Rail car Movers

[coalburner]

Had a little part failure Saturday. Where is the best place to get parts for an old Switchmaster?

I am looking at a new Trackmobile. Any experiences?

[DigDug]

Yea , just a little failure . hehe, Can you fix that? Sorry , dont know where you can go , just laughed at how you expressed it.

[Lashlander]

It looks like its been half broke for a while with the rust in the crack on the one side. It looks like its weldable though.

[itsgottobegreen]

Got a picture of the whole machine?

[King of Obsolete]

that is an easy weld job and then a little boring on the milling machine. get some prices first.

thansk

[coalburner]

I will get a picture of the machine tomorrow.

I try not to get too worked up on equipment failures but focous my energy on getting things fixed. The last six months I lost a trans mission on our 980F, the hydraulics on the 980G, the transmission and front Axel on the 330 Volvo, 700 HP coal crusher motor, seals on a 400 HP belt gear box, chain on a 650 TPH drag chain (wore out), 18" 30' long conveyor belt that only sees 8 hours of down time a day, truck dump grizzly, diverter gate on a 72" belt, hydraulic check valve failure on our coal rotary dumper (derailed car inside the dumper), bad coil on a solenoid valve that controls the hydraulic wheel clamps on the unit train ( we have a slight up hill grade so we had a runaway train that was jumping over the wheel clamps till we got them completely released) The good news is our team over came these challenges and the trains got unloaded and the unit never ran out of coal or limestone.:bouncegri

[King of Obsolete]

wow, i thought i was having a bad year. keep us posted.

thansk

[Countryboy]

Had a little part failure Saturday. Where is the best place to get parts for an old Switchmaster?

I am looking at a new Trackmobile. Any experiences?

This (http://www.gaiserrailcarmovers.com/) site says they have parts for Switchmaster and Trackmobile.

And this (http://www.rrtrader.com/buyequipment.php?catselect=1) one sells RR equipment kinda like Machine Trader.

[DigDug]

I guess i'm having a terrific year after hearing them stories.:notworthy

[coalburner]

Thanks for the links, It is a rental unit and I thought I might get parts cheaper one my own, but the owner of this machine has a parts machine and should get me back up and going soon. The ice storm had shut down the RR so I have a little more time.

[Countryboy]

Have yall looked into getting locomotives or do those work out better for you. We have 2 GM Electromotive GP-7's.

[coalburner]

We pull two cars in to load and while they are loading the Switchmaster comes off the rails and drives back and get on the rails and get two more cars, by then the first two are loaded and then we push them out and drop off the empty two and repeat the process. We don't have the trackage on the ash siding to use a loco and push the whole 25 car set. Plus without a remote loco it would take another operator to do the work of one Swithchmaster and operator.

[Countryboy]

We got a remote for ours. Its got 2 joysticks and several switches. Moving 2,000 tons with the flick of the wrist is nothing. I got the biggest RC model ever. :bouncegri

[Countryboy]

You get your Switchmaster fixed yet Coalburner?

[alan627b]

Here's one for ya....Michigan 280 wheel dozer with railcar coupler. Spotted at an elevator in Fremont, Nebraska. If the car won't roll. you could push it over....
http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=3727

[Countryboy]

Here's a couple, one is attached to the back of the loader and the other is attached at the front.

Alan, I noticed the air line beside the coupler. You don't happen to know what kind of system they were using to supply the air do you?

I'm kinda suprised they don't remove the coupler when actually moving materials with the blade. Those things are cast, so they are easily fractured if they were to hit something solid. What kind of material was it moving?

7104

7105

[digger242j]

Spotted at an elevator in Fremont, Nebraska.

My guess would be grain.... :cool2

[Countryboy]

My guess would be grain.... :cool2

Could've been a people elevator.......which is why I asked. :rolleyes: :D

[digger242j]

Nebraska is flat. They don't need people elevators. ***

[Countryboy]

Nebraska is flat. They don't need people elevators. ***

Well if thats true.......then they don't need grain elevators either then, now do they? :idea :D

[alan627b]

I think the correct answer is usually grain, although I could see they also were using it to dress up the parking lot. My guess is that most of the time it is pushing soft materials, and railroad cars.
Maybe this is the air tank?

[digger242j]

Well if thats true.......then they don't need grain elevators either then, now do they? :idea :D


Yeah, they do. It's to get that "high fiber" content... :D

[Countryboy]

I think the correct answer is usually grain, although I could see they also were using it to dress up the parking lot. My guess is that most of the time it is pushing soft materials, and railroad cars.
Maybe this is the air tank?

Nice little setup Alan. :cool:

Most equipment I've seen, that moves railcars, doesn't have the air system. They just hook to the car/cars, bleed the brakes off them and go to pulling/pushing.

Thanks for showing the system. :drinkup

Yeah, they do. It's to get that "high fiber" content... :D

:laugh OK, you get some creativity points for that one. :bouncegri