One of our members has sent me the following pics, from his work at the railroad. He's somewhat new on the job, and doesn't want to draw attention to himself; so let's call him "The REAL Engineer."

It's interesting to see how things are done in related fields. Some of you railroad buffs out there might want to chime in with some better explanations of what is pictured.

First, a 'battery vault.' It seems that rails used to go where the PoCo had not yet arrived, so they had banks of batteries for signal communication and to operate switches.
The vault itself:



On the (now empty) shelves sat banks of batteries that looked like this one:




Here's an example of one of the control cabinets the batteries powered:



Finally, ever wonder how rail workers got to the site? Remember, many of these sites are pretty remote, and lacking in roads or set in challenging terrain. Or, perhaps, you just wanted to find a way to beat the evening rush hour. Well, this is the truck for you:



Please note the steel wheels, that can be lowered to ride on the rails directly.

Those are weird looking batteries! Are they actual glass jars? They kind of look it for some reason.
Ya, I have seen trucks like those, the "CN" Rail system up here has trucks like that, as well as the odd pick-up and even special equipment for maintaining the vegitation and the banks along side the track that will ride right on the rails.

A.D

Yeah, these 2-way-trucks are cool. The steel wheels keep them on the track and the rubber wheels are used to drive them.

Imagine standing on the platform, waiting for your train during morning rush hour and suddenly seeing a truck drive by on the track... I immediately had to grab my camera and shoot a picture.

The trucks with RR wheels are called HI RAIL trucks. Most RR signal systems operate on batteries with charger. UP has a light on the outside of their signal cabinets that indicates AC power. Many have strobes that operate when power fails telling train crews so they can radio a signal maintainer. The old signal systems had glass jar batteries, most have been replaced by gel batteries. Newer signaling systems are less power hungry than older systems due to solid state controls. Robert

If you can find a copy (It's long out of print, but copies show up on the used market) the book Thirty Years Over Donner (Bill Fisher, 1990) is a interesting look at the life of a signal maintainer on the Southern Pacific over Donner Pass in California. It covers a 30 year career, spanning WWII, into the late 60's.

I'd love to find a copy, and read it again..

I see as many F250 pickup trucks on the rails as trains around here. I sometimes think they only do it to avoid the traffic.

It's really neat to see the convoy of trucks, tractors, etc. that they use to maintain the tracks and replace rails. Probably 20 or so different pieces of equipment.

Imagine my frustration, though, to be late for work yesterday as 3 of these trucks block the crossing while getting aligned, and men slowly getting out and checking everything, and then finally pull off far enough for the gates to rise, only for ANOTHER truck quick cuts off traffic to block the crossing again, ARRGHH!

The law says I have to be able to hold my gates clear for 7 days without a/c power. So that means some serious reserve because my hold clear relays draw about 3/4 amp.

I use flooded NiCad cells in mine, there are sets out there that are 20 years old and still ticking. Edison NIFE cells, although they aren't NIckle (FE)iron anymore. Individual cells, at 280 A/H apiece.

Either that truck has two booms, or it's hiding one behind it.

Didja notice the "office" on the end of the boom?

Steve

aka Trainwire

LEDs in the signals help too.

Ian A.

Could be these -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leclanch%C3%A9_cell

We had lots of them in the school lab back in the fifties.

Its just a giant zinc-carbon cell with the ability to change out the electrolyte and the zinc rod.

Ian;

As far as I have seen in where I am in Canada the LED signals are only on new crossings (usually part of street widening's) or as part of a government supported safety upgrades to existing crossings

It is not inexpensive to upgrade to LED either, I was looking at Transport Canada's web site before posting here, and they are giving a grant for an average of $5000 per crossing as their share (80%) of Canadian Government supported safety upgrades to LED heads.

At that price I don't think the Canadian or US railways can afford on their own to change all the controlled crossings to more energy efficient heads for many years.

MB,

All good points. Also don't forget you don't have to upgrade all at once, they can upgrade the signals as the bulbs burn out. That's what they've been doing on crossings around here for a little while. Only thing is the bulbs seem to last forever...

So it might make sense for Amtrak that carries people around on trains, but on the freight-lines it might not make sense except for energy usage in the middle of nowhere, where solar could also come in handy.

Ian A.

This seems as good a place as any to add a link to some rail information from fellow Brit Sam Hallas:

http://www.samhallas.co.uk/telecomms.htm

Under the "Railway telecoms" section there is some interesting information about various phone and signaling systems from the past. Also, go to the "Document repository" section and you can find some more railway telecom stuff plus some articles about level (grade) crossings.

Trainwire,

My grandfather (GF) was an electrician for the railroad way back in 1920 something. ( I believe) He started out as a carpenter for the railroad when the railroad asked for some volunteers to become electricians. My GF said, sure why not, so poof! he became an electrician. He taped up his lineman pliers with friction tape and went to work. Electricity was new for the railroad, they started to use electrical signals to let engineers to know if it was safe to travel down the track. My GF had to go from station to station on a handcar and change light bulbs. My dad also worked for the RR as did a bunch of my uncles.