What did this??

U

ulmer94

Trainz Forge
We were traveling for Thanksgiving and we came across a stretch of old MKT track that is now owned by UP and - I think - is not very busy at all. It parallels US 69 through northern east Texas for some distance. We came across this stretch of carnage along the tracks:



The trail of destruction went on for miles.

What kind of machine did that? It doesn't look neat at all, it even looks worse than what the electric company does to trees when they get too close to power lines. Looks like someone hung a dull chainsaw out the side of the train and let 'er rip - literally - as the train rolled along, but does anyone know what happened here? Is there a machine that is designed to do that (clear brush from the right-of-way in such an odd and untidy way), or could this be something the MOW crew may have MacGyvered together to get the job done?
 
The damage resembles what I have seen twice previous. Once, when I traveled up US 69 through Northeastern Oklahoma in the aftermath of a big ice storm. The other time when I chanced to travel through an area that had experienced wind damage a couple of days earlier. At the time I researched the latter event, it had not been determined whether the damage was caused by a tornado, or straight-line winds.

And yes, in both cases, some trees were affected by the event, and others close by, were not.

There have been storm events in the mentioned area recently enough to have caused such damage.


ns
 
mjolnir said:
The damage resembles what I have seen twice previous. Once, when I traveled up US 69 through Northeastern Oklahoma in the aftermath of a big ice storm. The other time when I chanced to travel through an area that had experienced wind damage a couple of days earlier. At the time I researched the latter event, it had not been determined whether the damage was caused by a tornado, or straight-line winds.

And yes, in both cases, some trees were affected by the event, and others close by, were not.

There have been storm events in the mentioned area recently enough to have caused such damage.


ns
Click to expand...

The damage was consistently confined to immediately along the tracks, within a few feet, and stretched at least as far as the tracks paralleled US 69, between Greenville and Bells, TX, about 40 miles. I think we can rule out storm damage.
 
Last edited:
A Railroad Brushcutter has gone thru to clear trees and brush that have grown to close to the rail. If you run a train down the tracks and hit all of this stuff, it will bend grab irons, step stirrups, etc. Then the cars or Locomotives will have to go to the R.I.P. Track so the Car Toads can straighten all of this stuff.
ontrackcutter.jpg
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i just somewhat get the image in my head of a gone mad lost in space robot roaring done the tracks with a chainsaw in each claw ...."TREES WILL ROBINSON ! TREES!
 
I too initially thought that a tornado had done that, but then noticed it was right along the railroad. Thus, I posted the link for the brush cutter. I have seen tornado RFD and straight line winds do some nasty stuff when out severe storm chasing. It's truly amazing how much power winds can have. In fact the damage caused by a tornado is similar to that of a giant weed whacker.

John
 
Definitely looks like the work of a hedge cutter as they're known here. We have one on the railway I work at though I think this year was it's last outing. The engine is on the way out... Makes such a mess of trees as the cutting head is essentially a large metal disc with two hinged metal bars attached. They spin out due to centrifugal forces and at that speed, inflict the necessary damage on encroaching flora.

It's not pretty, but it's effective.
 
When I lived in New England, I'd watch the NECR clearing the brush the same way. They went slow, did a pretty neat job too. But, being very woodsy, the trimmed area would recover in days! They never, that I saw, did such a hack job like your pics showed. But then again, there was some pretty lush growth along the NECR ROW.
 
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