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June 2020
Compiled by Michael Popke
Balfour Beatty and technology partner Zetica Rail continue to introduce new technologies and solutions designed to improve ballast and trackbed inspection "with a focus on condition-based maintenance planning and a vision to predict and prevent," company officials said in an email.
Zetica’s Advanced Rail Radar (ZARR) offers an autonomous data capture, high-speed ground penetrating radar solution for reporting on the condition of trackbed "at higher speeds than ever before," Balfour Beatty officials said. Integration with the company’s autonomous geometry inspection and automated vision provides enhanced insights into track and trackbed conditions. The aim: to help railroads more efficiently understand, prioritize and address asset degradation, including ballast, subgrade and drainage, and to cost-effectively target the underlying root causes of defects.
"In 2019 our high-speed trackbed inspection systems investigated in excess of 20,000 miles of track. As railroads continue to demand an improved return on investment for track time, we expect to see these numbers grow,"
Balfour Beatty Divisional Manager Steve Atherton said. "Through our intuitive Work Order Recommendation reporting, railroads are able to cost- effectively target and select the correct method of ballast maintenance, whether it be undercutting, shoulder cleaning, surfacing or drainage improvement."
Balfour Beatty also provides production and switch/spot undercutting, along with yard cleaning services.
Brandt Road Rail offers an array of mobile material handling and maintenance-of-way equipment — from multipurpose rail-car movers and specialized on-track cranes to custom rail cars, and repair and maintenance equipment.
The company’s R4 Power Unit is a truck-based rail-car mover that converts from road to rail in less than three minutes, and moves up 16 fully loaded ballast cars at speeds up to 25 mph, Brandt Road Rail officials said in an email.
The R4 delivers up to 600 horsepower and 50,000 pounds of tractive effort, and achieves stopping power via a 26C brake system with an independent brake for rubber drive tires and steel rail wheels.
Brandt uses standard 28 - 70 ton axles and 6x11 bearings, as well as a built-for-purpose compressed air system that meets the requirements for rail-car brakes and pneumatic car controls for both bottom- or side-dump ballast cars, company officials said.
The R4 can be paired with Brandt’s OTM Tracker — a single, fully integrated track maintenance machine that moves from highway transport deck to the top-of-rail maintenance cars and back again "in a matter of minutes," according to the company. Once elevated to the top of maintenance cars, the OTM Tracker moves from car to car, enabling management of track maintenance materials.
In 2019, DymaxRail Ballast Blaster undercutters were at work on railroads in 14 countries. In the past year, company has introduced improved wear parts, components and drive systems. During real-world tests, the unit’s patented carbide-protected bar lasted four times longer than those without carbide-wear material, company officials said in an email.
A complement to the Ballast Blaster, DymaxRail’s single-motor ballast tamper has been incorporated into a model available for grapple trucks and is ideal for tamping culverts, bridge approachments, crossings and several smaller jobs where hand tamping is cumbersome, officials said.
DymaxRail also offers two new additions to its ballast maintenance lineup: the Rail Ballast Plow and an improved Slot Cleaning Bucket, both of which are used for cleanup and finishing work. Additionally, the company offers a full line of ballast work tools for use on construction equipment, as well as machine transporters for unique MOW applications.
Georgetown Rail Equipment Co. (GREX®) material-handling machines are designed to accomplish tasks in the most efficient and reliable way possible, minimizing the impact on track time, company officials said in an email.
The GREX DumpTrain® offloads up to 2,000 tons per hour. The second-generation DumpTrain for Curves adds the ability to offload in significant curvature, as well as custom consists that fit the needs of any job, GREX officials said.
The company also offers an automated ballast delivery system utilizing the GateSync® software platform and Solaris® remote-operated gates. Once deficiencies are determined by the BallastSaver® hi-rail survey vehicle using advanced LiDAR technology, GateSync can precisely open and close ballast gates to deliver the right amount of ballast where it’s needed.
Additionally, the SlotMatchine® and self-powered SPS® work trains allow crews to quickly maneuver into position to begin ditch cleaning or material pickup/distribution using an onboard excavator.
For railroads with side dump cars, HydraDump® offers a pneumatic-to-hydraulic conversion option that the company says eliminates freezing water vapor that can get into lines under cold conditions.
In 2020, Herzog will introduce an upgraded ROW inspection platform that features improvements to both its image-capturing and location technologies. The enhanced platform is designed to yield safer surveys, faster collection speeds, decreased time from survey to dump, and increased precision for the amount of ballast to be distributed.
Herzog’s newest hi-rail LiDAR vehicle is designed to make the process safer, while removing human subjectivity from the process, by integrating automated ROW scanning. The vehicle will be equipped with upgraded LiDAR scanners that emit pulsed light from lasers and measure the distance of reflection from the ROW surface based on a fixed GPS reference point. The technology upgrade will provide 10 times the point density as previous equipment, enabling the survey vehicle to capture more information while surveying at a higher rate of speed, company officials said in an email. Precision 360° and high-resolution cameras capture high-definition imagery of the entire corridor.
"We will be providing our customers a higher quality of data, allowing for more precise rock placement in a much safer manner," said Glen Dargy, Herzog’s vice president of technology.
After the data is validated, survey analysts identify the areas of greatest concern and adjust dump calculations in line with the requirements of that railroad. The LiDAR software detects specific areas where dumping should not occur, such as crossings or switches, placing ballast only where it’s needed. Survey results then can be uploaded onto Herzog’s patented ballast trains that funnel ballast onto track shoulders and centers at specified locations based on GPS coordinates. The survey data also will be suitable for PTC asset identification or clearance profiling.
Knox Kershaw offers five ballast regulator machine models. The KBR 860 is a track-dressing machine that comes standard with a one-pass-type plow, reversible side wings and a broom attachment. The machine features a sturdy, comfortable cab with window placement for optimum visibility. The cab tilt feature and clean roof design promote safety and ease of maintenance by providing easy access to major machine components without requiring operators to go under or climb on top of the cab, company officials said in an email.
Options include a hydraulically driven AC with pressurizer, joystick controls on an ergonomic operator’s seat with easy access to controls, tinted windows, additional seating and a six-speed powershift transmission.
The KBR 925 Ballast Regulator, which was redesigned in 2019, can take on ballast work on all track types. The 925’s plow and wing work together to transfer ballast from shoulder to shoulder in one pass while leaving one shoulder profiled, company officials said. The standard reversing valve enables ballast to be swept away from switches and road crossings.
New KBR 925 features include a Danfoss PLUS+1 control system, front-mounted hydraulically driven AC with high-capacity pressurization, and increased fuel and hydraulic fluid capacities. The controller has a 12-inch touchscreen color monitor to display machine functions and diagnostics.
Loram Maintenance of Way Inc.’s fleet of equipment can undercut, clean shoulder ballast, excavate ditches and safely vacuum material away from special trackwork, company officials said in an email. The equipment is designed to efficiently and effectively remove fouling material from ballast and create free-flowing drainage necessary for long track life.
Pairing Loram’s excavating equipment with the company’s MHC60 material-handling cars, customers can improve work block efficiencies and reduce unit costs, company officials said. The MHC60 can carry and self-unload 60 cubic yards of material in minutes while casting material more than 20 feet.
For spot work, the LRV Excavator features a vacuum nozzle that can apply 5,000 pounds of force to break up and remove even the most fouled and cemented ballast, officials said. With flexibility to reach up to 15 feet from the track’s center and five feet below the top of the rail, it can excavate in hard-to-reach locations.
Other Loram equipment includes the Badger Ditcher, which can excavate material at up to 800 tons per hour to quickly improve drainage and direct water away from the track. The company’s undercutters utilize state-of-the-art undercutting wheels, which provide unassisted cut-in capabilities, and its track lifter can raise tracks up to 12 inches in a single pass, according to company officials. Loram’s shoulder ballast cleaners can operate at up to 2 mph while cleaning more than 1,500 cubic yards of material per hour.
The AggreGate® can effectively distribute ballast inside, outside or both sides of the rail simultaneously, and the maintenance-free ballast systems can be applied to new or existing cars. It features large guillotine-door openings created to stop ballast flow with minimum effort, easy-to-operate toggle-type linkage systems and tapered doors for easy ballast shutoff at switches, crossovers and bridges, Miner Enterprises Inc. officials said in an email.
The AggreGate ballast discharge outlet is available in manually operated, air-powered or standalone electric-powered options. The AggreGate remote control feature allows for the deposit of ballast while remaining a safe distance from the activity.
Engineered as a fabricated and completely assembled unit, the AggreGate can be applied to new or existing hopper cars. Miner officials said they are currently retrofitting electric stand-alone AggreGate into the fleet of a major passenger carrier, which will enable independent operation of the car from anywhere within a ballast train — eliminating the need for grouping manual and automatic cars, they said.
Miner also is fulfilling a 400-car order for the same customer that features a stand-alone lighting system to aid in nighttime ballasting. Energy from the system’s solar panels will be stored during the day to power LED work lights at night and create a safer environment.
The Miner AggreGate is available in pry bar manual, push-button, or remote control operations using pneumatic or electric power to operate the gates.
Earlier this year, Montana Hydraulics shipped 11 ballast cars fully equipped with the company’s Bobcat Sliding Tarping System. The system is designed to cover ballast hoppers and mitigating the hassles of frozen ballast, and they are environmentally friendly — covered cars are substantially more fuel-efficient than open-topped cars, company officials said in an email.
Montana Hydraulics also continues to emphasize areas of ballast delivery improvement, focusing on high-cycle use in everyday service and under extreme conditions. The goal: have operational ballast cars ready when needed and save railroads money. To that end, the company’s low-profile, ruggedly built ballast gate provides longer gate life as well as more clearance between car and rail, company officials said.
The Grizzly hydraulic side-dump lift kit is designed to provide a safe, reliable option for side dumping. And several Class Is currently use the company’s center-mounted Bi-Directional Ballast Plow, Montana Hydraulics officials add.
Plasser American Corp. has developed the BDS-100 and BDS-200 Ballast Distribution System to restore the proper ballast profile. The long reach of the shoulder plows are capable of retrieving ballast that is out of the reach of conventional ballast regulators, company officials said in an email.
The system consists of two independent units that can work together as one machine or as two separate machines. The BDS-100 is equipped with a hopper for ballast storage, four conveyors for ballast distribution and Plasser’s shoulder and X-type plows for ballast profiling.
The BDS-200 is equipped with two ballast brooms. The "pick-up" broom sweeps the excess ballast from the track onto a conveyor, which loads the ballast into the BDS‑100 or into a Plasser MFS-type conveyor and hopper car, and the "finishing" broom provides the final track dressing. The ballast-handling capacity of the Plasser Ballast Distribution System can be increased by coupling Plasser MFS conveyor and hopper cars between the two units. All work is performed in a one-pass operation.
The BDS-100/BDS-200 Ballast Distribution System can accompany the high-speed 09-3X or 2X DYNACAT tampers for final track dressing or work as an independent machine to distribute ballast. When working as an independent machine, it may be used to pick up excess ballast from the track shoulders for distribution as needed at any location (including switches).
RCE Equipment Solutions offers many ballast-management options — whether it’s a Railavator hi-rail excavator or a conventional excavator, units can be equipped with a variety of undercutter bars, company officials said in an email.
Models range from compact excavators to 35 metric ton units. Undercutter bars range from nine to 15 feet in size and feature carbide tips for durability, and an optional hydraulic-integrated 360-degree rotation system. The largest machine — the 350G — offers additional hydraulic power to perform in hard conditions, and the longer bar is beneficial for switch undercutting, company officials said.
Most recently, the smallest undercutter bar has been used as an alternative to larger machines and bars, making mobilization an easier task, officials said.
Progress Rail offers Kershaw® ballast maintenance equipment. Kershaw Ballast Regulators are designed to respond intuitively with updated, integrated microprocessor controls for an enhanced operator experience, as well as simplified and improved interactions with major systems, Progress Rail officials said in an email.
A 12-inch monitor displays the control functions, machine and engine status, and operators and service technicians are alerted to potential issues before they occur. With reduced troubleshooting, railroads can take proactive measures to maintain fleets. A full line of carbide-wear components also is available to further extend MOW equipment life and reduce consumable costs.
For adaptability and to help control vegetation beyond routine ballast maintenance, Progress Rail offers a brush-cutter attachment for its Kershaw Model 60 Ballast Regulator. In winter, the unit can be converted into a snow-removal machine with a separate blower or plow attachment. An assortment of attachments translates to increased flexibility to tackle multiple jobs as required.
The company also offers a website dedicated to all Kershaw machines, enabling users to search for parts, build lists and view individual parts for accurate ordering. All related operational and maintenance manuals, parts manuals and service bulletins also are available for immediate download.
Vancer Railway Systems has expanded its lineup of custom-built attachments for maintenance-of-way needs. With the launch of the Ballast Cribber Attachment, the company "continues to demonstrate its commitment to saving customers valuable resources while keeping railroads operational," Vancer officials said in an email.
The patented Ballast Cribber enables operators to remove cemented ballast in seconds — up to six times faster than traditional methods, company officials said. Coupled with a reduction in equipment needed on the project site, the attachment helps increase profitability and productivity.
The Ballast Cribber is ideal for immediate spot repair in any location when paired with a Vancer Hi-Rail machine, company officials said. The Cribber’s versatility includes removable buckets for different crib widths (which allow for ease of replacement) and adjustable rail clamp heights for different rail profiles. Built-in rail wheels maintain alignment when moving to the next crib.
The Ballast Cribber Attachment features rail clamps that hold operators to the rail while cribbing to keep the operator safe. The Cribber was designed with heavy-duty cylinders for durability and long life, and removable teeth enable easy replacement, company officials said.
With a weight of 4,600 pounds, an under-rail clearing depth of 12 inches, and optional hydraulic quick couplers and mounting linkages, the company’s Cribber Attachment quickly, efficiently and safely replaces ballast.
Michael Popke is a Madison, Wisconsin-based freelance writer. Email comments or questions to prograil@tradepress.com.
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