Railway Track & Structures - March 2009 - (Page 32)

Ballast’s big benefits Miner’s newly-designed ballast plow has been installed on 150 Union Paciﬁc ballast cars. Here is a snapshot of what suppliers in the North American market are doing to keep ballast maintained. Georgetown Rail Equipment Co. says 2008 proved to be another great year for the company and its initiative to provide quality service and cost-effective solutions for its customers. “The unfortunate ﬂooding of the Mississippi River Valley in June and July provided the GREX Dump Trains with an opportunity to shine,” said Lynn Turner vice president of sales and marketing for GREX. “For four weeks this past summer, we had as many as seven of our Dump Trains in service working on casualty projects.” Turner called the Dump Train “a unique solution” and, in the ﬂooding case, said it provided GREX’s customers with the optimal solution for the rebuilding of roadbeds. “The ability to unload 1,500 tons of Georgetown ballast in a precise location in less than an hour makes the Dump Train a oneof-a-kind product. This ability made the Dump Train a perfect ﬁt for the problems railroads were dealing with in the Mississippi Valley,” said Turner. “It was a difﬁcult time for everyone involved, but we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity our customers have given us to serve them.” GREX has a total of 12 Dump Trains in service throughout the United States. Turner also noted that the Gate Sync product base continued to grow with an additional 366 kits sold during the year. “Our kit business continues to thrive as our customers have embraced the idea of owning their own ballast ﬂeet,” said Turner. “Gate Sync is an innovative ballast delivery tool. By combining the technology of a synchronized ballast gate unloading system (Gate Sync) with automated, remote unloading hardware (Solaris), railroads are given an automated ballast delivery solution that they can apply to their ballast car ﬂeets.” The Gate Sync solution employs a pre-dump survey in which a technician identiﬁes all of the no-dump zones (grade crossings, bridges, switches, etc.) for a particular stretch of track. Once these data are collected, the data are downloaded into the Gate Sync program. The Gate Sync train then uses the collected information to dump rock exactly where the customer needs it. “This solution provides efﬁcient ballast delivery with minimal manpower and increased safety,” said Turner. Gate Sync Solaris has been used in a variety of applications, including working behind under-cutters, dumping on skeleton track and annual track rehabilitation services. “Gate Sync’s greatest attribute is that it allows customers to work in both remote and automatic modes. It allows our customers to own a ﬂexible solution that can be applied to new and existing equipment,” said Turner. “Railroads continue to want multifunctional, faster, more-productive pieces of equipment,” said George Farris, vice president marketing at Herzog Contracting Corp. “Herzog continues to design and build these types of equipment, such as the Rail Unloading Unit, which reduces the possibility of injury because no one is on the ground during rail unloading. Only two people are required to untie the rails on the tie-down car. No cables or pusher Herzog 32 Railway Track & Structures March 2009 www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - March 2009

Railway Track & Structures - March 2009 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D NRC Smashes Attendance Bridge Inspection Battling Bugs Ballast Fundamentals Vital to Keeping Track in Shape Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Advertisers Index Website Directory Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - March 2009

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