Western Railroad Discussion > From Small To Big MoW Equipment On The BNSF

It was a cool cloudy drippy day in Ritzville, WA on the BNSF Lakesise Sub with a high-ow of 54-42 and .01 of drips. Traffic was fairly nil today with all the track work going on. No trains from 614am till 120pm "Z" train. The big MoW equipment arrived early this afternoon and took up residence in the backyard. The smaller equipment were relegated to the east yard lead. This condition of no trains in the morning has gone on all week. Here are a few trains from today and a couple  from Tuesday.

10/1/2019

1. WB 455pm grain train with BNSF 3867-4281 on the point with DPU.
2. DPU BNSF 3858 on same train.
3. WB 531pm coal train with BNSF 6296-5741 and Warbonnet 791 on the pull with DPU.

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4. Another shot of Warbonnet 791 on same coal train.
5. DPU BNSF 4997 on same train.

10/3/2019

6. Loram equipment arrives at 1201pm along with more equipment.
 

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7. Grab shot of EB 120pm "Z" train with BNSF 7536 on the point.
8. Another quick shot of Warbonnet 774 on same "Z".

Now for the larger equipment parked in the backyard.

9. Large Plasser American



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/19 23:22 by Ritzville.

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10. Dynamic Tampingexpress
11. Loram equipment
12. EB 302pm grain train with BNSF 3867-4281-5264 on the pull with DPU.

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13. WB 317pm manifest train with BNSF 282-9262 on the point with no DPU and a friendly toot-toot-wave from the hogger.
14. A odd looking two-tone boxcar rolling in same train.

That's it for today. Hope everyone has a great evening and tomorrow. Thank you so much for looking!

Larry
Ritzville, WA

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An interesting assortment of Loram and maintenance of  way equipment. Nice catch of the SD75I #282. Don't see those everyday on mainline freights.

SantaFeRuss



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/19 16:59 by SantaFeRuss.

Nice Series Larry!

SouthWest RailCams
CA, NM, CO, TX, AZ
https://SouthWestRailCams.com

Nice shots Larry.  Your line sure gets some high quality maintenance.
Brian Stevens

Ritzville Wrote:
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> 7. Grab shot of EB 120pm grain train with BNSF
> 7506 on the point.
> 8. Another quick shot of Warbonnet 774 on same
> "Z".

Larry,

You mean BNSF 7536 east..  I saw this guy creating a traffic jam around Cheney when I was there about 2:40pm-ish..

Nice catch of #282 and the warbonnets!!!


SP8100



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/19 19:26 by SP8100.

SCKP187 Wrote:
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> Nice shots Larry.  Your line sure gets some high
> quality maintenance.
> Brian Stevens

I agree with Brian. BTW that's the smallest swoosh I've seen on that tier 4.

BB

Thanks everyone! I made that change SP8100. That is a small swoosh on that Tier 4 Bill. You're right Brian, lots of maintenance on this line.

Larry
 

The MofW equipment is for ballast cleaning.
They dig out all the ballast with the combination of side wheel excavators and an under-track chain then pass it over screens.
The fine material (dust, sand, silt) is conveyed away and the remaining ballast rock dumped back into the track embankment.
An additional amount of new ballast rock will be needed, then they will raise, line, tamp, and consolidate the ballast.
Ballast gets "fouled" by fine particles to the extent that it holds water, that has two bad consequences.
First, it makes the embankment saturated which can soften it resulting in poor track geometry.
Second, water held around concrete ties results in a abrasive paste that erodes into the ties, ulitmately exposing the reinforcing tendons.
The fine particles come from blow sand, engine sand, erosion, and the breakdown of ballast rock under traffic and tamping.
BNSF is doing it right; maintenance never ends.

Thank you for that information, much appreciated.

Larry

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> The MofW equipment is for ballast cleaning.

...and the last step of the cleaning, putting the track back in shape for regular traffic. The Plasser 09-3 is an impressive machine. It deadheads to the work location at 60 mph then moves continuously at something like 4 mph while tamping. It stablizes the track as it works so there is no slow order for trains following the tamping work. http://www.plasseramerican.com/en/machines-systems/tamping-09-3x-cw-dynamic.html

I still have unpleasant memories of the BN production tie gang that set a record for production on the Oregon Trunk north of Bend (OR), 10 miles in one day. They outran the surfacing crew by over 20 miles, generating over  20 miles of 10 mph slow order. The equipment in the pictures would have made a big difference...but it wasn't invented yet.

TAW

You're right a very impressive machine! Thanks for the info.

Larry

I think I saw this MOW equipment in Barstow not too long ago

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

TAW Wrote:
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> Plasser 09-3 is an impressive machine. It
> deadheads to the work location at 60 mph then
> moves continuously at something like 4 mph while
> tamping. It stablizes the track as it works so
> there is no slow order for trains following the
> tamping work.

Not to mention it tamps three ties at the same time and the heads automatically adjust thier spacing for irregular tie spacing.  The BDS 100/200 is pretty impressive, too.

http://www.plasseramerican.com/en/machines-systems/ballast-distributing-profiling-bds-100-200.html

On BNSF, the crews of these high-speed surfacing sets are locked in for the year's production schedule and they cannot be bumped.  They are also paid more in hourly rate and the daily per diem for being on the road is through the roof. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/19 16:17 by MP555.