Not your everyday heavy equipment semi-trailer

[bcp]

That's what I thought I passed parked on the street near the RR station. It looked like a cab off something was being transported on the back of the trailer.

I came out of the station parking lot just as the rear of the trailer started going down the tracks at about a 45 degree angle, with the tractor pushing. There was a little jockeying of the front, then the front rail wheels went down. The tractor was unhitched and the trailer continued down the track under its own power. The trailer driver was in the cab on back and the engine near it was powering the trailer.



Then the hitch portion lowered till it was flat with the rest of the deck, and the front of the trailer lowered itself till it appeared to be resting on the rails.



Nothing happened for a bit, then coming slowly through the parking lot was the reason for the trailer.



About 200 yards away is the BNSF Columbia River bridge. The name on the equipment is "Bridge Access" so I looked it up.

I wonder what it could be for. :laughing:



Bruce

 

[oosik]

I must admit, I've never seen anything like that. However, most everything involving the railroad has that Rube Goldberg look about it.

I saw three pieces of RR machinery this summer, down by Starbuck, WA, that were cutting old wooden RR ties, pulling out the cut pieces and setting & pushing thru new concrete ties. It then vibrated the ground?? and if necessary would add more ballast rock. I wasn't close enough to see how they attach a concrete tie to the steel rail.

 

[Shutesbury]

So that must allow conventional lifts to be used to reach upper girders of railroad bridges. Interesting.

 

[mjw357]

I wasn't close enough to see how they attach a concrete tie to the steel rail.

Most use a clip fastener or a bolt precast into the tie.

 

[oosik]

Thanks mjw - I see a lot of replacement in this area is with concrete ties. At first glance, the operation I described looked real Rube Goldberg. I stopped and watched for a while and it was a well choreographed operation. The ONLY operation done manually was - a guy with some type of instrument would follow behind this entire menagerie and place a probe on each new tie, on each side of the track. He was taking readings of something.

 

[bigtiller]

I must admit, I've never seen anything like that. However, most everything involving the railroad has that Rube Goldberg look about it.

I saw three pieces of RR machinery this summer, down by Starbuck, WA, that were cutting old wooden RR ties, pulling out the cut pieces and setting & pushing thru new concrete ties. It then vibrated the ground?? and if necessary would add more ballast rock. I wasn't close enough to see how they attach a concrete tie to the steel rail.

The vibrating was probably to raise the tie up to the bottom of the rail. I have seen them raise a sunken rail using a jackhammer with a 4" wide chisel/knife on. They are forcing rocks under the tie to raise the bed the tie sets on, which raises the rail.

 

[ultrarunner]

Wonder what that rig sells for?

Do you need to Commercial License and a RR Engineer License?

 

[Rustyiron]

So that must allow conventional lifts to be used to reach upper girders of railroad bridges. Interesting.

I think it's just a "lowboy" trailer for moving anything that needs to get somewhere on the rail line that is not accessed by roads and is without the necessary mounted rail gear. For example, the one illustration shows a cement mixer truck on it. On the rails it is self propelled, then on the road it is hitched to a regular road tractor.
Pic is a dump truck with rail gear, this lowers down to the tracks.