RR track deburing

Sounds to me like something isn't stiff enough so they are getting vibration which varies the grinder to track distance. Can't believe wire brushes are going to do much! Also, is the track being left in a work hardened state? The working surface stresses in rails are so high that the material flows a bit each time a wheel passes over, hence the burnished appearance and high hardness.

Presumably they need some large number, like 88 or 196 brushes, if they need 88 grinders...196 would be the logical number from the brush-suppliers point of view, I should think, unless 256 works better. Think a whole new machine (or series of machines) to run behind the grinder, long enough to hold enough brushes to get the job done at the speed desired. Each one only gets a few licks in, but enough of them getting a few licks in would hopefully do the trick. Presumably run the brushes backwards to travel for more bite at the working point?

Other thoughts come to mind, but they don't involve brushes, so would not help your prospects.

Its chewing up whose steel wheels- the machines or the railroads?

Dave

The machine

new customer that grind profiles RR track. They have

I'm guessing the raspy surface is not the finished surface, but occurs at an intermediate stage after a few grinders have hit an area, but not all of 'em have had a shot at it. But still, why the crappy surface?

Dave

Well, if they need more track surface contact time at the same vehicle speed, the answer is more wire wheels in series - Duh! ;-)

Obviously 88 grinders on one car isn't enough - especially if they want to speed up the FPM throughput of the process. They may have to go to multiple grinding and buffing vehicles working together, coupled together into a (wait for it...) train.

One vehicle specifically set up to do the rough profile grinding and tramlining, the second is belt-sander based and concentrates on the fine profiling and cleanup, and the third is all wire-wheel final finish and QA monitoring - excessive wear, track gaging, even a camera to monitor for missing spikes and plates, and rotten ties.

And the raspiness might be a resonance issue introduced in one of the grinding stages - a bit of computer monitoring and variable speed grinder drive motors should solve that.

Okay, there's an admitted non-expert's 5-cent analysis. Now take it to the high-priced Engineers and turn it into a workable machine.

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They looking to replace some of their grind heads with brushes, and so the speed/size is already set?

I've found a rail-grinding company that sounds just like this, but they tap out at slightly fewer brushes and go a skosh faster. Cool promo videos on their site!

Dave

They will add the brushing stations. See:

that must be something to see huh!?!? a huge machine going down a railroad track at 10 mph with TONS sparks flying out all over from underneath! tell them you need to see a video of the machine in action and post it up on youtube so we all can see.

b.w.

holy crap, on a lark i went to youtube just to see if they already HAD a video of a railroad rail grinder.... holy crap THEY DO!

Tom,

I suggest you get in touch with the engineering department of the RR that is due to receive the ground rails. Call the RR in question and ask to speak with the Roadmaster. He can put you in touch with the proper officials in the Engineering Department. No class 1 US RR would accept main line rails in anywhere near the condition you describe.

holy shit!!! the video is much more incredible than i woulda thought. i assumed they'd have it all very carefully enclosed and maybe even some kind of vacuum suction thing to suck up all but a few sparks. very cool and amazing. looks like a train riding on a volcanic eruption. they don't mess around huh?! i woulda figured a railroad (with wooden ties and flammable material along the sides of the tracks) would have a terrible fear of starting a fire. how'd ya like to see THAT going down your local railroad?! jeez! they must get LOTS of phone calls to the police huh? would be even cooler if they cranked it up to 50 or 60 mph! (lol, just kidding)

b.w.

And even worse, the wheels are rolling over the debris coming off from the wheels. They need a vacuum cleaner or two. :-)

Nick

I saw this being done live once. It is quite spectactular. They had a firetruck following along, putting out all the brush fires......

Pet

It's got terrible lighting and contrast -- you see lots of sparks (at the end) but you can't get a good idea of scale or speed.

It's probably spectacular (and LOUD) > holy crap, on a lark i went to youtube just to see if they already HAD a

It is..oh yes indeed. VERY loud.

Gunner

Political Correctness

A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

They Do set things on fire. Almost got a house one day near here from a brush fire. The grinding wheels are very course and high speed to maintain high travel speed. The finish left is very course and trains passing over the RAIL make a loud singing noise for weeks. The grinder machines spray a lot of water as they move to clean off the dust from the RAIL head and wet the crossties to douse sparks. I've seen this many times up close. RichD

"holy shit!!! the video is much more incredible than i woulda thought. i assumed they'd have it all very carefully enclosed and maybe even some kind of vacuum suction thing to suck up all but a few sparks. very cool and amazing. looks like a train riding on a volcanic eruption. they don't mess around huh?! i woulda figured a railroad (with wooden ties and flammable material along the sides of the tracks) would have a terrible fear of starting a fire. how'd ya like to see THAT going down your local railroad?! jeez! they must get LOTS of phone calls to the police huh? would be even cooler if they cranked it up to 50 or 60 mph! (lol, just kidding)

b.w."

Gives a whole new perspective to the new Ghostrider movie... A sequel with a train and real life news footage. :)