What is this? Some kind of ballast layer?

[gmat]

Shot during a visit to the Shinkansen Maintenance Facility/Oi Rail Yard yesterday. Sorry that it's a poor shot.

 

 

 

One of two Dr. Yellow Shinkansens noted there that day.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

That's a ballast cleaning train.  Rarely seen by the public because of course it does its work in the wee hours.

 

From the Yurakucho Station platform, just before the last train home:

 

Being moved:

 

Not in Japan, but what appears to be an official video of a Plasser & Theurer ballast cleaning machine in operation, gives a good idea of how the ballast is cleaned and replaced:

[marknewton]

No, it's a ballast recovery and cleaning machine. We have similar machines on my railway, I hauled one about a month ago back to it's depot from the worksite.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[gmat]

Thank you very much.

 

I think that I photographed it at the Oku Open House. Didn't think that there would be a string of them together.

Best wishes,

Grant

[cteno4]

I believe there are multiples as it sieves out the ballast to various sizes and cleans out the dirt and trash, then delivers the correct sized material to the front for reuse along with new material to the tamper car.

 

ever since i got my kato plasser tamper i have wanted to model a MOW train like this, they are such cool and specialized machines. amazing what they do in a pass!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[marknewton]

I believe there are multiples as it sieves out the ballast to various sizes and cleans out the dirt and trash, then delivers the correct sized material to the front for reuse along with new material to the tamper car.

 

Spot on, Jeff, that's exactly how they work. Accompanied by much noise and dust! 

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Martijn Meerts]

I believe there are multiples as it sieves out the ballast to various sizes and cleans out the dirt and trash, then delivers the correct sized material to the front for reuse along with new material to the tamper car.

 

ever since i got my kato plasser tamper i have wanted to model a MOW train like this, they are such cool and specialized machines. amazing what they do in a pass!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Would be nice if the models were fully functional. That'd sure save a lot of time ballasting =)

[angusmclean]

I believe there are multiples as it sieves out the ballast to various sizes and cleans out the dirt and trash, then delivers the correct sized material to the front for reuse along with new material to the tamper car.

 

ever since i got my kato plasser tamper i have wanted to model a MOW train like this, they are such cool and specialized machines. amazing what they do in a pass!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Also effective for removing material in hillside slips.  We had a large slip a couple of months ago in a gorge in New Zealand at which a milk train ran into. This ballast train was backed into one side of the slip, fed by diggers, and transported the soil along each wagon into dump wagons brought up to the other end.

 

Angus