Stone blower trains

[War Pig]

Ok. This has been going on for a number of year now. My back bedroom is near a train line and every so often. This big yellow train, with stone blower written down the side of it will park up outside my bedroom. In the middle of the night. With all its lights on. It sits there for maybe two days. Then chuggs off.

All I want to know is what the hell is it doing? Why does it have to have its engine running all night, and its lights. It doesn't appear to be blowing any stones...

It's sitting there now. Had its engine running since about nine O'clock this morning.

Can I complain to anyone?

[Blue Meanie]

It's for track maintenance.

[Ross1988]

Not seen the train, but what company marking are on it? Stoneblower would probs mean a ballast cleaner of some sort. No idea why its always running or with the lights on. How many orange men are around it?

[War Pig]

Can't remember any other marking at the moment. Its yellow.

Thought it must be for maintence. Shouldn't it doing something other than just sit there for two days though? Maybe move up and down a bit?

Usually two orange men. Who just seem to sit in it. Sometimes appear to sleep. They draw the curtains... with the engine running..

Would the same peice of track need so much maintence every couple of weeks?

It's driving me mad!

[Wheelrepairit]

War Pig said:

Usually two orange men. Who just seem to sit in it. They draw the curtains...

Maybe there is another sort of blowing going on, as well as the stones

[jagracer]

Complain to your environmental health officer at the council, your MP and the rail maintenance company.
Don't take any BS from the council that they can't do anything about it, you are entitled to a certain amount of quiet.

[Spitbarnatt]

Maybe one of your female neighbours likes to walk around naked with the curatins open?

[War Pig]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjXR6HfIqLk

This is the bugger. The one in the video seems to being doing something at least.



[/quote]Maybe there is another sort of blowing going on, as well as the stones
[/quote]



[quote=jagracer]Complain to your environmental health officer at the council, your MP and the rail maintenance company.
Don't take any BS from the council that they can't do anything about it, you are entitled to a certain amount of quiet.
[/quote]

Got to be worth a go.

[quote=Spitbarnatt]Maybe one of your female neighbours likes to walk around naked with the curatins open?
[/quote]

Not likey!

Edited by War Pig on Monday 28th December 20:16

[jagracer]

Have you tried having a talk to the umpa lumpas that are working on the train?

[bananapieface]

Stoneblower lifts the track and blows chippings under the sleepers to help consolidate the ground underneath, they run at a very slow pace and need a steady run through before work to get a calculation of the lift required.

Oh, and why complain? Did they put the railway in after you moved in?

Edited by bananapieface on Monday 28th December 20:53

[sherman]

I did hear that it was easier for many of these large diesels to be left running than shut them down and restart them whilst they were still hot. Also they use bugger all diesel when idling unlike when starting up.

Edited by sherman on Monday 28th December 20:58

[mybrainhurts]

War Pig said:

Ok. This has been going on for a number of year now. My back bedroom is near a train line and every so often. This big yellow train, with stone blower written down the side of it will park up outside my bedroom. In the middle of the night. With all its lights on. It sits there for maybe two days. Then chuggs off.

All I want to know is what the hell is it doing? Why does it have to have its engine running all night, and its lights. It doesn't appear to be blowing any stones...

It's sitting there now. Had its engine running since about nine O'clock this morning.

You must be on The List....

[Ross1988]

Be thankful its not a tamping machine then, they are loud loud machines.

Not seen one in action yet, wouldn't mind though to be honest.

Get onto Network Rail, I'm sure they can help you out.

Is the line its on a siding or a used line?

[P5Nij]

It's probably sitting in the same spot for a couple of hours because it's taking part in an engineering possession. Usally when this happens normal running on the section of line is given up so the engineers can get on with their job safely. Special protection and warning boards are put up at each end of the job and they can then run up and down that section of line as they please - chances are the engineering suprvisor wanted the stone blower out of the way for a while and unfortunately it just happened to stop outside your window. I know it won't help you sleep any better but hopefully you can understand why it's there in the first place. They have to keep the engines running to keep the compressor / brakes working. Not sure how far you'll get with complaining about it officialy but best of luck to you - I've been on a couple of them in the past and they're even noisier to sit on.

Just curious as to where you live / which line is it that backs onto your house...?

Edited by P5Nij on Monday 28th December 21:16

Edited by P5Nij on Monday 28th December 21:16

[Ross1988]

Do you find it happens more at easter/christmas or public holidays?

[black1]

wait till you get the hobc outside ya pad
half a mile of noise !!
and if you get a class 70 on it it will sit outside ya pad all night cos it WILL fail

[Scraggles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5zxg7sGDpM&fea...

shows the track grinder at work, maybe the 2 outide were sleeping ?

[useyourdellusion]

Ross1988 said:

Be thankful its not a tamping machine then, they are loud loud machines.

Not seen one in action yet, wouldn't mind though to be honest.

Get onto Network Rail, I'm sure they can help you out.

Is the line its on a siding or a used line?

I'm a driver/operator on the tampers. They are indeed loud machines and I do feel for residents when we are working, but we can only get out there and do what needs doing at nights and weekends I'm afraid.

I'm quite familiar with stoneblowers too. I'm not sure if the 'chugging away for two days' bit was an exaggeration or not, if that's true, it must be in the sidings and they are doing maintenance and 'stoning up' (refilling the hopper with chippings).

If they are sat at a signal for 40mins to an hour in the dead of night, it will usually be down to a 'T382' which basically means they have been instructed to travel to said signal, stop there and report in to the signaller. The engineering possession will then be set up around them. Once it is set up the blower will move on to the location of work.

[useyourdellusion]

Ross1988 said:

Do you find it happens more at easter/christmas or public holidays?

A hell of a lot of track renewal projects take place on bank holidays and at Christmas. They are big days on the track maintenance calender.

WarPig said:

Would the same peice of track need so much maintence every couple of weeks?

I can only imagine you live near a major junction with a few major routes off.

It may be that there is a whole section of track which is a bit ropey, say ten miles for instance.

Each night the blower/tamper will go out and correct maybe a mile or just over a mile of track every night. This is usually the most they can get done given the time constraints.

The following week the machine may be required somewhere else for a piority job. It completes that and then returns to carry on with the previous work.

I've had calls before on a Friday afternoon asking me to take machines to ludricous locations for emergency jobs. I been on my way home at the time, after already doing a dayshift. It's crazy sometimes...

Great job though.

[JB!]

@ dellusion, what area do you work?

I'm PWAY maint apprentice and work with my local tech team, so spend alot of winter night shifts in nice warm tampers...