Thanks for another very clear, concise, and informative video. In the US, the tamper is usually part of maintenance train of 5 or 6 cars (aka carriages) with with a different, specialized purpose. Besides the tamper, there is a car that removes old crossties (aka sleepers) and pushes them off to 1 side of the line, and installs new ones (most crossties in the US are wood so need fairly frequent replacement). There appears to another car that can pour more new ballast. And finally, at the end, there's a crane and associated hopper car that picks up and carries away the old crossties, and later deposits them all in a big pile somewhere down the line. Or so I think, just by looking at them briefly in passing. If you know more about such things, please elaborate :) NOTE: Until the last couple of decades, the old crossties were just left along the side of the track and anybody could come along and take them home, where they are very useful for landscaping raised flowerbeds, steps on hilly paths, and fence posts. The railroads didn't mind this because they didn't have to expend effort on cleaning up their waste and, as long as it was just individuals taking a dozen or so for their own use every once in a while, nobody was making or losing money off it. So, the system was mutually beneficial. This seems to have changed when hardware stores and garden shops started grabbing the old crossties by the truckload and selling them. Then the railroads realized they were losing money so got laws passed to declare that just because an old, worn-out, discarded crosstie was lying beside the track like all the similarly discarded empty beer cans left by the motorists of the adjacent road (which the homeless drug addicts pick up for recycling money to get their next hit and nobody complains), it didn't mean railroads were littering , nor had they relinquished ownership over the crosstie. Thus, those taking the old crossties were suddenly thieves, despite doing a public service in removing litter. And so nowadays, if the cops (or railroad employees) see you taking old crossties, you can go to jail. Which is why the railroads now have special cars to gather them all up and dump them in a camera-secured pile to sell to the hardware stores and garden shops, which is now the only legal way consumers can get them. It's a sad turn of events.
Spent many a day on the kango, packing ballast on routine maintenance and after working on a procession at night. And while working at one P'way, they needed a site warden on a tamper. That was the easiest two weeks I've had, as they told me to get my head down (easier said than done with the motion of the tamper once she got going) or help myself to a coffee. I was going to mention, the tamper I worked on, when she got to the site, she would make a recording run and then do the tamping run. When we worked on a weekend relay, we would remove some ballast from the sleeper top, so the operator of the tamper could see their location.
I think I would have enjoyed a career in railway maintenance and design. I studied Civil Engineering but didn't think of applying to work on railways when I graduated. It's a bit late to convert now unless they want a 77 year old apprentice.
Pretty much spot on, just one thing you came close to but didn't mention. The frequency of the vibration of the tines also causes the ballast to act as if it were a fluid. This enables it to flow in to voids beneath the sleeper beyond where the tines could just push it.
A big thumbs up from me in recognition of the clarity of explanation in all your videos and for the consistently top-notch presentation. Add in the animations prevalent throughout this video and my mind is left boggling at the sheer amount of effort and time that goes in to each and every PWay Engineer video. Thank you!
Great Video! I am nit-picking but for your information ALC stands for Automatischer Leit Computer. I've heard many variations using lifting/lining and yours is good too, however, when translated from German it means automatic guiding computer (AGC) as it is needed to guide the machine in transitions and curves. Sorry to be a nerd! 🙂
7:21 this is not entirely true, the ALC can actually map out a geometry like file using the F5 constant area function where the operator can set the Level or the line to the position required, so for example if you have a long slack in the track, instead of smooth line computation, you can tell the ALC i want it at this position to give geometry like results.
tampering with rail lines, rail cars or signalling systems is illegal and extremely dangerous. Not only does this put lives at risk, it can also lead to a £5,000 fine or up to 10 years in jail.
Thanks for another very clear, concise, and informative video. In the US, the tamper is usually part of maintenance train of 5 or 6 cars (aka carriages) with with a different, specialized purpose. Besides the tamper, there is a car that removes old crossties (aka sleepers) and pushes them off to 1 side of the line, and installs new ones (most crossties in the US are wood so need fairly frequent replacement). There appears to another car that can pour more new ballast. And finally, at the end, there's a crane and associated hopper car that picks up and carries away the old crossties, and later deposits them all in a big pile somewhere down the line. Or so I think, just by looking at them briefly in passing. If you know more about such things, please elaborate :)
NOTE: Until the last couple of decades, the old crossties were just left along the side of the track and anybody could come along and take them home, where they are very useful for landscaping raised flowerbeds, steps on hilly paths, and fence posts. The railroads didn't mind this because they didn't have to expend effort on cleaning up their waste and, as long as it was just individuals taking a dozen or so for their own use every once in a while, nobody was making or losing money off it. So, the system was mutually beneficial. This seems to have changed when hardware stores and garden shops started grabbing the old crossties by the truckload and selling them. Then the railroads realized they were losing money so got laws passed to declare that just because an old, worn-out, discarded crosstie was lying beside the track like all the similarly discarded empty beer cans left by the motorists of the adjacent road (which the homeless drug addicts pick up for recycling money to get their next hit and nobody complains), it didn't mean railroads were littering , nor had they relinquished ownership over the crosstie. Thus, those taking the old crossties were suddenly thieves, despite doing a public service in removing litter. And so nowadays, if the cops (or railroad employees) see you taking old crossties, you can go to jail. Which is why the railroads now have special cars to gather them all up and dump them in a camera-secured pile to sell to the hardware stores and garden shops, which is now the only legal way consumers can get them. It's a sad turn of events.
Spent many a day on the kango, packing ballast on routine maintenance and after working on a procession at night. And while working at one P'way, they needed a site warden on a tamper.
That was the easiest two weeks I've had, as they told me to get my head down (easier said than done with the motion of the tamper once she got going) or help myself to a coffee.
I was going to mention, the tamper I worked on, when she got to the site, she would make a recording run and then do the tamping run.
When we worked on a weekend relay, we would remove some ballast from the sleeper top, so the operator of the tamper could see their location.
Thanks for a clear and not overly detailed explanation.
Glad you found it useful!
Absolutely brilliant and thank you for the education 👍🏿.
Glad you enjoyed it
I think I would have enjoyed a career in railway maintenance and design. I studied Civil Engineering but didn't think of applying to work on railways when I graduated. It's a bit late to convert now unless they want a 77 year old apprentice.
Pretty much spot on, just one thing you came close to but didn't mention.
The frequency of the vibration of the tines also causes the ballast to act as if it were a fluid. This enables it to flow in to voids beneath the sleeper beyond where the tines could just push it.
I did read that somewhere! I tried to work out a way to state it without it sound far fetched! You have stated it very clearly so thank you!
@thepwayengineer I can't remember where I read it now, could have been in one of the PWI books.
@@aimdrummer Probably the same one I read!
A big thumbs up from me in recognition of the clarity of explanation in all your videos and for the consistently top-notch presentation. Add in the animations prevalent throughout this video and my mind is left boggling at the sheer amount of effort and time that goes in to each and every PWay Engineer video. Thank you!
Thank you, that is very very kind of you!
You are so cool! Thanks for the schooling!
Thanks for watching!
Great Video! I am nit-picking but for your information ALC stands for Automatischer Leit Computer. I've heard many variations using lifting/lining and yours is good too, however, when translated from German it means automatic guiding computer (AGC) as it is needed to guide the machine in transitions and curves. Sorry to be a nerd! 🙂
Thank you very much for the correction!
I like counting dropped joints.
😂😂
Great video ! I’d be curious to see a video on ballastless track found in china and see how it holds up to ballast
I have a video that might give you a starting point! Check it out here: ua-cam.com/video/WQFRYSm0cFg/v-deo.html
thnks
7:21 this is not entirely true, the ALC can actually map out a geometry like file using the F5 constant area function where the operator can set the Level or the line to the position required, so for example if you have a long slack in the track, instead of smooth line computation, you can tell the ALC i want it at this position to give geometry like results.
7:23 cons
"Longer geometry issues can be an issue"
Something feels wrong about this sentence
tampering with rail lines, rail cars or signalling systems is illegal and extremely dangerous. Not only does this put lives at risk, it can also lead to a £5,000 fine or up to 10 years in jail.