video of cat 315 climbing steel scafaling

Check this guy out! I wish i had his confadince. YouTube - Cat 319D LN climbing onto rail car

oops, its a 319

Without being rude,it looks like he has more confidence than ability.Looks a bit uncoordinated

My hat is off to him whatever he has to accomplish that.Your knees rattle when doing a stunt like that and you need supreme confidance in your equipment to pull it off.It appears to me that he made all the right moves and planned ahead properly,I don't see him lacking in confidance or ability.Ron G

why?

i have seen that done before (backhoes do it faster by the way), but what can't understand is... why??

if they are goin to go thru all the trouble to build that scaffolding to climb up... why not just make a frickin ramp?

if they are goin to spend all that money on scaffolding and an excavator to unload railcars... why not put in a belt conveyor?

dont make sence to me imo.

Tommy - thanks for posting, but that really is nothing special for an excavator.
In fact, I wouldn't be afraid to do that blindfolded. No joke.
He's climbing up on to nice, solid benches - I do this every day as a foundation contractor - sometimes on softer, more unstable materials.........like dirt. He's even got them level, so sliding won't be a big issue either.

I guess its just what you know....i've seen some guys on here do things on tractors (loader/dozer) that I could never do either.

any one with a 360 ticket should be able to do that.i could.if you couldent you shouldent be running them
nick..............
dont wish to sound big headed

Thats good operating, but I would like to know something? When the train is going down the tracks, what keeps the trackhoe from hitting low powerlines, signals, or getting under bridges? Around here he wouldn't make it a mile down the tracks without hitting something.

A 360 ticket? not sure what you mean, But if your talking down to me because i dont have that kind of experience yet, Then I dont really appreciate it. Im just starting out on a excavator and I DONT have the confadience to do that yet. Why do you say I shouldent be running one when im still learning how? Would you have done it when you only had 8 or 10 hours on one?

That is somthing,thankyou for the post.Most of the time he is steel on steel,not pretty!I dont think those little pipes welded on his planks,would have done mutch with a wrong move.I once got a ticket that cost me about 360!

A very intresting video and due credit to the operator. :cool2

Many will have taken machines up and down bigger drops on site but steel on steel with the resulting drop if you get it wrong on that framework does not warrant a newbie in the seat. I would not be suprised to find that was his first time up that frame, he hesitated/considered the best place for his bucket to make the second step, on the frame or in the railcar. If he had done it before he would have known instinctively to go straight in the railcar.

For all those that think they have the experience / bottle / nerve, to do it. Set an excavator up and climb over something, be it a log, rail track, girder, concrete kerb, whatever, but make sure your bucket does not slide or your tracks spin, now go and do it on some steel plate and achieve the same

As for why? could be several reasons. For 1) the frames are movable with that size machine so can be cleared from the tracks, even transported to another location 2) how many trucks/cars a day, week, year do they need to unload ?

On edit, the comment about backhoe loaders doing it quicker! quite possibly but the only backhoe loaders I have seen do it have a lot of extras including a winch, this exc looks box standard to me.

The actual task here is not that remarkable, what I find rather disturbing is that it would appear throughout this manouver the operator was not wearing his or her seat belt and the cab door open ???

Here is what was referred to by eianewb talking about the rubber tire backhoe.

You can see htey are modified a bit to do the job.

YouTube - Herzog "Cartopper"

I like the excavator and "stairs", as they can be hauled to the site easily, and used in many different locations. Also, the excavator has not been modified, so it can do normal work as well.

I must say I too find it disturbing that the operator has not been trained well enough to wear his seat belt. Bad enough to not wear it on flat ground, but when there is a clear danger of a machine slipping, it is even more important. You can't control the machine while you are trying to keep yourself from falling out.

580bruce said:

That is somthing,thankyou for the post.Most of the time he is steel on steel,not pretty!

Click to expand...

Thats what i was thinking too Bruce! i would like some sort of rubber between the tracks and frame!

That said hats off to him, to me it looks like one of, if not his first time doing it that way, that steel frame looks fairly new to me, not had many 319D's going up and down it!

Another thing that just struck me is hows he going to get out when he digs out all those stones?? :beatsme

580bruce said:

That is somthing,thankyou for the post.Most of the time he is steel on steel,not pretty!I dont think those little pipes welded on his planks,would have done mutch with a wrong move.I once got a ticket that cost me about 360!

Click to expand...

That was kind of what I was getting at in my other post.Steel on steel is entirely different than tracking on soil.I don't know if I could do it blindfolded but having traction makes it a whole nother game.Ron G

The hoe appears to set inside the railcar, this may not be something that is transported down the rails. But it is used to off load the material at that site onto waiting trucks.
He would have to track all the way down to the last car to start, working his way back so he could set on the yellow frame to clean the last car.

I agree that a ramp may be easier... for all I know this could be something they bought at surplus, already built for an entirely different purpose... cheap but works

I would say it's way cheaper to order 10 railcar loads of material then off load.
Than sending end dumps several hundred miles for 100 loads.

the framework looks to have cleats welded on it for the grouser's to bite on.

there is a company called Hertzog(sp?) not too far from me that specializes in rail toppers, the main reason they do it is for track repair,.....they'll load the hoe on the car and travel down the track placing rock along the way where needed.

And yeah it wouldnt surprise me if it was the operators first time, but no belt and door open. that's just stupid!

Pj

If he went up idler first he wouldn't have to listen to the damn backup alarm...

Rob

Its a travel alarm, it works in both directions. If you get tired of hearing it, you can push the cancel button. After you stop then start traveling again, it will start over.

I'd take my hat off for that operator. Please someone enlighten me, at what point in the video can you see that he has not got his seatbelt on?:beatsme I can't see if he has or hasn't.

He gets up to look before he climbs the 2nd stand