Pulling rails from the ground

I took time off in college to earn money to continue college. Worked at a local paper/pulp mill. They had a spur rail road running from the mill, across town to the main rr line. I worked a few weeks on the maintenance crew. Heavy, but interesting work.

Their rails were the standard 90 pounds per yard rail. Probably what you have. You will most likely have to cut them at least in half to put on your truck. Be careful with fire!

Good luck and would love to see the video!

Paul

I will see. I will hook up the cylinder to the bobcat. I realized there is no reason to use a 110v hydraulic unit here when I will have the bobcat. The bobcat has a huge pump and speed is clearly not an issue, neither is the hydraulic system pressure.

My plan is to work backwards, pull a bit of rail, have it torched off, back up, pull some more, maybe in 10 foot sections. The bobcat will both move, as well as power, the hydraulic contraption.

This is how it looks.

beam .================= !! ; O !! ;chain | !!post ; [ ] hydraulic !! ; [ ] cylinder

---- {}rail ------

The cylinder pushes the beam up, which cantilevers on top of the left post, a chain is attached to the middle of the beam, to pull up the rail.

i

This one sure wasn't. The lifers were some tough, wiry dudes.

I may have to cut them even more to take them down safely. With a torch this is not difficult.

I am all psyched up about it.

i

I will make sure to post one...

i

My concept is similar - take the bucket off a loader, build a drum around the bucket rotation axis and attach a chain. Attach other end of chain to lift item and tighten slack with main lift arm. Then roll the bucket for the high force lift. I have a 1 ton counter weight on the back of a large tractor. this system will lift the rear wheels off the ground if it don't give. Can easily jerk 250 trees a day this way.

In the case of trees, i find a bump under moderate lift force will break things loose for the main lift. Bet its the same for ties.

karl

Railroad rail is simply nailed in with big spikes, either with or without stabilizer plates. I think his device would likely do the trick. Having steel plate under the device legs on each side of the rail would help, maybe 8"x16"x1" plate to hold it even if the ties are rotten or the ground soft/gravel gone.

Karl, as a fruit farmer, can you tell me what time pears ripen? My neighbor just gave me permission to harvest her tree (tiny ancient thing with 2 or 3 varieties on it) but I'm not sure when to pick. They're all hard as rocks right now, but I only know how to pick candidates from the grocery store. I gave up googlinit when the first hundred and fifty were all either how to plant, grow, splice, or other such unwanted info, but nothing saying "when". Do you know, perchance?

This is quite clever. Have a leg down from the end of your boom, then you can really apply enormous force without tipping.

i

"Iggy, the Reverse Railroad Man!"

NAH!

=================== ; || ; ; 00 ; ; [] ; ; [] ; ; |====| ; ; | | ; ; | | ; ; | | ; ////// | r |////// frame clamps | r | | r |

Cylinder over rail, straddling it. Tongs lift on both sides of cylinder with 1:1 lift, not 1:12 as you show it. Much quicker. Heavy-ass duty tongs, of course. Maybe body shop frame pulling clamps large enough to straddle the rail? Stanzani 140?

but made from scratch. You may already have something like it.

-

Gunner, do you have any of the smaller sheetmetal clamps like this? Pop some in a box for me to pick up, por favor.

Ignoramus14649 fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Yeah, but guys have been 'popping' trees for decades with 26HP tractors weighing 1800lb... you don't need a five ton tractor with a one-ton counterweight!

I've pulled dozens of adult orange trees from clay-bearing soil with a

1948 Ford 8N tractor. Easy-peezy, if you know how (with NO damage to the tractor or the driver).

Lloyd

Ignoramus26736 on Tue, 19 Aug

2014 21:03:34 -0500 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Probably easier to pull the spikes out of the plates, then cut the rails in place. Chop saw would be my preference. (Actually, my preference would be to say "How soon can you have those rails out of there?" and let them do the work.)

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

I ain't Karl , nor due I Pley him on Teevee ... but . I understand that pears actually ripen after they are picked . Might be wrong , I often am . Just ask my wife .

One of my uncles cleared 20 acres of frozen out orange trees with an old jeep, and some heavy chain. That was in Lake county, and over 30 years ago.

this is going to fall down right away

I have never seen an orange tree, are they big or small?

i

Ignoramus10365 fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

The old ones that I cleared had trunks about 10" to 12" diameter, and a root ball about 15' across. They're substantial fruit trees. Not as big as nut trees.

Hint... the trick requires a length of railroad rail and some heavy binder chains. OH! You have all that!

Lloyd

Yeah well, if I were iggy, I'd just call a crane and leave pulling everything out to them. Its probably safer too, because all this speculation and do-it-yourself crap is for the birds.

I'm sure you would, since you never do anything but complain.