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Rail Grinding Machines

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nascar24

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On Youtube are several videos of 50008 at Exeter recently hauling some rail grinding machines. Where and when were these machines built?

ATB

Alan
 
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DarloRich

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nascar24 said:
On Youtube are several videos of 50008 at Exeter recently hauling some rail grinding machines. Where and when were these machines built?

ATB

Alan
Click to expand...

depends which rail grinder.

The new one, the C44, is built by Loram Maintenance of Way Inc in America.
 
DarloRich

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There are a couple of grinders in use in the Uk:

79200 - A Loram Schweerbau (UK) SPML15 Rail Grinder - a 3 car unit built in Germany in 1993 i think and now based in the south east
DR 79200-B by Gareth Rawlings, on Flickr
(Not my pic)

79201 - Loram/Hunslet Barclay SPML17 Rail Grinder - a two car unit based on LNE. Built in 2000
Newark Northgate by DarloRich2009, on Flickr

79221 - Speno RPS 32-2 Rail Grinder - this is a 5 car unit datign from 1990 and built by Speno in Switzerland
DR79226 Northampton 090815 by Dan Adkins, on Flickr
(Not my pic)

3 x Loram C21 rail grinders - This is a 7 car train built around 2003
C21-01 6Z01 Falkland DGL - Upperby Jn. Carlisle 13.05.15 by Michael's North Briton Railways, on Flickr
(not my pic)

11 x Harsco Track Technologies RGH-20C Switch and Crossing Rail Grinder. These are 2 car units and date from around 2002
Watford Junction by DarloRich2009, on Flickr

There will be 3 x C44 railgrinders - 2 of these are 4 car units for corrective grinding and one will be a 7 car unit for plain line grinding. They are brand new but i think all three are now in the UK. The April 2017 edition of railway engineer has an interesting article on these vehicles:

https://issuu.com/railmedia/docs/tre-april-2017

DR 79301 Loram Rail Grinder Bristol Temple Meads by Bob Spiers, on Flickr
(not my pic)
 
ac6000cw

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Milling is basically (relatively slowly) chiselling away bits of metal using a set of cutters mounted around the circumference of a wheel or shaft. (A lathe is the opposite - the work-piece revolves against a stationary cutter).

Grinding is using highly abrasive wheels rotating at high speed to basically scratch away (abrade) the material - the tiny bits of metal (dust almost) that are removed get very hot due to the friction involved, producing a shower of sparks (so you have to be careful about lineside vegetation catching fire in dry weather).
 
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DarloRich

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ac6000cw said:
Milling is basically (relatively slowly) chiselling away bits of metal using a set of cutters mounted around the circumference of a wheel or shaft. (A lathe is the opposite - the work-piece revolves against a stationary cutter).

Grinding is using highly abrasive wheels rotating at high speed to basically scratch away (abrade) the material - the tiny bits of metal (dust almost) that are removed get very hot due to the friction involved, producing a shower of sparks (so you have to be careful about lineside vegetation catching fire in dry weather).
Click to expand...

Used to fix different track issues - grinding deals with rcf
 
spark001uk

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I've a strong feeling I'm going to get something like "when the rails need it", but is there any periodic set diagram(s) for touching up the rails? Or is it indeed purely as required?
Been wanting to witness one on the go for a long time now and am looking for any way to get a heads up of its duties?
 
Freightmaster

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spark001uk said:
Been wanting to witness one on the go for a long time now and am looking for any way to get a heads up of its duties?
Click to expand...
You need to look out for overnight STP schedules with a 'service code' of [53693803]


So tonight for example, there is this working (6Z01) from Dundee:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U78788/2017/08/03/advanced


Another (6Z02) from Kings Norton:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U35207/2017/08/03/advanced



..and this one (6Z03) from Woking:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U79107/2017/08/03/advanced
http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U79108/2017/08/04/advanced



Are any of those suitable?



MARK
 
BestWestern

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Why are some of these beasties as big as seven cars? Are there repeated sets of grinding gear that pass over the track?
 
DarloRich

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spark001uk said:
I've a strong feeling I'm going to get something like "when the rails need it", but is there any periodic set diagram(s) for touching up the rails? Or is it indeed purely as required?
Been wanting to witness one on the go for a long time now and am looking for any way to get a heads up of its duties?
Click to expand...

a bit of both! There are two types:

Preventative - they run on an almost fixed route and trundle up and down a line happily grinding away over long distances - usually in the dead of night - making one pass

Reactive - these tend to be the smaller units and they go out to respond to a particular fault and make multiple passes over the work area which will be much smaller than above.


BestWestern said:
Why are some of these beasties as big as seven cars? Are there repeated sets of grinding gear that pass over the track?
Click to expand...

Yes - the big ones grind over areas many miles long and make only one pass.
 
S

swt_passenger

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DarloRich said:
Yes - the big ones grind over areas many miles long and make only one pass.
Click to expand...

A supplementary question then, do they have different grades of grinding wheel along the length, as well as different angles and profiles, a sort of "coarse to fine" progression IYSWIM, which would make the whole train single direction use?
 
rebmcr

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swt_passenger said:
A supplementary question then, do they have different grades of grinding wheel along the length, as well as different angles and profiles, a sort of "coarse to fine" progression IYSWIM, which would make the whole train single direction use?
Click to expand...

Exactly right.
 
spark001uk

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Freightmaster said:
You need to look out for overnight STP schedules with a 'service code' of [53693803]


So tonight for example, there is this working (6Z01) from Dundee:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U78788/2017/08/03/advanced


Another (6Z02) from Kings Norton:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U35207/2017/08/03/advanced



..and this one (6Z03) from Woking:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U79107/2017/08/03/advanced
http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U79108/2017/08/04/advanced



Are any of those suitable?



MARK
Click to expand...

Ok thanks, I could probably get to 6Z03 at some point. It is however difficult to discern where it's actually grinding and where it's just travelling to the site that needs doing. Guessing large times between stations would be one pointer?
 
S

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rebmcr said:
Exactly right.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick confirmation. One of those things that is pretty obvious once you start thinking about how it might work.

Presumably it's far more economical to turn the grinding train somewhere rather than design one that is bi-directional - there'd be a lot of redundant equipment onboard if they did that.
 
Peter Mugridge

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Freightmaster

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Peter Mugridge said:
Do grinders always use that particular service code number?

I am asking because there's this unusual movement in for tonight:

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/O16986/2017/08/03/advanced
Click to expand...

That will be one of the Network Rail 'Robel' trains:
https://www.networkrailmediacentre....eels-set-to-revolutionise-railway-maintenance



...although they are not entirely dissimilar to a rail grinder in outward appearance:
31140348401_ec86b2f659_z.jpg





MARK
 
Harbornite

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Freightmaster said:
You need to look out for overnight STP schedules with a 'service code' of [53693803]


So tonight for example, there is this working (6Z01) from Dundee:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U78788/2017/08/03/advanced


Another (6Z02) from Kings Norton:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U35207/2017/08/03/advanced



..and this one (6Z03) from Woking:

http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U79107/2017/08/03/advanced
http://realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U79108/2017/08/04/advanced



Are any of those suitable?



MARK
Click to expand...

I noticed one of the c44 sets was in Kings Norton yard yesterday but I didn't check the diagrams, so thanks for posting that. I'm pretty sure this will be the first time one of them passes through New street, at least via selly Oak.
 
Freightmaster

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The grinders are moving next week!

The Scottish one working off Dundee last week will be based at Slateford;
the Woking train is moving to Micheldever and the Central England grinder
which has been working from Kings Norton is off to Bishops Stortford.


So anyone who wants to see them in operation, look for overnight
'out and back' schedules from those three locations next week...


MARK
 
Freightmaster

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Peter Mugridge said:
Yes - I stayed up and saw it through the trees.

Any idea which one it was? I still need numbers 2, 4, 7 and 8 for sight...
Click to expand...
Based on the headcode (6U84), it would have been number four.

Number 2 has been working off Paddock Wood and number 7
is currently based at Wakefield Kirkgate. (I don't think that 8
is in use, perhaps it's kept as a spare?)


MARK
 
BestWestern

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Freightmaster said:
Based on the headcode (6U84), it would have been number four.

Number 2 has been working off Paddock Wood and number 7
is currently based at Wakefield Kirkgate. (I don't think that 8
is in use, perhaps it's kept as a spare?)


MARK
Click to expand...

One of these lives at Basingstoke, doesn't it?
 
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