Rubber tires meet steel rails INDIO, CA; 1995
Once known for its self-propelled railcars (see below) Sperry Rail Services now also em- ploys trucks outfitted with detection equipment to ride the rails and search for flaws.
Before high-railers I
t didn’t take long for the internal combustion engine to find its way onto the rails. By the 1910’s there were mo- torized speeders and, by applying flanged wheels, rail- roads adapted trucks and buses to a variety of uses. These machines, however, were restricted to use on rails. Still, they were the forerunners of today’s versatile, high- rail equipped trucks that operate on both rail and roadway.
weakness in rails that no amount of eye-balling could ever locate. Communications equipment, thanks to satellites, has improved tremendously, too. Many railroads have the capacity of establishing mobile command centers anywhere on the railroad. From a modeler’s perspective, the large amount of equipment that has been converted to operate on the rail- road, as well as beside it, can only add to the complexity of an operating night. Not only does the dispatcher and train crews have to worry about getting a train over the road, now there is the added dimension of maintenance-of-way work to complicate the schedule.
LINWOOD MOODY: PALISADE, NV; AUG. 25, 1936
Cutting down on expenses was the prime reason that railroads first turned to trucks and buses that ran on rails. They were cheaper to buy, run and maintain than a steam-powered train. This classic truck (above) ran on the Eureka-Nevada Railway. Not to be outdone, workers at U.S. Gyp- sum welded two autos together to transport crews (below). Traditional Sperry railcars like this one (bottom) are being replaced by high-rail trucks.
CHRIS D’AMATO: PALMERTON, PA; FALL, 1978
The Chestnut Ridge Railway bought its Mack railbus to haul passengers, but in the 1930’s it was relegated to m.o.w. service where it lasted into the 1980’s (above). Note the keg of spikes and tools piled on the front. As long as this Morristown & Erie speeder and its train of maintenence cars occupy the track (below), nothing else can get by. A hi-rail truck equipped with a crane could carry pretty much the same equipment and vacate the rails on a nearby road, if necessary.
CHRIS D’AMATO: MORRISTOWN, NJ; JUNE, 1984 CHRIS D’AMATO: RED BANK, NJ; APR. 10, 1975 RAILFAN & RAILROAD COLLECTION: PLASTER CITY,CA; CIRCA 1960
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