Watched a construction company unload earthmovers from conventional flats one day. They had some steel plates which they shuffled around with a forklift for bridging between flat cars. Drive-on / drive-off -- very slowly as the earthmover is slightly wider than the flat car deck.
dd
riprap wrote:I'm not sure, b/c my familiarity with this type of device is FAR lower than the rest of you here, but I think something of this sort exists on the UP line a few miles W of Riverside, CA, just E of the I-15. There's a small yard around there that has a small spur snaking out on the south side, with what looks (vaguely) like a ramp structure at the end of the spur. Any other CA railfanners out there, correct me if I'm wrong...Riprap
Fortunately, when the "Proviso Piggyback Plaza" was a circus ramp, they had tracks for trailers loaded in either direction. Which side they used to load the trailers depended on how they had to face at their offloading point. This was eventually replaced with a Piggypacker operation, and later by Global 2, which has a number of cranes and handles containers.
One time I (who knew what was coming) asked a pinpuller which ramp he would spot a particular car at. He had a definite answer, based on the hitch at the east end of the car. But I was waiting for the look on his face when he saw the hitch facing the other way on the opposite end of the car! I wasn't disappointed.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
greyhounds wrote: But unless the tractor stays with the trailer, you gotta' back it on.
But unless the tractor stays with the trailer, you gotta' back it on.
It was cool to see the tractors with the backwards facing cabs (windshield faces the fifth wheel) so they could see as they were backing up. Still staying that straight for 4 or 5 car lengths had to be pretty hard.
broncoman wrote: I think DODX 89 footers are the only ones left with the oppsing ramps at each end of the car. I haven't seen a regular TTX 89' car with ramps in a while. This would go along with the post from above. I know this is a little off topic, but does anyone know how they load tanks? Do they use a crane or is it circus style?Dave
At least in the few places I've seen, tanks are loaded circus-style, driven on from the ramp to the end of the string of flatcars. An M1 Abrams tank weighs close to 70 tons fueled and loaded; maybe someone else knows, but I don't think the tracks would take kindly to having forklift forks jammed under them and slid out from under them. Besides, it would take a heck of a forklift to lift an Abrams.
During the buildup to Gulf War I, CSX shuttled two or three trainsets of flatcars from Ft. Stewart, GA to the state docks in Savannah (distance of about 30 miles from loading to unloading point), for days on end. Ft. Stewart was then the home of the 24th (Mechanized) Infantry Div., with quantities of tanks, trucks and other heavy equipment. I would have loved to have watched the loading/unloading operations, but didn't have the chance. However, I did see USNS Bellatrix sailing down the Savannah River leaving for the Middle East. The city there is atop a bluff that is probably 20+ feet tall, and the side of the ship looked like a 3 or 4 story tall gray wall going past. Quite a sight!
greyhounds wrote: tree68 wrote: greyhounds wrote:Well, somebody backed it on there. Nada - At least at our end, there is a wye available. Regardless of which way the vehicles are pointing when they arrive, they're pointed toward the ramp when all is said and done. I'm presuming the same may be the case at their destinations. Drive on, drive off. OK, am I getting into a "discussion" with a sargent? I never won one of those. And I was a lieutenant.
tree68 wrote: greyhounds wrote:Well, somebody backed it on there. Nada - At least at our end, there is a wye available. Regardless of which way the vehicles are pointing when they arrive, they're pointed toward the ramp when all is said and done. I'm presuming the same may be the case at their destinations. Drive on, drive off.
greyhounds wrote:Well, somebody backed it on there.
Nada - At least at our end, there is a wye available. Regardless of which way the vehicles are pointing when they arrive, they're pointed toward the ramp when all is said and done. I'm presuming the same may be the case at their destinations. Drive on, drive off.
I was a sergeant - in USAF. Civilian now.
Usually the tractor is going too...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
OK, am I getting into a "discussion" with a sargent? I never won one of those. And I was a lieutenant.
Norfolk Southern has a "sort of " circus ramp in the little Hilliard storage yard just north of Buckeye Yard here in the Columbus area. They use it to move prefab MOW housing units on and off of flatcars!
tree68 wrote: I work on a military installation and see circus-style loading and unloading all the time. Despite having to drive down 8-10 cars with the first/last vehicles, it goes quite quickly. Fortunately, the railroad is kind enough to ensure that the loaded cars they deliver are pointed in the proper direction so the vehicles can be driven off. I'd hate to have to back a 5 ton military truck with a short single axle trailer over 8 flats....
I work on a military installation and see circus-style loading and unloading all the time. Despite having to drive down 8-10 cars with the first/last vehicles, it goes quite quickly. Fortunately, the railroad is kind enough to ensure that the loaded cars they deliver are pointed in the proper direction so the vehicles can be driven off. I'd hate to have to back a 5 ton military truck with a short single axle trailer over 8 flats....
Well, somebody backed it on there.
Making sure the cars were facing in the right direction was part of circus ramp operations. Aparently, it's not a lost art. If the military tractor is on the car with the trailer, you can get them both off no matter which way the car faces. But with TOFC, a car facing the wrong direction at a circus ramp would be imposible to unload. It would have to be turned on a 'Y' or a turntable.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy Siding wrote: What other style would there be?
(lowbrow joke deleted)
Actually, there is also "elephant style". To my knowledge such has never been done. Basically, each trailer is forward loaded one after the other by a specialized parallel tractor. Since the tractor unit is beside the consist and not actually on it, once the trailer is situated at the hitch (hitchuated?), the tractor simply pulls away and runs back to the next trailer, no need to back down the consist. Would work great for double and triple combo trailers.
I think CP still uses circus style loading for it's Expressway service.
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
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CShaveRR wrote:Actually, Chad, not all cars had "lips" on the outside. The little barriers running the length of the car near the center (and protecting the hitches) were a more effective way to keep the trailers on the straight and narrow. But those guys were good!.
Yea Carl, I kind of figgured they were all gone. Had to ask though. The only one I remember actually seeing in action was in Klamath Falls,Or. They would load mabee 8-10 trailers at a time. The last time I saw it used was in the late 80s. Aside from the lack of equiptment for this kind of loading I imagine it was inefficient and and not very economical. Just a way for the out of the way places without lifts to be able to load trailers. And I thought about the lips after I posted and remembered that some were as you described. Thanks for your input.
Murphy, E-mail me your addy and I'l send you a drawing (or anybody else interested)
chad@cvhsa.com
The only place I've seen circus style loading, is on the Circus Train, and military shipments. All other trailer traffic is loaded using an overhead or side loader. (At least in my terminal this is the case)
Nick
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