I've never,ever seen this before or heard of the company on the side,and the train cars looked weird. There was a second loco at the rear of the train,too. This was taken on the L&N Main just south of Louisville,KY
Indeed it is. Speno and Harsco Track technologies, and Loram among others also offer rail grinding services.
The name on it's side, should be it's manufacturer. I believe this is owned by HARSCO Track Technologies. Boxcab E50
Looks like a heavily modified F40PH. I assume it's part of the rail grinding train providing the means to move it around. Pandrol Jackson would have modified this along with building the rail grinding equipment.
Notice the fire fighting equipment on the front of the power. That is a pretty good way to tell it is a rail grinder. Adam
Here's a follow up question that came to me reading this thread... What is a rail grinder used for? Is it like a giant Bright Boy? It can't be exactly that since real trains don't run on electric power in two rails. Why would one want to grind rails?
Basicly a rail grinder reshapes the rail so that you get the correct rail to wheel contact. This saves wear on the wheels and on the rail. Adam
It also gets rid of the "burn marks" caused by locomotives slipping. It makes for one incredibly smooth ride after one of these has been through.
Thanks for the info. I'm not around the main line very often,so the chance of me seeing this is pretty rare. Never see anything like it on the short line that runs through Bardstown,eiether.
and it also makes that slick metal on rail sound when a train runs on the rail after the railgrinder comes by it sound pretty good
Railroads have their own proprietary grind profiles, and they claim it increases rail life (get this--removing metal increases rail life!). Some of these grinds are even kept as a trade secret, IIRC.
