Maintenance-of-way trains and equipment CHRIS D’AMATO: PERTH AMBOY, NJ; OCT. 28, 1983
An NJ Transit work train spreads ballast along the right-of-way (above). As the train moves at a walking speed, the ballast spills out from the hopper bay by the workmen. A tie is dragged along the top of the rails behind the bay to help spread and level out the ballast. Apparently rebuilt from a boxcar, this weed spraying car (below left) features a cab with a door and windows at the end for the operator. Note the nozzles spraying the herbicide. This hi-rail truck (bottom right) affords the operator the ability to perform duties along the right- of-way, but also allows the truck to leave the rails at a road crossing to make way for trains.
Self-propelled track equipment Other on-track movements made by
m.o.w. forces are done with self-pro- pelled track equipment. Each piece of equipment is typically designed for a special propose such as lifting, com- pacting, plowing or for inspections. Modeling the operations of this small equipment requires powering the piece with a motor and gears, allowing it to be mobile during your operating session. Self-propelled cranes have long been a common piece of track maintenance equipment. These cranes are smaller than the “big hooks” of wreck trains and are not typically used to re-rail railcars. Instead, these cranes handle a long list of other duties: laying rail, dis- tributing and picking up ties and other track material, bridge repairs and driv- ing bridge piles, ditching, and moving ballast or dump cars for smaller track surfacing or ditching projects.
BEN SWOPE: JUNE 1978
One popular and well known small crane is the Burro crane. These cranes have a typical lifting capacity of 15 to 20 tons, and can move only a few railcars. Some Burro cranes were small enough to be set on flat cars with mounted rails and used in a work train to distribute crossties, track material or for ditching. Custom Finishing Models manufac- tures several HO scale non-powered Burro crane kits. One may lend itself well in work train service by being mounted on a flat car. With some cre- ative modeling, it may be possible to power one of these kits if a small drive unit is fitted.
A larger type of self-propelled crane is what is known as a locomotive crane. These cranes have longer booms, a lift- ing capacity of 25 tons or more, and can handle several more railcars. These larger cranes are big enough to be equipped with pile driving equipment.
Recently, Walthers offered both pow- ered and non-powered models of an HO scale American locomotive crane. Oth- er model manufacturers offer acces- sories such as different boom options, including a pile driving boom. Modern mainline tamping machines used for track surfacing can be nearly as large as a railcar, lifting, lining and tamping the track all in one motion. These large tampers push a short string of small buggies with the lead buggy supporting lights or laser units used to guide how far to raise and align the track. Such tampers typically have other supporting on-track machinery following behind them, such as a smaller “chase” tamper, a ballast regu- lator (used to groom the ballast), and perhaps a track stabilizing machine with vibrators to pre-settle the track to reduce slow-orders for trains. Modeling the workings of the track surfacing operation would be difficult, because our modeled track and ballast are glued down. However, it would be easy to model the on-track movements of a large tamper. Bachmann offers a self-propelled HO scale “ballast regula- tor” that is actually a large tamping ma- chine (being a Plasser Duomatic; a unique machine tamping two crossties at once). During an operating session, a member holding the position of “m.o.w. operator” could move the machine from the yard to some outlying spur. Other model manufacturers also of- fer tamping machine kits, as well as many other track machines, most in non-powered form. A talented modeler could power many of these kits with the variety of small drives on the mar- ket today.
Similar to other on-track work equipment is the motor car, or track speeder. These were very common be- fore hi-rail trucks became popular on the railroads. Used for track inspec- tions or to simply take a section gang out to the work site, these small, self-
CHRIS D’AMATO: EAST BANGOR, PA; APR. 21, 1994
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