Advancements in research and equipment are helping railroads with ballast maintenance and distribution.
NMC Railway Systems’ 320EL Reduced Radius Hi-Rail Excavator.
creating a firm foundation with
ballast maintenance by Jennifer Nunez, assistant editor
I
t may be small in size, but ballast plays a major role in railroad maintenance and pulls its weight by keeping track in place and aiding in proper drainage.
Brandt
Brandt Road Rail Corporation is introducing a new piece of equipment called the Brandt RTB130 at the AREMA Annual Conference and Exposition in September. Brandt said it is a purpose-built hi-rail backhoe based on the 710 John Deere Chassis. “It exceeds the AREMA engineering standards for on-track hi-rail equipment, which makes it a very safe reliable piece of rail maintenance equipment,” explained Neil Marcotte, sales and marketing manager. “It is ideal for many ballast maintenance items including undercutting, ditching, tamping and ballast distribution. Of course, there are many other jobs it is very useful performing. Tie removal, replacement, crossing replacement and handling rail, plates, spikes, etc.; it is a very useful all-purpose tool that every gang would be more productive with.”
BTE
Ballast Tools Equipment (BTE) is now making available 20 Railway Track & Structures
August 2014
its BTE-420F Hi-Rail Backhoe System. The company says that with the integrated, easy-on-off hi-rail system and a full line of rail maintenance attachments, the BTE420F is an extremely versatile piece of equipment and with the dedicated hi-rail system on the backhoe, it is capable of traveling into remote areas to perform multiple track maintenance tasks. “Our backhoe system utilizes a two-motor, four-tool tamper attachment,” explained Matt Weyand, sales engineer. “This versatile attachment makes short work of tamping difficult areas, such as diamonds, switches and turnouts. With the integrated, programmable logic controller (PLC), BTE has automated the tamping functions on the attachment to replicate the operations of a production tamper. The PLC control system also provides increased safety for the crew with the use of safety interlocks which help prevent operator error.” BTE is also offering its new BTE-312E Hi-Rail Excavator System (HREX). The BTE-312E-HREX is equipped with dedicated hi-rail gear and is available with an entire suite of rail maintenance attachments. The attachments include a heavy-duty, 10-foot undercutter bar with 360-degree rotation and a four-motor, eight-tool, www.rtands.com