Question from my dad

[ulmer94]

Hello everybody, my dad and I have a puzzle for you.

A couple weeks ago, my dad saw a goofy railroad car while he was driving through Longview, Texas, and it really piqued his curiosity. I'll let him ask the question:

"What I saw in Longview was on what appeared to be a work train, pulling up and back at the switch near the Green Street overpass.


It seemed to be a modified gondola -- it was articulated -- it had 12 trucks of wheels between the two couplings -- it really looked like 11 gondolas cut, and welded together. Could not tell what they were carrying (if anything, down inside below the top) -- and, there were three cars like this together behind two units -- second car had a "crane" sitting in it. There may have been more, but the train didn't pull thru, and I was hindered by business buildings from seeing much more.

What did I see?"

My guess was it was something MacGyvered together for MOW, but I really don't know, and he didn't get a picture of it. Could somebody shed some light on the subject?

Thanks much!

 

[TheRichMan]

I'm just guessing here...

 

[kws4000]

Exactly. Something that might be called a "Self-powered Slot Machine". (One that wins without any money, alright!) </pun>
Used for distribution of ballast, ties, rails, and reclamation thereof, including rubbish of all nature.
What you see above was likely manufactured new, while others exist merely through the release of "drop-end" gondolas and then driving in any piece of standard road equipment (without a spike maul, they do horrors to the tires).</humor>

Which brings up another question: is it "ballest" or "ballast"? I got to the city-wide spelling bee in 6th grade, but high school & college do horrors to your brain.

 

[mjolnir]

Ballast, not ballest.

ns

 

[Steamdemon]

Why does the locomotive have 'do not hump' on the front of it? :hehe:

 

[TheRichMan]

Sometimes the railroad employees.. er..you know. :hehe:
Joking, but I think its when railcars are pushed over a man-made hill to get them in consists or something.
I'm not entirely sure, but I know that the rail cars slam together and a train like this would be damaged if that happened.

 

[jadebullet]

A hump yard is where cars are sorted by humping them. You see, when a railroad and a high traffic density yard love each other very much, sometimes the railroad takes its inbound trains and pushes them over the yards hump. This is a small hill with a tower at the top. The cars are uncoupled in regard to their destination and sorted into different classification tracks via gravity rather than flat switching with a locomotive. Then about 10-20 minutes, a fully classified train is born.

 

[cascaderailroad]

The actual hump can damage long cars by ripping out the trainline brake pipes, and brake equipment, on semi-permanetly coupled traincars, and the uncontrolled slamming of cars together down in the classification bowl can break equipment, including drawbars, yokes, couplers, pins, knuckles, including damaging sensitive electronics equipment from collision/shock damage.

I seem to remember reading that Mr Herzog is from another eastern European country, and has made billions by being an ingenious railway maintenance tycoon.

 

[mp202]

I have noticed that Articulated, semi-permanently coupled tankers have the "Do Not Hump" sign on the cars. I think this is because those cars may contain Haz-Mat and needs to be handled with care. It is mandated by the FRA that railroads have to use a gondola or flat car as a buffer when switching Haz-Mat cars to prevent agitating the chemicals.