Need some help again from my Forum friends. If a railroad has Hy-Rail vehicles stored in a yard building, would there have been a solid pad or something similar in front of the garage door to make it easier for the vehicle to get on the track? I have never gotten close enough or been in a yard at the right time to see that part of the operation. THank you as usual for any assistance that can be provided.
FRRYkid,
IF the building is close to the track, all I have ever seen is ballast and gravel up to railhead height otherwise, the nearest place where a road crosses the track, on the route they will be working on.
The important consideration is the road tires and wheel rims on the equipment. To some extent that will 'make the difference' between simple gravel up to the railheads or some sort of paved crossing.
I get the impression that many of the modern medium to large 'pickup'-style vehicles are being given 19.5 wheels with relatively low-profile tires. These can be operated at higher pressures, but I get the impression that they generate excess 'bounce' and perhaps lower contact-patch adhesion if run at their "truck" rated pressure. It used to be common for tires to be allowed to deform slightly (as with the 'Micheline' railcar tires in the '20s and '30s) so there was a cushioned self-guiding effect from the road wheels, while still allowing sufficient weight on the converting-gear rail wheels to assure stable guiding net of 'bounce' (in my opinion a Kelderman rear or equivalent ought to be standard on any such equipment but that only affects the back wheels...) As you probably know, self-guarding frogs make most 'duallie' operation inadvisable at best unless the dual roadwheels can be elevated above rail level, and on-rail speed is usually restricted to well below what the truck can achieve 'on its own wheels', so I suspect that most hy-rail operation even from yards would involve driving to 'as close as possible' before getting on track.
When you move up to something like a Brandt Power Unit, there may be more reasons to use a paved crossing rather than gravel, even though there are additional carrying wheels in most of the chassis. Here is a Brandt manual from 2013, which demonstrates the conversions starting on p.28
https://www.omahatrack.com/wp-content/uploads/Brandt-Truck-Operating-Manual.pdf
Note that their illustrations show a crossing, and their conversion times reference a 30-degree crossing which reduces the required swing of the unit, but the wording does not require it. However, without making any exception for off-road/field tire use, the manual states
Attempting to convert from rail to road where there is no road crossing will cause severe tire damage and is not recommended.
Some safety discussion may be found here:
https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/2020-05/MPEComplianceManual2013.pdf
Again, even with airbag suspension of the rail wheels, a Brandt's chassis will run much faster on road, and I suspect it would be more usual to store and service it on rubber tires in a normal truck-shop type building, and drive it to close to the work area even if this is to pick up cars of ties or ballast or OTM (a Brandt is rated at something like 3.5 million lb. "towing capacity" on track)
I'm sure it's been done already, but I've never seen a hy-railer stored on rails in a shop type building. From what I see, they jump off the tracks and just go park in a parking lot at the MOW office like any other truck.
Bue yeah, they need some sort of crossing pad to get on the tracks.
Now I do see Brandt trucks attached to railcars sometimes are left parked on yard tracks, but they get left out places so they don't have to drive them back and forth to the sign-up location every day.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
If it helps to clarify it any, the era in question is the mid-70s to 1980.
FRRYKid If it helps to clarify it any, the era in question is the mid-70s to 1980.
Like Zug said, Hy-Rail vehicles normally aren't kept on the rails when parked overnight. You set off at a crossing, or any place the rail is embedded so the rail is even with the drivable surface, and then park it next to the MOW/Signal office. Could be a separate building in a terminal area or in a wayside depot out on the line.
Depending on what railroad and where at, back in the late 1970s you might not see too many hy-rail vehicles. I remember a lot of MOW and Signal Maintainers just had regular trucks and pickups back then. If they needed to get to some place without easy access, they either used a motor car/speeder or walked in.
Jeff
As others have said, about the only hi-rail vehicles in that era were small pickups used by track inspectors or roadmasters, and Chevy Suburbans used by Superintedents. Signal maintainers used a very lightweight speeder called a "rail rod" and gangs used larger speeders with carts for rail, ties and equipment. Hi-rail vehicles were put on and off the rail at road crossings, and generally were not stored in buildings.
Larger gangs used dedicated purpose equipment that was on rail only (tampers, cranes, tie inserters, regulators, spikers, etc). That equipment was stored on rail (or on rail on flatcars) but not stored in buildings generally unless it was in a shop being worked on.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
And here I used to keep my truck at home at night...
you might see a wood plank crossing just for hyrail, usually it is somewhere remote just so they can clear for a train
I had this feature installed on the Batmobile.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."