ll see RG-8 next.