Eastern Railroad Discussion > Loram RG 316 here in Battle Creek, Michigan.

I guess it's been working its way east from Chicago, and arrived here on Saturday, August 20, 2016, in the afternoon.

I had to take a friend to her weekly Bingo Game and happened to see the Rail Grinder right in front of the Old GTW Depot.

By the time I dropped my friend off and circled around to avoid any blocked crossings the RG 316 was grinding within the limits of CN Baron, between MP 176 and 177 on the CN South Bend Subdivision.
It made a couple of passes grinding on Main Two and then headed eastward. There are no places to see it until it gets right up to the CN Yard at Emmett Street.

The video is at CN Baron. It's OK, nothing special. I think I end up ruining my videos when I try to pan left or right or zoom in or out while shooting. Oh....and it was raining, not much, but enough that one big drop landed on the lens, about 3/4 way through.

Kind of an ironic twist to having the RG 316 here in town....there is also the LMIX 612, smaller two unit switch and crossing grinder here in town too. It's been working here for most of this past week, and I guess it's tied up for the weekend here.

And the GTW 6225 West left the yard headed toward South Bend, while the grinder was working.

Ron

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Realizing that their are variable conditions that can affect my question, I have to ask it anyway. When grinding the rails with this equipment, just what is the life expectancy of the grinding wheels and with what frequency do those grinding wheel's have to be dressed to maintain the rail contour during the grinding process?

In addition, I realize that each grinding wheel has it's own amount of rail that is removed during the grinding process, What is the amount of metal that each individual wheel removes during the process?
Thank you.

Jim
Hatboro, PA

Chooch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Realizing that their are variable conditions that
> can affect my question, I have to ask it anyway.
> When grinding the rails with this equipment, just
> what is the life expectancy of the grinding wheels
> and with what frequency do those grinding wheel's
> have to be dressed to maintain the rail contour
> during the grinding process?
>
> In addition, I realize that each grinding wheel
> has it's own amount of rail that is removed during
> the grinding process, What is the amount of metal
> that each individual wheel removes during the
> process?
> Thank you.
>
> Jim
> Hatboro, PA

while i don't know the exact numerical answers to your questions ... i do know that different railroads set their own profile parameters for the Loram grinding ... Amtrak's needs will be different than those of say a mountainous freight railroad ... as for the grinding wheels ... there are alarms set on each grinding stone to let the oprs know the stone is getting close to the change point ... the caboose is the controlling center for the train ... there are also monitors inside the caboose for each grinding head for the control opr ... if you notice the first set of grinding wheels are  profiling the top of the head of the rail while the following grinding wheels are profiling the gage and field sides of the rail head

Chooch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Realizing that their are variable conditions that can affect my question, I have to ask it anyway.
> When grinding the rails with this equipment, just what is the life expectancy of the grinding wheels and with what frequency do those grinding wheel's
> have to be dressed to maintain the rail contour during the grinding process?
>
> In addition, I realize that each grinding wheel has it's own amount of rail that is removed during the grinding process, What is the amount of metal
> that each individual wheel removes during the process?
> Thank you.
> Jim

Jim......first off...it would seem that grinding away rail would be totally opposite of what one would think to be normal.  Take rail material away???  But, yes....they do grind mainline rails to put back the original contour of the rail when it was new. And in doing so they only remove very small amounts of the rail.

It's said that rail that receives regular grinding this way will last much longer than rail that does not receive regular grinding.

Also, Rail Grinders of this size usually have two separate crews assigned to each machine. 1) The Grinding Crew, or whatever they are called, the people that operate the machine when it is actually grinding, 2) The Maintenance Crew. The crew that preforms regular maintenance on the machine after they've tied up for the night.

Normally, they grind during daylight hours. They will usually have one or two Railroad Train & Engine crew, Conductor, Engineer, on board as they grind. They will pilot the grinder over the tracks of the Railroad that they are grinding on...  in this case CN. They will be working under the Hours of Service Rules, so they might be out there grinding for 12 hours, or as close to 12 hours as they can, depending on how much travel time is needed to put the machine in the clear for the day. These machines are known to start fires....lots of fires along the right of way, so they are usually followed very closely by Track Inspectors from the RR they are working on.

Once the train is tied up for the night, the Maintenance Crew will go to work, inspecting the machine and doing any needed repairs and of course, changing out grinding wheels, lots of them!

These machines have changed over the years, the machines themselves have gotten smarter. They require less input from on-board operators to do the job. One of the big responsibilities of the on-board operators is to NOT run over the equipment that is normally found along the ROW...Hot Box Detectors, Flange Lubricators, switches, road crossings, etc...etc...

I remember years ago piloting a Rail Grinder, just travelling, from Battle Creek to Port Huron, Michigan, and then through the CN Tunnel to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. That grinder had a passenger car in the consist that the crew lived in while out grinding. They had a Lady Cook with them, that would make the meals for the crew members. And I think she did their laundry too.

Now a days you don't see that anymore. The crews must be staying at motels/hotels. There is usually a small crew bus that follows the grinder.

These machines are very costly to operate so what they do to the rail must be worth the cost or the railroads wouldn't be using them.

Ron

 

Thanks to all of you who answered my questions. These are the things I wanted to know. Regards.

Jim
Hatboro, PA