Stone blower trains

[rpguk]

That sounds great useyourdellusion! I really like the idea of being a king of the tracks ready to rock up to any town in my little train at a moments notice.

[Ross1988]

useyourdellusion said:

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.

bks you do a mile a night The tamping shifts i've been on the thing break down every 30 minutes!

Who do you work for? The fastlines ones break down all the time! Colas ones actually seem okay!

Also, thats why i asked about if the work is at holidays, spent many an easter and christmas working on track

[Ross1988]

Also where are you based mate? We have a decent teach team from around the country.

[useyourdellusion]

I work for Colas as it happens! I usually cover anywhere between Crewe and Watford.

[Ross1988]

Well then you probably do get a mile done then!

I'm from Winsford as it happens. Hopefully you've not been effected by the downturn on the railway.

[RDMcG]

sherman said:

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

I worked for years in Canadian National Railways. Normally, the locos are left running 100% of the time. As you probably know, the diesels are only to drive the electrical units which actualy power the trains, and have no connection whatsoever to the driviging wheels.