"I've been workin' on the railroad..."
 

This is perhaps out of place in the On-Track machinery thread but I couldn't find a better place to put it...

Here is a picture of a crew replacing a damaged traction motor in the field after the loco had a run in with a truck at a crossing.

http://www.tomfassett.com/railroad/a...ion_motor1.JPG


I have noticed that a few others have posted photos of repair or maintenance operations such as re-railing a loco. Anyone else have some pics to add?

Tom F

Here is another pic from a bygone era when train orders were passed directly to the crew instead of emailing them to a laptop computer.

http://www.trainweb.org/tomfassett/s...ped_orders.JPG

Notice in the shot that the paper has fallen loose from the string on the frame. The yard man had to grab it off the ground and run after the train to hand it to the conductor. It took him a good hundred meters to catch the train. Considering it was moving at a decent clip already and the guy was in cowboy boots, I'd say he was in pretty good shape... :D

Tom F

Traction motor change
 

Blimey...:eek:

we would be crusified if we lift a loco like that, using the draw bar (draft gear) is very taboo in the uk, if we lifted there it would break the locos back.

Traction motors are not changed in the field, they go to a loco lift facility, or to a wheel drop.

I do have pics of rerailing ops, and will dig them out, but only old ones, cannot show any that are under investigation for obvious reasons.

Ringo

...that, or just plain job dedication!

Nice pics Tom.

Funny, that's what most of the people I know who work for the railroad say... :D

The crew was about 400 miles (about 650 km) from the nearest heavy repair facility. In the American southwest, a lot of work like this gets done in the field so that the equipment can be moved to the nearest repair facility. After all, many of the states around here are bigger than most European countries... :rolleyes:

Can't wait to see them... :)

Tom F

Here is a graphic I did for a railway museum information kiosk. It shows how a tamper works.

http://www.tomfassett.com/railroad/g...s/tamper2.html


Warning to those of you on dial-up--this is a big file (nearly half a meg). It was intended to sit on a local computer that was running the kiosk so size did not matter (then... ;) )

Tom F

PS: I notice that a "gremlin" ghost frame has snuck into the image. I'll have to dig the original files out and fix it.

Tamping,
 

Im impressed, very good simple but effective graffic, you'll have to do the difference between plain line and p&c tampers, also pandrols stone blower..

Then heres toughy...how about dynamic track stabilisation....lol.

The uk track authority "Network Rail" has been spending a lot on new macines of late, including TRT machines, RM 95 ballast cleaners, MFS and NFS wagons, LWRT trains..loadsa stuff.

Ringo