It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:57 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 2:46 pm 

Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 8:50 pm
Posts: 152
Location: MD
Until I ran across this video I had never seen a switch like this. If this isn't in use by preservation groups in the US, why not? I can see where it would be useful for groups who move their equipment on a not-so-regular basis. Does anyone know what this thing is called?

http://youtu.be/RkaFe0umF7s?t=21m50s


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 5:24 pm 

Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:23 am
Posts: 189
Location: willow grove pa
Very interesting switch, but did you notice a person standing in between the two locomotives while coupling? Wow all those safety vests and nobody said anything.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 6:40 pm 

Joined: Sun Feb 27, 2005 11:47 pm
Posts: 68
Location: Maine
Hi,
I am sorry, but I do not know the exact name for this switch, but I have seen this before some time ago. This is in Sweden during the time the "reserve" locomotives were taken out of storage and put on the market. I was fortunate enough to have worked on the 1149 which was a "B" class like the ones hauled out of storage. It had the two truck tender, not the 3 axle tender.
Leverett Fernald


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 7:41 pm 

Quote:
If this isn't in use by preservation groups in the US, why not?


Well your first problem is - you see what all those older guys are doing in this video? Theres this weird foreign concept called "getting your ass out of the armchair and working" thats just a mind boggling concept to most groups.

The meeting at an american museum for a move like this would take a motion to look into the possibility of maybe thinking about moving the equipment which would have to be seconded. Then the arguement would break down into why we just don't sue the railroad company to put the switch they fully had a right to remove back into the mainline and save ourselves from working to hard. After which there would be quietly mentioned the fact that no one in the group had contacted the hosting railroad company to begin with to see if they would even agree to move the thing (not that the board would pay attention to whoever brings up that point anyway).

Not to mention the fact that none of the above matters anyway becuase theres one asshole sitting in the corner that thinks whatever you want to move "belongs" to them and is going to sabotage whatever halfassed attempt the board puts together to move the piece. Thats assuming the whole idea dosen't somehow breakdown into arguing about getting Thomas the Tank Engine to come to the museum for the 500th time.

So thats why you don't see stuff like this here.


  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 8:49 pm 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 5:10 pm
Posts: 1182
Gee, boilerwash, why don't you tell us how you really feel?

I had the privilege last weekend of working with a crowd of folks at the WW&F Railway Museum in Maine, and I don't recall any disagreements of the sort you allude to. In fact, upwards of 70 people were on hand Saturday, with smaller numbers on Friday, Sunday and Monday, and we accomplished quite a bit, including getting our 1891 Portland 0-4-4RT Forney locomotive back on the rails, framed and roofed over a three-stall barn for motor vehicles, surfaced, lined and dressed several hundred feet of track, all without any displays of dissent that I'm aware of.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 9:33 pm 

Joined: Thu Aug 26, 2004 2:50 pm
Posts: 2815
Location: Northern Illinois
Back to the "switch" if you want to call it that... Most US rail equipment is too heavy for that spindly little thing, propped up on half ties here and there. No class I is going to let you plop that contraption on their mainline, then dump your engine crosswise to the track. At least if a crane is there for the move, if it drops, the crane is still there to clear the wreckage.

Street railways used to use "portable cross-overs" built along these lines, but when they were in place the rail was shimmed solidly to the surface of the street pavement. The North Shore had a pair for use on their street trackage in Milwaukee that ended up at IRM. They was built of T rail with a separate bolt-on guard; we dismantled them and used the guardrail flange to build our tight radius entrance to Barn 4.

_________________
Dennis Storzek


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 9:38 pm 

Joined: Sun May 23, 2010 11:27 am
Posts: 469
Location: Switching the Coach Yard
alcoguy1 wrote:
If this isn't in use by preservation groups in the US, why not?


One answer, two words: Railroad Management. I'll pay a quarter to watch you explain this concept to the typical railroad manager these days. You want to move a steam what? A passenger what? What kind of a "switch"? We can't do that....

I recently had the pleasure of the 20 something Class 1 trainmaster fresh out of "school" involve 14 employees to move 3 passenger cars two miles with the switcher inside yard limits. His conductor later opined that they'd of had that move done three hours quicker if the TM had stayed at the office and played with his Yo-yo (not that he's old enough to know what that is). The conductor is right, I've seen him do it previously. At the end of the day the move was made without incident and the only delay was account how the TM wanted to handle the move.

Perhaps one of the greatest challenges we have in rail preservation is the ongoing loss of people who know anything about the equipment and they're replacements are taught that the stock answer for anything different is "no".

ETA


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:05 pm 

Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:21 am
Posts: 41
Location: Milner, KY
I think that something like that would work in quite a few places. If someone purchased a track side caboose, and planned to move it to live rail somewhere else and run it, then this could be done to get it back to live rail.

I understand that not terribly long ago, the RJ Corman Derailment crews used the standard side cranes to shift equipment from the nearby CSX mainline to a dead siding at the L&N Historic Rail Park and Museum in Bowling Green, KY. Perhaps if it were readily available, then something like this could have been used easily.

Isn't there a museum in California which has their shop on the wrong side of the UP mainline from their display area? On occasion, UP will come out, install a temporary crossing, not unlike what is in the video, so that the museum can move their equipment.

The Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati, which had been landlocked years ago, recently had their connection restored to CSX. I understand that this was done so that the owners of several private railcars could move their equipment to other locations. I wonder if a temporary connection like this might have been less expensive.

James

_________________
The Bluegrass Railroad Museum, Versailles, KY
http://www.bluegrassrailroad.com
http://www.facebook.com/BluegrassRailroad


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:32 pm 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Posts: 6400
jameshinman wrote:

Isn't there a museum in California which has their shop on the wrong side of the UP mainline from their display area? On occasion, UP will come out, install a temporary crossing, not unlike what is in the video, so that the museum can move their equipment.


James


James -

I believe that the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio has their extensive museum display on one side of the NS (ex-Nickel Plate Road) tracks and their shop on the other side. But in their case, perhaps there are switches in the area somewhere so that they can get equipment from one side to the other.

Les


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 10:39 pm 

Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 9:30 pm
Posts: 56
Union Pacific uses an arrangement like this to move large maintenance of way gangs off the mainline in areas where no spur or siding is available. But they only use if for MOW equipment, not rolling stock.


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Thu Oct 17, 2013 11:02 pm 

Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:44 am
Posts: 154
The narrator in the video explains (in German) that it's called a "Kletterweiche" or climbing switch. That makes more sense than "shoo-fly" which is what I've always seen it called in English. The light rail line in Minneapolis, for instance, has one instead of a regular interchange switch, for the rare occasions they need to interchange anything with the rest of the world.

_________________
Randall Hicks
Visit Hicks Car Works!
_________________________
Confucius remarked: "There is in the world now really no moral social order at all."


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Fri Oct 18, 2013 10:39 pm 

Joined: Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm
Posts: 2875
I think the UP version is made from square box beams. This one appears to be made from solid rail, thus able to take higher loads.

This is the perfect answer for the B&LE engine, just convince CSX to let you drop this into place and roll the engine out. Give me a call when it's all set up and I'll come take photos.

One minor issue, everybody on this website would probably die of old age before the approval process is done.

In my opinion, the only option you have for something like that would be to have the railroad agree to cut over the mainline and shift it to connect to your trackage. It won't be easy, it won't be cheap and you'd better plan on it being a one time, one way trip. I suspect by the time it's all said and done, those cranes would look cheap.

If you're dealing with a local shortline, who knows what you can do. After all, the loading system they use for the Gramling engine isn't much different. http://www.haveenginewilltravel.com/abo ... locomotive

But as others have suggested, talking any class 1 into trying this is extremely unlikely!


Offline
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Temporary Switch Identification
PostPosted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 12:08 am 

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:02 am
Posts: 293
A similar contraption is used for loading and unloading our little blue buddy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkiZAHT5bTw

_________________
--Drew Black


Offline
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


 Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot], Zach Lybrand and 123 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: