Watched an empty ribbon rail train come into the yard.
With the length of the rail in mind, how do they load these onto the cars? I have actually seen them come off, but on?
Mook
they latch on to them and pull them thru the train.
Do they use a special machine, a crane, another locomotive… and are those moveable guides/rollers within the racks themselves? (I can’t get close enough to really examine them - and would have to run very fast to keep up with it as it goes by…)
…Isn’t it just a bit difficult to imagine a full ribbon rail train negotiating a rather sharp curve. One would think it would have a lot of resistence to conforming. Even enough force in some cases to push the flanges up and over the rail it’s running on.
But then, I suppose with all the weight of said loaded ribbon train, it pushes down quite heavily to keep the wheels in place.
Once I heard a ribbonrail train go around a curve. Sounded like an angry giant putting 100 fingernails on 100 chalkboards, but really loud!
I thought those were loaded via crane…read that somewhere…
…Back in '94 when they pulled up the old C&O line thru Muncie here…I remember seeing them load some of the CWR, and it was being “pulled” thru the train in some manner.
There’s several layers of it {loaded on the train}, and one couldn’t load the lower “racks” with that {via crane}, method.
Yes, those are rollers on the supports. Although I’ve never seen a rail train loaded, it’s possible that the loading takes place as the lengths of rail are welded together, and it’s a simple question of threading them over the proper roller. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if a cable at the far end made the process a little easier, though.
The lengths of rail are anchored on a car somewhere in the middle of the train–you can usually distinguish this car by its thicker support(s).
The curvature encountered in transport is usually no more severe than could be encountered in the actual placement of the rail. Think about it: if you see lengths of welded rail lying along the track before installation, they follow the curvature pretty well, too. It really isn’t much of a problem.
…Carl…It seems to work out well as it’s done all the time. I was just thinking of the bending resistance when the “rail train” is full of rails…That accumulation of strength made me wonder about how much resistance to “bending” when you have to bend perhaps a dozen or more of them on a curve.
One ran away coming down Horseshoe curve during the CR days. The weight and low center of gravity are all that kept it on the rails and it made it all the way to Altoona. The Conductor in the caboose was heard on the radio after every curve saying, “We made that one but we won’t make the next one!”
Rail in long lengths is a lot more flexible than most folks realize. Remember that the running rails are anchored to the ties at rather short intervals, just to keep them from moving sideways under load, and that heavily-used curved track requires frequent maintenance, not the least of which is shifting it back into proper lateral position.
Chuck
Mookie -
When welded new, the Continuous Welded Rail - “CWR” for short - “strings” are most often loaded right onto the rail trains at the rail welding plant - there’s almost always a spare empty rail train or two there. The 1st rail welded is directed into the proper “pigeonhole” / rack level and slot at the plant end of the train by the crane or hoist at the outbound end of the plant. Thereafter, the plant’s internal hydraulic mechanisms just keep shoving the rail string down the same path and over the rollers as each subsequent rail is welded on and the whole string is advanced forward, until it is the desired length or reaches the last rail car.
If you’ve seen them unloaded, a pick-up of “released” rail from the track area is kind of the same, only in reverse, except that there are a couple more tricks and opportunities for things to not go well. The biggest challenge is again getting the end of the 1st string threaded through the set of guide rollers on the threader car, and all the way up into the proper rack level and slot. It’s kind of like threading a giant needle eye with steel thread. Most of the threader cars have a self-contained donkey engine that can also power a cable drum to pull the rails up into the right starting slot. After that, the forward motion of the train is used to shove the rail up, guided by the hydraulicly powered and controlled guide rollers on the sides of the threader car to carry the weight of the rail as it is lifted up into the racks. Most times I’ve seen this done, though, if there is a Pettibone crane or loader of some kind available with room to work, that is the preferred method to lift and start the 1st rail up into position - much finer positioning control is available with that kind of equipment.
Hope this is a helpful explanantion. If someone could find out where such an operat
Great! This explains it well enough that I have at least a general idea of how this happens. Having seen the actual train and watching them lay track (from a little distance) it now all goes together.
Gentlemen, I thank you!
Mook
I have been meaning to get down to Pueblo to check that operation out at the mill. I am curious myself as to how all that works.
One of my co-workers quit his job here to go to work at the mill. He said that he would be responsible for trimming the “butts” off the ends of the rail and carrying them to some sort of bin. He explained the “butts” were masses of steel that are formed on the ends during the manufacturing process of the rail. He probably looks like a tree trunk by now.
…A line up of a rail train…and the cars with machinery to remove the CWR {get it up and loose from the ties and start loading it…is quite a string of equipment to behold. I took pictures of such an operation here when they ripped the track out, that I mentioned earlier, but would have to hunt for them…That was 13 years ago. {And they are not digital}. It is a sad maneuver to see all this equipment coming down the track, knowing this is the last train ever to transverse this route, as when it passes…there is no more useable track to run on…Finished…! The lifted rail is now on the rail train.
Mooks: Need to find you a picture of a power threader car (Multiple big rollers in a box) and also the three car ramp sets (hydraulicly operated, example: http://www.wsorrailroad.com/projects/projects02.html ) used for unloading rail. The power threaders are used in the field to load secondhand rail and look like narrow/ tall rectangular boxes on a flatcar . (BN example: http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1077528620013746871nMaxfE …Holland Description :http://www.hollandco.com/equipment/rail-handling/rail-unloader-cars/dual-car-cwr-unloader/ ; )
(Only used power threaders twice in my railroad career. Used threader/ramp cars so often I can do that in my sleep)…i.e.the territories I worked on rarely had rail that was salvageable during relays.)
Years ago in TRAINS read a story about a loaded ribbon-rail train that either had brake failure or was mishandled going down a long steep grade with a number of curves. One of the crew thought every curve would be the last thing he ever saw, but the train somehow made it to flatter ground without derailing. The thinking was that the weight and low center of gravity of the rail train is what kept it on the rails. Must have been some wild ride.
Just think of the looks he must get when people ask him what he does. “What do you do?” “I’m a butt trimmer.” “Say WHAT?”
I busted on him a little bit about it before he left. He definately wasn’t going to get off the hook that easy with the new job title.
…Rough figuring of the weight on a “rail train car” would be about 65 ton net weight. Using 50 rails as having it “full”. 50 rails should make a little difference of the “stiffness” as it rounds a rather sharp curve.
I imagine as someone above mentioned to the noise it was making negotiating a curve, that it might be pushing against the flanges with rather high loads.
Good site showing the installation of continuous welded rail.