Railway Track & Structures - September 2007 - (Page 26) Choosing the best m/w machinery Most important feature What is the most important single feature, after safety, for you and your railroad? Why? “Productivity,” Upward of BNSF said. “Of course, equipment reliability is a key component of our productivity. We need to maximize our productivity during our track occupancy. Equipment down time to us is a wasted opportunity, which is very costly in terms of network velocity, as well as unit cost.” “Following the safety of the crew comes crew productivity,” said CPR’s Graham. “Crew performance can only occur if we receive the reliability of the work equipment we are operating. Reliability starts with commissioning of new equipment in the field. All equipment must meet or exceed the commitments made by the manufacturer. This ensures quality of the infrastructure after the work has been done, as well as optimal crew per- easily operate and maintain it. Lastly, we have to have customer support for years after the sale, including parts and training.” “We evaluate a machine using all of the abovementioned criteria,” said Timothy Drake, vice president engineering for Norfolk Southern. “Our primary focus is upon employee safety, followed by productivity, reliability, operating cost, ease of maintenance, etc.” “Any machine needs to be safe to operate and maintain or it is of no use to us,” said Craig Domski, chief engineer, track programs for Union Pacific. “We then look at the value added to our operations and the return on investment.” 2. formance, including meeting production/service targets. CSXT’s Bagley noted: “Ergonomics of the operator is most important, but it needs to expand from basic features while in the seat. The daily/weekly maintenance needs to be more ergonomically friendly, e.g., grease fitting easily accessible, adjustments easy to make, calibrations that can be simplified, etc. The more difficult the task, the less likely it will get done. Better yet, why even have a grease fitting? With today’s technology in sealed bearings or automatic grease systems, we should not have to be greasing machines. It is time to expand the technology so we do not get employees hurt trying to maintain/repair the machines.” At NS, the most important is machine productivity, according to 26 Railway Track & Structures September 2007 www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.