This train came down Cajon pass last week: Having no idea what it was, I figured I needed to give you guys good pictures, so I raced down to Devore station to track it down: Each car in sequence: And of course the strangest caboose you have ever laid eyes on, I'm sure! It looks like some kind of maintenance train, but what do all those cars carry or do?
It looks very much like an automated track laying machine or at least part of it. The pic below shows the part that rides along the flat cars on rails and picks up cincrete ties then runs back and places onto the track.
It is a "P 811" concrete tie laying machine. It is sometimes pulled by a bulldozer when it is being used to lay new trackage, or it can winch itself along using a control cab when replacing ties on existing trackage. The first flatcar has a ramp on it that is used for loading and unloading a bulldozer that might be used to drag the p-811 while laying new trackage. The next flatcar has the "rail exchanger". When replacing exisiting rail and ties, this machine pulls the spikes, lifts the old rail and at the same time lays the new rail into position for final alignment by the concrete tie laying machine. The next flatcar contains the conveyor that feeds the new ties to the tie laying machine. It also can feed the old ties back up to the loading station for the gantry crane The next flatcar has a gantry crane used to shuttle old ties back and new ties foreward to the tie laying machine. The tie cars containing the new and old ties are linked together by rails on each side which the gantry crane traverses. These tie cars are behind the actual tie laying machine during operation. The fifth car is the actual tie laying machine itself. If you look closely you will see some seats in the middle of the machine. A person is seated in this chair and is responsible for placing a rubber pad on the tie top where the new rail will rest on top of the new concrete tie. There is also a seat for someone to remove the old tie plates if old ties are being replaced. This machine also aligns the ties and rail into their final resting position. Finally, a human being has to trail this machine and anchor the rail to the ties with spring clips.
That reminds me, the spring Clips I've seen on Cajon and Tehachapi are very different from the ones I saw up in Oregon and Washington. In CA, they actually looked like a clip. In Or, they were a bent piece of steel rod. What's the functional difference?
