Western Railroad Discussion > Herzog welded rail unloading machine on BNSF

BNSF was unloading welded rail on April 20th to relay the large curve at MP 11 on Front Range Sub. north of Denver.

1. Machine at Old Wwdsworth Blvd.

2. Herzog man lowering rail wheels.

3. Machine on rail train.

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1. BNSF M of W men on center car of rail train to unclamp rail sections to be unloaded.

2. Unloading in progress.

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Is the truck the only propulsion for the train or is there a work locomotive on the other end?

thanks,

Jim Wilson

There is, of course, a locomotive. Do you think that truck would move a train of welded rail. . . Joe S.

Yeah that truck must have one heck of an engine if it can pull those cars! Wow. I've seen one flat pulled by a truck but not a long rail train. Plus I hope the truck has a way of controlling the air brakes on the cars or that is going to be a wild ride coming to a stop.

Pretty neat operation overall, just seems amazing that the truck can move those cars on its own.

Rio Grande Fan
Denver, CO

Locomotives drags the train & Herzog's rig, the rig is there only to drop the rails and is not connected to the trains brake pipe.

Notice the long draw bar coupler that connects the rig to the rail train.

I'm always amazed at how flexible that rail is.

I'm a little unclear what the purpose of the Herzog rig is compared to the typical rail train arrangement of rollers to get the rail off and on the ground as the train moves ahead.

filmteknik Wrote:
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> I'm a little unclear what the purpose of the
> Herzog rig is compared to the typical rail train
> arrangement of rollers to get the rail off and on
> the ground as the train moves ahead.

Simple, it cuts railroad jobs and eliminates the need to roster and maintain the associated equipment (ramp cars, winch car).

We had 3 rail train sets here in Wa last year when we dropped some rails for the Turkey trail job and when the P-811 was at Skykpmish.

I would think that working that rail would tear hell out of the truck frame. Maybe they just throw it away every couple of years, compared with the home built equipment that was rebuilt, repaired and had been paid for. The technique of contracting out work has a lot to do with the ledger books and Capitalization, an art form I haven't figured out yet.

Great photos btw. But it would have been nice to add the motive power to the essay.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/09 09:39 by TCnR.

> Simple, it cuts railroad jobs and eliminates the need to roster and maintain the
> associated equipment (ramp cars, winch car).

So labor relations issues aside it just does the same thing pretty much the same way it's always been done except the rollers are mounted to a truck rather than a rail car.

filmteknik Wrote:
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> > Simple, it cuts railroad jobs and eliminates the
> need to roster and maintain the
> > associated equipment (ramp cars, winch car).
>
> So labor relations issues aside it just does the
> same thing pretty much the same way it's always
> been done except the rollers are mounted to a
> truck rather than a rail car.

Pretty much, yep!

With the winch car and ramps, a cable is always used to pull the rail into place. Hook up the cable to a rail at the first car and pull it over the ramps and through the first threader box. Then reposition the cable further back to pull the rail through the next threader box and down close to the ground where it's anchored for the pull.

The Herzog machine is similar, initially. There is a cable on the boom that they extend out to attach to the rail. The rail is then pulled down through their threader boxes. There is no need to anchor the rail to the ground because the rollers on one of the boxes is powered. The train starts to move and the Herzog operator matches the speed with the powered threader box to put the rail on the ground.

Well i need to turn in my engineers card for a CDL.

At most times, the cable is not needed if there is already a rail in the threader boxes and power car, all that needs to be done in that situation is just feed some rail out to make a joint.

TCnR Wrote:
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> I would think that working that rail would tear
> hell out of the truck frame. Maybe they just throw
> it away every couple of years, compared with the
> home built equipment that was rebuilt, repaired
> and had been paid for.

All the truck does is provide a power plant for the trailer behind it, which supports the load incurred when unloading. I would assume the engineers at Herzog are more than capable of designing a platform that will last far long than a couple of years.

According to their website, the unit can be set up or taken down in one hour, allowing it to be far more versatile than the unit dedicated to each train. And it only needs a crew of 3 to operate.

Fred in Wichita

Here's some shots of Herzog's rig I took last year about the same time.

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Very interesting to see the amount of interest in this subject. In another life I was a Rio Grande track supervisor from Grand Junction to Green River in the Fall of 1967. We were stringing out welded rail on my territory. There was some earlier 119# CWR already in service close to Green River, but this was 136#. We chained a rail end to some fixed point which I can't remember. Then we pulled the train out from under. The train was home-made on 50 foot flats and was loaded at Pueblo by CF&I. The power was a single SD45 which later in the afternoon of our work day had turbo problems with the turbo failing to clutch back on the drive train to keep the engine getting air to run at low throttle settings or idle. . . Joe S.