Grandpa, tell me bout the good ole days............

[user.69169]

Tire sanders been around since 50s. Mostly useless but make management feel good.
https://elstonmfg.com/traction-sanders

Steam loco has sand dome sitting on top of boiler to keep sand warm & dry to flow in front of traction wheels to get moving. Works a little better than sander on truck. Train loco reverses first to use slack in couplers to advantage picking load with momentum of engine & front cars. Watch as train starts up, sometimes engineer gets a little ahead of himself on throttle and traction spinstill he cuts back.

 

[PILOON]

The old steam locomotives used to have a similar set up.

Some city plows have the sand chute flow ahead of the driver's side traction wheel.
That way they make it up hills and when broadcasting they cover the center section of the road surface so both lanes get a fair portion of abrasive.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Current locos still use sand dispensing systems I believe.

 

[Dftodd]

Some city plows have the sand chute flow ahead of the driver's side traction wheel.
That way they make it up hills and when broadcasting they cover the center section of the road surface so both lanes get a fair portion of abrasive.

I got fed up and called the county about their sand trucks that handle the bypass near my home.

They sand intersections here, not the entire highway after a snow storm.

First couple of storms after we moved into our current house. Going down the bypass there were sanded patches of highway, the perfect width of an intersection. The perfectly sanded section started after each intersection though

I figured it out one morning when I got behind the plow truck. There was a 2 to 3 second delay from when it started to spool up till it actually started spitting out the sand.

I called the county and they were able to patch me through to one of the foreman so I could explain the issue.

 

[BravoXray]

The old steam locomotives used to have a similar set up.

Some modern diesel locomotives have them too. If you look at the trucks, there will be a pipe on the front and rear axles to drop the sand on the rails.

 

[Industrial Toys]

If some BO, puts grease on the rails, you need that. I was looking for the scene from Emperor of the North, but couldn't find it.

 

[user.69169]

I figured it out one morning when I got behind the plow truck. There was a 2 to 3 second delay from when it started to spool up till it actually started spitting out the sand.

I called the county and they were able to patch me through to one of the foreman so I could explain the issue.

Salt runs here all GPS controlled. Driver just along to keep truck on route. GPS set up by MisDirector of Department riding around in pickup some time during year. Odd thing, next town over got same equipment and ELECTED Highway Superintendent. Dey got cleaner pavement and better roads. Can't figure out why.

 

[Industrial Toys]

You think the average citizen knows how best to vote on road maintenance?

 

[bunyip]

Some modern diesel locomotives have them too. If you look at the trucks, there will be a pipe on the front and rear axles to drop the sand on the rails.

We have them too and in some places there are compressed air blowers just in front of the wheels to blow off the millions of millipedes that use the tracks to get to wherever they are going, after crushing a few thousand the just grinds to a halt and wheelspins, this fixed the problem but don't know if it unique to us.

 

[user.69169]

You think the average citizen knows how best to vote on road maintenance?

Sure dehel knows how many potholes he drives thru and how long dey take to get filled. Also knows how long his road takes gettin plowed after snow falls and how good job de plow driver does. First question voters should ask is can de boss run every piece of equipment. I know one in big town ain't got CDL and is scared of big trucks. He makes $127,000 a year for hiding in office wid air conditioning. Sure rather have de neignbors decidin on who Highway boss is den some fat politician takin care of one his flunkies.