European Railroad Discussion > Maintenance of Way Equipment

Every day Colas operate what we call a departmental working on behalf of Network Rail from Hoo Junction to the SE of London to the Whitemoor engineering yard in East Anglia, some 75 miles NE of London. It crosses London via the North London Line and the Gospel Oak to Barking line as far as Harringay Park Junction, where it joins the East Coast Mainline.

On Monday I was out for a bike ride at lunchtime and caught up with it as it ascended the spur from Harringay Park Junction to Harringay on the ECML. It had an interesting consist including a crane and assorted support wagons and Kirow-built point (switch) carriers. Colas 66846 was the train engine but GBRf 66744 Crossrail was Dead in Train (DIT).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/16 04:26 by 86235.

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Interesting design on the crane. It appears to be one of the larger telescoping cranes that was removed from it's truck (lorry) chassis and placed on a custom designed railcar.

PHall Wrote:
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> Interesting design on the crane. It appears to be
> one of the larger telescoping cranes that was
> removed from it's truck (lorry) chassis and placed
> on a custom designed railcar.

I've done some more research and it is one of three such rail cranes, by Kirow of Liepzig, in the UK. Technically it's a type KRC1200UK heavy duty diesel crane

Very interesting photos.  Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

86235 Wrote:
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> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Interesting design on the crane. It appears to
> be
> > one of the larger telescoping cranes that was
> > removed from it's truck (lorry) chassis and
> placed
> > on a custom designed railcar.
>
> I've done some more research and it is one of
> three such rail cranes, by Kirow of Liepzig, in
> the UK. Technically it's a type KRC1200UK heavy
> duty diesel crane

It is also low profile so that it can work under cantenary.

krm152 Wrote:
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> Very interesting photos.  Thanks for posting.

+1 to that.  One of the interesting things you can see in photo 2 is that the handbrake wheels are on the side of the crane car where they can be reached by a man on the ground without climbing onto the equipment.  I've often wondered why North American railroads don't adopt this concept - it would be a lot safer (and faster) to set/release handbrakes with this design than the elevated, end-of-car location we have as a legacy system in the U.S./Canada/Mexico.

My other impression is that these shots could have been taken (except for the train itself) in any major northeastern U.S. metro area - there are a lot more similarities than differences in the physical plant there vs. here.

What are the tilt cylinder skeleton frame panels mounted on the flat cars used for??


 

leonz Wrote:
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> What are the tilt cylinder skeleton frame panels
> mounted on the flat cars used for??
>
>
>  
They are to transport pre-fabricated elements of trackwork, ie points and crossings. The tilting facility ensures that they are not out-of-gauge.