Track work is complete here on NS..

[Modelcar]

...Sounds like the same basic operation we have experienced here in Muncie, In....Crossing repairs....tie replacement....new ballast....track alignment.....and the finished product looks very good....Like it's ready for good heavy business. This line sees a fare amount of grain car business through here, but also a good amount of general freight...Notice lots of tank car traffic.

[swknox]

Here in Delaware we now have a crane, High sided gons with new ties going in as well, maybe NS is having a Maintenance blitz going on. I have also noticed large flat cars with crew cabins on them about 10 in all parked in Harrington DE, where the main switching yard is here on the Delmarva Branch. Also if anybody can answer what this means I would be thankful, I have noticed that they are marking ties with blaze orange paint, which I assume is to be replaced but I also noticed that they are marking the sections where the rail come together with either green paint or blaze orange paint. I don't know what that means but south of Dover we have Stick rail. Also to top it off they are starting to fix the worn out Grade Crossings also an a electric crew has be repairing or fixing and hanging a ton of new electric or communication wire along the poles along the ROW.

[Modelcar]

...NS has loaded specail MOW equipment...about a quarter mile of it onto special flat cars may even contained fastened down rails on the loading surface and chained them all down secure in readyness to travel. That is the equipment that has been working here in Muncie and west on the Frankfort line this past month. Did not drive past the area today to see if the convoy of equipment has been moved yet.

[Modelcar]

....Looks like the railroads are in general doing a fair amount of track updating now...and perhaps they see increased traffic coming....I noted in the Rail News of increased rail freight being hauled compared to last year at this time...Something like 7% more tonnage. That sounds like good news for the rail business.

[JoeKoh]

MC
a loram ballast train has been busy on the old nyc main in wauseon ohio.(now ns)Parked by the depot.
stay safe
Joe

[Modelcar]

Another update for 2 -8 -2.....Noted today NS had about a half mile of track maintenance equipment stored on the last siding in west Muncie on the line to Frankfort....Believe the tie replacement, track alignment and ballast treatment is finished now beyond Muncie and out beyond Camack...Don't know how far they are beyond that point. The finished result does look good. Traffic potential on that line must be right up there to merrit the good track upkeep work.

[Modelcar]

....2 8 2...Sounds like you had a pretty good railroad day in our neck of the woods. Maybe that vehicle you described is the unit I just got a quick glance of 2 days ago and possibly is what had the stick outs on long poles with small wheels and with lights on....looked like something that would be checking track for alignment, etc....
I just crossed that track in the last half hour down by the trade school there on Kilgore, if you know where that is at and looked west and something was working within sight out the track....Some of the gang I've been describing. The ROW looks pretty good once they process all what they are doing.
I wonder if you got a chance to take a look at the ex. C&O Depot there on Wisor where the NS crosses Broadway too....They have renovated that building to it's original build appeareance...including the original type tile roof....and it is now really looking great, including landscaping around it. It has been over a $800,000 project...! It is now ready to become the Cardinal Greenway Trail main offices and a small display of R R artifacts inside. It really looks great...! A wrought iron fence separates the paved trail from the parallel NS tracks heading to Ft. Wayne and points north.

[mudchicken]

rrnut:
It's called a ballast consolidator....works much the same way as a concrete vibrator does when you form concrete. (except at that size it shakes the fillings out of your teeth and anybody else within a thousand feet)

http://www.eurailpress.com/plasser2/en/t1/index.htm
http://www.eurailpress.com/plasser2/en/t1/index.htm (track stabilizer)


Rock Kickin Mud Chicken
(heavy snow tomorrow?)

[rrnut282]

QM
Thanks for the updates. I actually made it down to your neck of the woods Sat. I saw some of the equipment parked down by High St. All the usual suspects were there (regulators, MK4 tampers, tie inserters, spikers, etc). There was one I hadn't seen before. It was just a long box with cab windows at each end. I couldn't get close to see what appendages it had without tresspassing. It might have a Plasser or an ultrasonic rail/weld testing unit like a sperry car on steroids.

Anyway, I only had 3 hours free and I caught 3 at 6th Street (2 on/off the Frankfort Distrcit) and only 1 on the double track. Typical...the single track main is busier than the double track.

[Modelcar]

MC....I was able to just get passing view of above activity I mentioned in previous post and it is rather involving....I have always wondered [as an amateur observer], about the dumping of ballast on top of the ties...etc....but that is what has been done in this case and that was several weeks ago as the Herzog hoppers worked through and on west. It is true to my eyes as you mentioned, the present ballast did not look that bad...Track was well raised and not down in the mud, etc...I might have discribed the equipment out of sequence a bit in above post but tie replacement....tamping of the ballast down between the ties.....and the alignment equipment....and then the machines with the equipment down on the side dragging the ballast back up towards the track seems to be, from my eyes...what was being done. The ballast tamping was being done with vertical hyd. ram like fixtures pushing down between the ties as it worked forward....As for the model and names on this equipment I didn't have a chance to eye ball that...Just barely able to see a bit what the process was they were doing. It does look like a rather good finished product...
I noticed several days ago on the NS line in the center of town by the Trail Depot where the [Ft. Wayne], line parallels the Trail....and I could get close to it to see...It is 1998 rail and is 132 lb rating. As I mentioned before it has the tie plates and clips and one spike and 2 bolts holding it in place at each tie....That area is on a long sweeping curve.

[kenneo]

Mudchicken - agree about spotting the ballast ahead of time. Only way i've ever seen that works well for putting in new rock is the oldfashioned ballast car with ballast dump doors - cross dump, over-rail and sholder.

Number 3 Crushed is expensive and to simply waste about half of it and get the other half dirty doesn't make sense.

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

oOOOOo....Said I would inform when they continue with track work here....Crossing renovations and replacements have taken place now and the equipment to dig out the old ties and replace with new is working it's way through west Muncie now and on west and right behind is the ballast tamping machines and then a machine dressing up the ballast after the tie work and I suppose realign it all because it had light weight looking small vehicles being pushed ahead on long connections like tow bars but being pushed....Track base should be in pretty good renewed shape as this project pushes through.

Modelcar: Sounds like you encountered a Jackson 6700 (White lights on front buggy)or A Canron/Tamper Mk4 tamper (red light on front buggy) doing a skin lift. Plasser liners (a.k.a Prussian nightmares) use a hydraulic stringline solution w/ no lights... Railroads have been sold a bill of goods on predumping ballast: (1) Never really works and (2) shoulders in CWR territory never are adequate/ possible future sun kinks!

Ballast regulator follows behind (Kershaw Model 46????) with rotary broom, scoop wings and plow.

Crossings being done out-of-face, probably by agreement with the local road dept.( can't close - 'em all at once!)

Herzog cars are most likely remote control or GPS pre-programmed remote dump cars.
Dumping ahead of the tie gang implies (to me) a skin lift going on (minimum raise of track with relining of no more than 2-3 inches) and that the existing ballast was not badly fouled with mud & dirt.

Rock Kickin Dirty Bird....[banghead][banghead][banghead]

[Modelcar]

oOOOOo....Said I would inform when they continue with track work here....Crossing renovations and replacements have taken place now and the equipment to dig out the old ties and replace with new is working it's way through west Muncie now and on west and right behind is the ballast tamping machines and then a machine dressing up the ballast after the tie work and I suppose realign it all because it had light weight looking small vehicles being pushed ahead on long connections like tow bars but being pushed....Track base should be in pretty good renewed shape as this project pushes through.

[Modelcar]

282: Yes, to answer your question of some time ago of the work on the NS here in our area...Our mornng paper indicates the work is happening throughout the Muncie area on the crossings and also west from Muncie to Alexandria on track work.

[JoeKoh]

They have been working on the old nyc main in NW ohio parking their equipment in sidings around my workplace.Orange tracksters and a yellow generator truck.
stay safe
Joe

[Modelcar]

....Yes, it's very regonal...That's what's so frustrating about the whole mess. From what they are doing we can see it has nothing to do about OPEC...it's just what certain regons decide how bad they're going to jerk us around. 15 miles south to New Castle usually produces much lower prices...

On the track work...They offloaded ballast in this area this morning along the track and the new ties are still laying along the ROW...I understand they have machinery to remove and install the old and new ties...but why lay the ballast down first....That sure seems a bit strange knowing the ballast has to be under the ties...

[rrnut282]

Strange our gas dropped to 1.66. Amazing what 70 miles can do!

[Modelcar]

....latest of track restoration work here in Muncie on CSX...Crossing replacement ongoing this week and [M C]: I just witnessed a train load of ballast being off loaded onto a passing track in this area and all the cars were special and from Herzog...

And P S: The wonderful gas Co's just changed our gas price overnight from 1.58 to 1.83...! Premium: 2.03

[Modelcar]

MC: Just noticed your post and took a look at the publication cover and we'll take another look next week as you mention.....I haven't seen that tie dropping train with the "cartopper" on it since it made it's appearance last week....Perhaps they are making their way farther west with this project. I did see they are working on one of the road crossings today here in Muncie....They are going to do several. They seem to be serious in doing a pretty good update in maintenance of track on this project.
Thanks for the update....

[mudchicken]

Modelcar:

The office mail got distributed this morning and 'lo and behold, on the cover of this month's RT&S (sorry, not a Kalmbach publication - more of a "Better Yards and Backtracks" for those of us in the maintenance disciplines) is a jimbo crane on the cover of March 04's issue ...alias a John Deere powered "OTM Tracker"...

http://www.rtands.com/

Take a look at http://www.rtands.com in about a week or so when they change covers on the website (Feb 04 is there now).....Also has a nice picture in there of a TC-80 brought up in another thread...The article in the 3/04 RT&S is about material handling trends p21-26...



Dirty Bird[banghead][banghead][banghead]

[Modelcar]

Where there's a will, there is a way....[rail movement].

[Puckdropper]

Do those Cartoppers have any nick names? Looking at the picture of the one mount and dismount, it looks like a giant lizard.

[Anonymous]

I got to be part of an unusual method of rail repair today. A wye on the west side of town was out of service. On our way to the west side of town the MOW dept. was working on some rail by the CSX/NS diamond. We were briefed that we would have to drag two 400ft pieces of welded rail through town to the wye. The rail was chained to the front knuckle, a front end loader with some hook attachment positioned the rail in between the existing rail and we starting dragging. Now, knowing that people would probably go through road crossings as soon as the engine passed we had about 4 MOW trucks stopping at crossings to protect and then racing onto the next crossing. We shoved with a caboose and just crawled through town. Probably the only time I'll ever see something like that! [tup][swg]

[Modelcar]

I can see where it's uses, with various attachments, would make it a do it all machine.
And surely understand why the company would want to send the operator with the machine. The pic. in my mind has the machine lowered somewhat in profile as you mentioned [M C], and that's why I at first didn't think it had enough profile to be a front end loader type machine...Now with that possible feature, it very well may be it.
Each season it seems different rail equipment for MOW continues to pop up...Someone is working smarter and coming up with much smaller stuff to do so many jobs better. Looks like good planning down at the concept stage of making something to do a job....and contacting some of the people that really do the work to help with their input to influence what the machine will look like and will be able to do.

[mudchicken]

While on the subject of cartoppers:

It has taken railroads a while to learn to make sure that when not working, to have the cartopper lower itself totally into an empty gon while travelling. There are plenty of cases where a cartopper has been left on top of a partially emptied car while moving, only to find a bridge, passenger canopy or a shop door. The result is plenty expensive.

Herzog sends operators for their equipment out of western Missouri....I don't think you are allowed to rent one of those things without one of their people...They certainly can make those things dance!

These rascals do great as well scooping ballast, with a magnet dropping OTM along the R/W or picking up scrap.

[Modelcar]

....Wow, that is a collection [in photos], of MOW equipment....and that Herzog Cartopper is somthing else..! For sure, the operator of the Cartopper moving from the ground and lifting itself up and onto the gondola top rails is some task...and it looks to me the operator has to really know what he is doing to get that accomplished and not upset himself down on the ground by touching the wrong lever, etc.....Wild. I'm anxious to see the rig in our area again now to try to ID what it really is. I have noted the rig [work train], was parked in town on a siding several nights ago but was in poor light to be able to see any details. We'll keep our eyes open and hopefully our camera lens near by as more work progresses.

[Anonymous]

There are usually lines of MOW equiptment on the CSX line here in Brunswick, but they have been gone since CSX has placed piles of new ties along the line. The ties have been there for 2 months, so I don't have any idea when the ties will be replaced. I wonder if they are going to replace all the bolted rail with continuas wealded rail, those bolts have been coming a little loose lately, and the roadbed could use some work, so it wil be some welcomed maintinance.

[Dough]

Keep an eye out, you never know where they will park it for the night. (As you can see from the pic above.) It really is a hurry up and wait process so it may be a while after they set out the ties. Around here they delivered the tie gang on a set of 89’ flat cars that had rails built down the middle. At the end would be a Kershaw ramp car. (See link below) If they were going the correct direction then they would just drive them off. If not then they would bring in a crane to lift and turn them.

Here are some links that you might like.
Herzog makes an attachment that allows backhoes to work on the top of any gondola. You may have that or you may have a piece of equipment that is designed specifically for unloading ties.
http://www.herzogcompanies.com/ (Link from above corrected. Go to “cartopper.”)

Knox Kershaw makes all kinds of MW equipment.
http://www.kershawusa.com/products.php

This site is great because of all the links. I can find pics of equipment when I don’t know what it is used for. For instance the Mitchell: Rail Laying Crane that I had the opportunity to photograph.
http://www.allenrailroad.com/RailQuick/material_handlers.htm

I hope that that helps some! Some people like a particular road name, for me its MoW…

[Modelcar]

....I hope I can get a better look at it....That little train with the half-dozen gondolas with crane on top and caboose on back is not here today. I believe it is working west to continue unloading the ties along the ROW. I suppose it will be a different accumulation of equipment that will do the work of removing the old and installing new ties and tamping of ballast, etc....

The crane on the gondolas was in some fashion riding on top of the sides of the cars. I didn't get a good enough look to specify more details. There was no entry or ramp car [to load the crane], with this train set. Just the caboose on the rear and engine on the front.
P S: That engine in the photo is really at the end of the line.