Western Railroad Discussion > MoW Spline Gondola

Hello TrainOrders Community,

  While relaxing with a friend in Roseville, CA, I caught this strange MoW train headed north towards Lincoln.  Specifically, this is directly across the street from the Roseville Faire Grounds where the International Railfair is held.  This was mid May 2019.  Each articulated set has 11 cars, 12 trucks, and looks like it has a continuous load running across the entire thing.  My guess is, it's heading to the Feather River Canyon to build up the track bed.

I've never seen an articulated set like this in CA (or anywhere), is it common anywhere else?  Sorry about the low quality pictures, I wasn't expecting to see this.  The train snuck up on me, I grabbed a few quick shots with the cellphone, then it high balled out of town!

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Two more pictures.

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Georgetown Slot Machine.

https://georgetownrail.com/Material-Handling/SlotMachine-and-SPS

Pretty common in the MOW world. Can be used for hauling bulk aggregate for stockpiling, emergency flood and washout repairs, hauling sections of rail, ROW ditching, tie distribution, scrap tie pickup, etc.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/19 13:14 by MP555.

It's the Georgetown RR "Slot Machine" MOW train.  There are several of them.  There is a crawler that rides the rails to scoop n dump. GRR is in Georgetown Texas.

Last Friday one backed down from Tehachapi to Mojave and turn on the y at Mojave and went east on the BNSF empty. UP power and crew.
Dennis

Posted from iPhone

The things have been around for about 20 years or so.

Well now I feel silly.  It was defiantly new to me, and my friends.  

Thanks for identifying the cars so quickly!

Seems like I've seen articulated coal cars before, just can't remember where.  

zfan Wrote:
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> Seems like I've seen articulated coal cars before,
> just can't remember where.  

BN had an experimental 'TroughTrain' which lasted until the early 2000's.

A similar Georgetown train went thru Barstow eastbound on 7/19, then came back loaded on 7/23 with similar size rock as in the photos, from Murdock, UT.  I didn't see it on the Tehachapi cam, so it may be dumping in SoCal or points east on the Sunset Route.  Only two units- UP 8927 and 7198, on 6 sets of 11 articulated cars.

mapboy

Saw one EB on the LaPlata cam just a couple weeks ago.
Regards,dK

mapboy Wrote:
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> A similar Georgetown train went thru Barstow
> eastbound on 7/19, then came back loaded on 7/23
> with similar size rock as in the photos, from
> Murdock, UT.  I didn't see it on the Tehachapi
> cam, so it may be dumping in SoCal or points east
> on the Sunset Route.  Only two units- UP 8927 and
> 7198, on 6 sets of 11 articulated cars.
>
> mapboy

It's monsoon season which means flash floods. And the Sunset Route is right in the middle of it.

On the SP in East Texas we figured that we needed about 40 air dump cars to fill in some washout damage.
The Georgetown Slot Train was offered so we ordered it with 40 (+/-) loads and an excavator like you see here.
It was a big improvement.  Instead of unloading a whole car to one side or the other, the Roadmaster and Track Foreman could unload exactly how much was needed exactly where it was needed.
The excavator moves it far enough away from the track to provide clearance for the train (as compared to air dumps which can make a pile that rolls back under the cars.)
After the first 20 or so cars we were done with the flood damage and went looking for places to reinforce as preventative maintenance, it used half as much rock to do the job.

Yep, pretty common train . Have seen it in KS. upkpfan

The Georgetown train went east thru Barstow today at 2208, 6 sets of 11 articulated cars.  May be headed to Murdock, UT, for a refill of rock.

mapboy

The rock in the cars are Rip-Rap and not used under the track, but along the side to help protect the road bed from high water or fast water. Can also be used in creek beds or river banks where the water bangs up against the track bed. upkpfan