Railway Track & Structures - September 2007 - (Page 31) research for technological advances.” CSXT’s Bagley said: “We are midway through a multi-year program of replacing our CAT-09 fleet with the DynaCat. We are taking advantage of replacing two machines with one. This year, a major effort has been put into getting all of the production gangs equipped with fast, reliable spikers. This has made the team more productive and capable of quicker recovery should there be other problems during the course of the day.” “For NS, in the big ticket category we’d point to the 150-ton flash butt welder or the tamper/stabilizer combination machine,” Drake said. “In the Beneficial big-ticket machines Looking at recent purchases, what big-ticket piece of equipment has offered the most benefit to your railroad? What about lower-priced equipment? “Hydraulic tools continue to add the most low-cost value to our maintenance forces, allowing them to be more productive while reducing the possibility of injury,” BNSF’s Upward commented. “Some of the larger pieces of equipment that added value are the Plasser 09-3X Tamping Express and the 09-3X Dynamic. Both of these high-speed tampers need a relatively-small crew and are capable of tamping and lining track at high speeds. The 09-3X Dynamic is a triple-tie tamper designed for use on wood tie track. The tamper adjusts the tamping tools to account for irregular tie spacing or slewed ties. We also have added two RM80-800 undercutter/cleaners to our fleet. These units are designed to simultaneously dump ballast while undercutting.” “We have made a concentrated effort to reduce the impact of the operations immediately following a production crew on a daily basis,” CPR’s Graham noted. “Therefore, we have focused on the purchase of equipment that will minimize the impact to operations and thereby improve velocity on our railway. In recent years, we have sought out equipment that will improve velocity of the railway without compromising the productivity of our track renewal crews. We have purchased the Plasser DynaCat, GRM2000 and Nipper Tampers. We continue to see the value to m/w of Brandt RoadRailers in the movement of materials. When you look at the smaller purchases, the same thought processes prevails. In this category, we have secured some Portaco rail tensors and an OTM reclaimer.” 6. www.rtands.com Railway Track & Structures September 2007 31 http://www.rtands.com
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