Peco makes one, Bright Boy is one, Railtrack has one (or two)! One of Railtrack's self-propelled rail cleaners. A modular system of water tank, HP pump, control equipment, and (somewhere) a propulsion system. Back half is missing it's water tank and pump but is almost the mirror image of the front half in full dress. Close-up of the high pressure water head (in front of wheel)
Gary or Alan- Could one of you explain to me what exactly is being washed down by this machine? I can se the nozzle is aimed at the rail top. But what would be cleaned from a rail? Having worked in an around railroading quite a bit here in the USA, I'm fairly familiar with the machines we use. But nothing like this comes into mind. ??? Boxcab E50 [ 11. December 2002, 17:49: Message edited by: BoxcabE50 ]
I have never seen one of these machines, but I expect it is to clean leaves off the railhead during autumn (fall) season, where these can be ground into a slippery mess by the trains, and cause trains to slip to a standstill, especially on grades and especially with lightweight multiple unit railcars. This rail cleaning is done in several european countries, but I have not heard of it being done in the USA.
Hi guys, thought i'd pitch in with a bit These Railtrack trains are known as MPV's, (multi-purpose vehicles) and the idea is that it is a do-anything maintainence unit that you can change what it does by just swapping the equipment loaded on the beds, like a container car. So if you wanted a bridge inspection unit you could take the tanks off and load a unit with a hoist instead, sort of an intermodal maintainence vehicle! The wheelslip and wheelslide problem in the UK is quite a big issue, and has even caused at least one serious accident at my former local station (Slough, several years ago, I'll post pics in another thread later on) where a train braking towards a terminus platform slid out of control. (This is the reason I get annoyed when the newpapers make jokes about the railways getting affected by leaves!) When fallen leaves get wet & slippery, they create a film on the rails that collects on wheel treads. That film is partly transferred to train wheels as they travel along, and builds into a greasy-slippery gunge as it goes along. The greasy mess causes wheelslip on the lightweight MU cars as they try & accelarate, and can really kill commuter train schedules on a bad leaf-fall day. On the old Southern, they also lay a substance called Sandite on the rail heads in problem area's, this is like a gel with gritty bits in it that breaks up the leaves and increases grip as trains pass over it. On older style trains with tread brakes (brake shoes bearing on the wheel treads) the brake shoes acted to clean the wheels when the brakes are applied, so stopping was not usually an issue. Most modern UK MU's have disk brakes however, which normally provide far better stopping power, but under these conditions (which normally only exist for a month or less every year) the braking force dissapears from a train if both the wheels and track are coated with slime. Several classes of MU have been fitted with a "one off" emergency sander unit in case a driver finds himself in that rather scary position after the Slough crash. Keeping the gunk off the rails also helps to reduce the number of wheel flats (caused by locked up & sliding wheels under braking) and wheel burns (caused by wheelslip) which are also part of it.
Thanks for the fill-in, Martyn. I wasn't exactly sure of the full use of this piece of 'kit' other than it's rail clearing (cleaning) duties, which I have seen in action. The use of sandite is interesting. I saw a drum of it only day in Gloucester. It must be a fairly 'mild' mix od sand in the gel. My concern here would be excessive use of it creating a possible insulative buildup on the rail head negating the track circuits (if used in the TC'ed areas). You may recall in Sydney, Oz, some years back the 3801 steamer involved in a rear-end accident which involved excessive sanding on a grade to a point that the train was insulated from the rails clearing the signal in rear.
Found this interesting piece on the MPV's as well, on the builder (Windhoff's) website. Windhoff press releases If you scroll down on that page there are pics of one fitted with piledriving and overhead electrification modules. Pretty cool stuff! I also found pics of them on weedkilling duties in the spring, and third rail de-icing in the winter. Gats, just realised it, but you can see the locking points for the modules on the second of your pics, looks like they are pretty much the same as intermodal containers use! There's even talk of using these to run intermodal trains, (they have trialled it) but they would need a lower deck height for regular use in the UK. There is a similar "Freight DMU" in use in Germany I believe. --edit-- I've not heard of issues regarding insulation with Sandite, but it is only applied at specific locations where there are known problems (tree lined cuts are common ones), there is a cool little triangular sign with a leaf on it, with an equivalent one with a red line through to show the specific locations where to apply the sandite. Can't find any reference to the spec of the materiel on the net anyhow, maybe it's even slightly conductive? --edit-- Boxcab, interestingly in doing a couple of quick web-searches to check info for this, I found references to the Long Island RR using Sandite cars, I would think the LIRR is probably one of the closest equivalents in the US to the UK's ex-Southern Railway third rail electric network, being a suburban electrified predominantly commuter railway. [ 12. December 2002, 17:28: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Seems like a very good idea. I wonder why here in North America, I've never heard of such an activity? We certainly have plenty of leaf shedding trees! The branch line (Northern Pacific RY), that I grew up next to, would be buried in maple leaves every October. And I do mean buried. Yet they'd just use loco sanders, and nothing else. Although there were times when multiple NP trains would be using these tracks, collision hazards didn't really exist. But the need to stop, or move their heavy loads up several grades would have me thinking this process may have been worth their efforts. Boxcab E50
That's what I noticed when I first saw this unit, Martyn - the use of intermodal locks. Makes sense, really. Much easier to change out the modules. BTW, interesting press releases. I lost count of the number of places in dire need of weed control, mostly in the cess clogged with blackberry (mostly nice tasting bar Hemerdens examples ) and that stinging nettle!
I don't know about the UK but in the US the electric MU's are not equipped with sanders. I believe one reason is the possibility of flashovers between the wheels and the rail as the sand acts as an insulator. The B&M fleet of Budd cars had problems with leaves also even though they were equipped with sanders. On one occasion there was a rear end collision due to leaves on the rail. If my memory is correct it was found over half the Budds in the train were out of sand. There was also a case on the Boston and Albany where a single Budd car made a station stop using sand which resulted in a false proceed signal. The sand insulated the Budd from the rails and did not shunt the track circuit. The RR added a rule that required single Budds to make two stops when sand was used.
Thanks for the comments Gil, I found an "end of sandite section" sign here so took a quick pic for you.
Martyn. I hate to contradict you but that sign you photographed is'nt an end of sandite board. It actually means End of site of poor adhesion. The sign without the red horizontal band means start of a portion of line of poor adhesion. Sandite boards are vertical yellow boards about six inches wide and about 18 - 24 inches tall. Three diagonal stripes indicate that a location to lay sandite is approaching, Two diagonal lines indicates commence laing sandite, and one diagonal line indicates cease laying. Hope that clears things up. Secondly the Railtrack High Pressure rail cleaner. All very good in theory, but the trouble is that it leaves the railhead wet. And this is not helpfull in the leaf fall season. Now the water jet can get rid of all of the mulch on the railhead, but quite often, it only clears a portion of the railhead about an inch - inch and a half wide. thus it leaves a channel which fills up with gunge again. Its a thankless task and also a never ending one. I know people may laugh but sometimes a Mk1 Broom with a Jeycloth and elbow grease is the best cure. I also think that you would have a job mechanizing that form of cleaning as well
Guys. As a matter of interest, Train opering companies in the UK are now fitting their ELECTRIC multiple units with smart sanders. Class 317's and 319's have been fitted with them and they are very good. They are called smart sanders because they work in conjunction with the wheel slip detection equipment. When the wheels on the front bogie start sliding, the equipment detects this and applies sand behind the rear bogie on the first car. Very nice indeed. There is also a manual control button in the drivers cab so that he can select sand for starting his train away in slippy conditions. This sander is fitted on the non-driving trailer. This will delivers and to the rail if the car IS IN FRONT of the motor coach. If not the sander on the leading driveing train will apply the sand. there has not been any problems with flashover, nor ingress of sand into the motors, so at last our drivers have a bit more peace of mind during the leaf fall season. All we need now is the spanner merchants to keep the sand boxes filled.
Not a problem, thanks for the correction The one I photographed there is an odd one, it's at the outer end of the bay platform at Exeter Central, so the "start of" and "end of" boards are back to back on the same post! Interesting about the EMU's, I remember a trip on the Windsor lines in a class 455 a few years ago and it took ages to get out of the stations because of poor adhesion, I was in the motor car and you could hear the slipping going on!
You wouldn't chuckle!!!! I was with one of my trainees last year during the leaf fall season and it took us 28 minutes to travel from Radlett to St Albans, a trip that normally takes FOUR minutes. Due to wheel slip, and a wheel slip detection device which cuts off power if slip is detected, maximum speed 4 mph. And what didn't help matters, some sarcastic signaller calls me on the D.O.O. radio and says "whats the b....y matter driver, you've been at it 25 minutes". I didn't loose my temper but just said "have you tried sticking your head out of the window just recently?" "no" was the reply. "Then I suggest that you do, then ask the question again" I replied. He did'nt. It was also freezing cold, blowing a gale and raining, and the leaves were everywhere.
Quick anecdote. Middle of February 1995, I am travelling passenger to pick up my train in London. Suddenly the train comes up in a heap. I pick myself out of the lap of the lady opposite me and make my way forward to see if the driver needed help. When I get there I find he is ok, but has stopped the train about 10 yards short of a large tree which has fallen across the track. Walking back to tell the guards and passengers what is happening. This city gent sticks his head out of the window and asks us what the probem is. Forgetting this lad was a bit of a wag, I let him asnwer the question. "Leaves on the line" he says. "Oh come off it" says this chap. "Its the wrong time of year for that" "Not when the buggers are still attached to the blooming tree it aint" he quipped. Carriage falls about laughing, City gent retreats into train some crestfallen. This helped a bit because we felt sure that we would be stuck for some time. Lo and behold about 20 Permanent way lads came charging out of the woods. They had seen the tree fall, and knew that we were due. They had heard the squeal of brakes and had feared the worst. Big sigh of relief, and they set about this tree with some of the biggest chain saws that I had ever seen. They cut a section of the tree away, slightly wider than the width of our train. Laddo then quipps "If we hang on for a minute, I could go around the train and see this off as firewood." "I wouldn't. This lot might buy it just to throw at the duty comedian." We continued on after a delay of about 15-20 minutes. When I get to London, I find I've got sawdust in every pocket, and my drivers bag has got enought sawdust in it to fill an old teddy bear. That will teach me to stand too close to chain saws
