What Is It and What Does It Do???

[BNSFNUT]

It looks the same as an NS ballast cleaner that is parked in the yard localy.
I had to ask one of the NS MOW crew what it was.

[mudchicken]

If the idler/cradle car is at Augusta, the crane may be along the main track nearby (25-30 miles) where there is not much storage room for the crane plus cars of bridge material. In the past, it was not unusual to set the Birminghammer pile driver on the ground on blocks near the construction site and leave the idler car in the hole nearby. The rest of the crane may be setting precast concrete box girders and renewing the bridge in stages. The Santa Fe cranes were usually dark blue in color with yellow trim, BN's were primer brown, tan or even silver depending on where they came from. Bridge cranes are few and in short supply, they never were idle for long on any railroad.

[edblysard]

See, all it takes is asking!
By the way, the big red boxes are "tool" sheds, holds parts.

[kenneo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ironhorseman

To: mudchicken:

RE: Ohio Crane

Um, yes, I've seen a crane with it, kinda beat up, don't know if I'll call it an "Ohio" crane. The crane wasn't always there. As I recall (this was months ago) there would a crane one day and gone the next. The railcar in the picture spent most of it's time by itself in Augusta (but sometimes something was with it).

What we have here is, not a failure to c'mc'kate, but an idler for the pile driver attachment to an Ohio, like MC states. Looked like that to me too, but mostly how we have them around here is without the cradle, just flat on the flat. [2c]

[ironhorseman]

To: mudchicken:

RE: Ohio Crane

Um, yes, I've seen a crane with it, kinda beat up, don't know if I'll call it an "Ohio" crane. The crane wasn't always there. As I recall (this was months ago) there would a crane one day and gone the next. The railcar in the picture spent most of it's time by itself in Augusta (but sometimes something was with it).

[Anonymous]

Mud, havn't seen a steel gang out there of late......but, most of my runs lately have been at night. I havn't encountered but a couple form Bs lately......spooky! Screw track maintenance! It is peak season. Uphill slow, downhill fast. Tonnage first, safety last.
Ken

[edblysard]

I would bet your right mudchicken.
I have seen one of these before, about 6 years ago, but just cant quite remember.
Old age does than to you.
I think the piece of equipment is part of the take up spool, a closer look shows what looks to be wheels behind the handrail, and to the left, it appears there is a plate to mate the upright crane with this piece.
Tried to enlarge the photo more, but lose too much definition.
But this is part of some type of crane, be it a pile driver, or a draglink.
And it is way too clean to be a ballast conveyor, no where near enough rust and dirt!
I would go with muddy's concept.
Ed

[mudchicken]

Ironken:

You have a steel gang down there on the old middle division anywhere? Machine is much too clean to be a dirt or ballast conveyor. It clearly is a BNSF M/W series car in the work equipment series converted from an 89 ft. pig flat.

(1) Possible protype for distribution of OTM? (Plates, pandrols, clips, anchors, etc?)....ONe piece of equipment on the railroad that has yet to be perfected /Holley had a rotating magnetic drum that never worked right .....

(2) more likely a Cradle for a Birminghammer pile driver and there is no conveyor on top? (Anybody seen an Ohio locomotive crane running around nearby? B&B Gang nearby driving a bridge??, Ironhorseman?) Walks & handrails looks like a service platform to work on the leads of a piledriver before the thing is lifted vertically...(lots of injuries have happened while trying to fix pistons after a mis-fire on the pile driver mechanism on a diesel Birminghammer piledriver)
Have seen similar cars without the handrails used with locomotive cranes in bridge service...(ATSF's were silver, BN's were primer brown)

Mudchicken thinks its the latter (#2) if he had to place a bet.

[ironhorseman]

WOW! Those are some good guesses and I wish had the answer (sorry if some of you thought it was pop quiz!)

The majority of opinions seem to claim it has something to do with ballast, whether it be cleaning, seperating, etc.

If I remember right I think it did have a conveyor belt on it. I didn't want to go snooping around parked rail equipment. Sometimes a flat car with a small storage shed looking thingy would be parked with it and sometimes not.

As far as pictures in post click that little dealy to the left of here that says *Show Forum Code and then go down a bit and it shows you the img codes in brackets. I put my pictures on a free website and then use that specific address the pic file is stored in to get an img on here.

[Modelcar]

....Those Santa and Engine smilies are neat...and I too noticed the smoke indicates he is going forward....I have to bone up on the "img tags" process.....Haven't done any of that.

[Anonymous]

Could it possibly be some type of loading conveyor?Perhaps to help in clearing a landslide,or cleaning up spilled coal or ore from a wreck in a remote and or confined area?Just a wild guess.

[Anonymous]

Modelcar: I didn't notice that, but your right my train is in reverse (which is kooky because the smoke looks like its going foreward) and my Santa & Train smilies are placed with the img & /img tags. They are acctually from Smiley Central smileycentral.com.

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PS. Mookie, if you read this, they also have cat smileys
PS. v.2 Everyone interested, they also have animated christmas and Saddam capure smileys (see my profile for a saddam smiley)

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[Modelcar]

....I believe it was Nora that commented recently about how we can post photos now...but I somehow missed the "how to do it" along the way.

[Modelcar]

....Dough: I did take a look after hitting "quote"...and I'll have to think about what is happening there...Thanks for the info.

[Anonymous]

Ya'll got me stumped.[%-)] I have no clue[:D]

[Dough]

I was suprised too Modelcar. I belive that they have finally allowing image tags. Just use img and /img in brackets just like the url for links. Hit the quote button for ironhorses post and take a look at how he did it.

[Modelcar]

Ironhorseman....The photo surprised me. How do we do that...?? Do you mind telling.

[Modelcar]

....A possible transition car for loading or unloading continous rail to or from a work train...???

Trainheartedguy...I believe your wheels are turning backwards on your [icon], engine...

[csxengineer98]

it looks like some kind of convoer belt system on a flat car... it dosnt look like anything that i have ever seen that is MOW.

[CShaveRR]

It's probably part of a ballast cleaning system. The actual undercutter and cleaner aren't there, but the dirt from the operation probably goes over the conveyor and into dump cars behind it.

[Anonymous]

hat must be it Nora. Why can't I ever figure these things out (Im still confused)

[Nora]

I think that's a Railfan Confuser Car.

--Nora

[Anonymous]

I have a picture I took of a car that's simmilar, but not quite the same as this on sitting in the CP yard in Regina, Sask. I'm not sure what it's for either.

[JoeKoh]

My guess is a ballast cleaner spreader.
stay safe
Joe

[Anonymous]

Ironhorseman - Im just as confused as you! Mayby its a giant Cow Tipping Machine!!! lift the cow into a conveyar with a small crane, the cow goes up, turns, and tips off the side. If its not, we can build one, sell it and make a fortune advertising it as "something for railroad Employees to do in their spare time".

[edblysard]

How about a small power plant?
Ed

[Anonymous]

Just a guess- a ballast cleaner.[8D]

[Anonymous]

Augusta KS. huh! I'm walking out the door right now. Should be going thru beautiful Augusta in a few hours.
Ken

[ironhorseman]

This rail car was parked on a siding in Augusta, KS various times throughtout the spring and summer of 2003.

1 What is it?
2 What is for/do?
3 Is it part of some MOW?

[%-)]

(If you need to see a larger version please go to http://www.angelfire.com/film/trains0/thing.html )

(I'm not adding anything to this thread, I'm just changing the source of the photo - 1/28/2004).