Western Railroad Discussion > How does a ballast train work?

Was watching a Herzog train of ballast cars spreading ballast on the Santa Fe (sorry folks, Hate corporate alphabet names) main in Illinois and was wondering how they control it. The train was moving along about 10mph and about 30 ballast cars back one dump door was open, my questions are: How do they automatically switch doors as they empty the cars, and how do they stop dropping rocks at grade crossings, trestles, etc. as the crew cannot see that far back. They had at least 60 hoppers in the train, and I noticed small solar panels atop each ballast car. Is there some type of camera mounted with those?

No camera. Done by GPS coordinates preset by MOW forces that have mapped where every grade crossing, switch, bridge, and waypoint on the railroad. The Manager of Track Maintenace or Roadmaster, whichever each railroad calls their local MOW head honcho, decides where a project will be and what locations need ballast. That information is feed into a computer program and ran either by a contract employee or MOW employee riding the rear locomotive with their computer plugged into the train. Generally, a track inspector follows behind the train in a hi-rail vehicle to ensure the computer has gotten it right. Sometimes, the computer screws up and dumps ballast on grade crossings or switches and must be dug out.

imrl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No camera. Done by GPS coordinates preset by MOW
> forces that have mapped where every grade
> crossing, switch, bridge, and waypoint on the
> railroad. The Manager of Track Maintenace or
> Roadmaster, whichever each railroad calls their
> local MOW head honcho, decides where a project
> will be and what locations need ballast. That
> information is feed into a computer program and
> ran either by a contract employee or MOW employee
> riding the rear locomotive with their computer
> plugged into the train. Generally, a track
> inspector follows behind the train in a hi-rail
> vehicle to ensure the computer has gotten it
> right. Sometimes, the computer screws up and dumps
> ballast on grade crossings or switches and must be
> dug out.

And don't forget mis-dumping on open deck bridges!

Dick Samuels

Look out below!! My former employer as a joint project with Herzog did the first system for automated and controlled
dump hoppers. The system is hydraulic rather than pneumatic (needs a relatively noncompressible fluid for position
control) for the door actuation. The system was networked so that each car could be controlled from a central point
and the door opening monitored and verified. The small hydraulic units were 12 or 24 volt DC and run off batteries
charged from solar panels.

Out

In smaller work areas they may use the more manual method of having an employee walking along side the slow moving train and is using a remote control device to open and close the shutes on the ballast cars.

But I last saw that a couple years ago. Maybe the operation is now less common.

Gaty

Posted from iPhone

Yes, here it is 2017 and technology is everywhere. Herzog has been doing it this way for some time. No employees are standing back there in the dust anymore and taking two days ( or more ) to dump 60 cars along with almost always dropping some on grade crossings, in switches, through bridges ( half the car wasted ), etc, etc.
At the designated starting point the doors open and the dumping begins, 10 to 15 mph. Np point in stopping. Doors close in those spots mentioned where ballast in not needed and when 7000 +/- tons have been dumped the speed is back up to whatever and the train is gone.

And how come we didn't think of this? Well there went the resort on the beach and retirement at 25.