Keeping the Rails Safe
May. 31st, 2016 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeLast week while I was in the Bay Area, Lisa got to see a Sperry Rail Services truck come through inspecting the rails through Fernley for flaws.
I'd heard the Union Pacific dispatcher talk about this vehicle tying up traffic on the Nevada Subdivision the previous week. These vehicles have specialized equipment for detecting flaws in the rails. Some Sperry cars are full-time railcars, while others, like this one, are "hi-rail" equipment that can drive to where they are needed on the highway, then move down the tracks on rail wheels.
Lisa says that the fellow in the high-vis clothing in the photo above climbed aboard the back of the defect detector car and that it looked to her like he operated the vehicle from there as they backed down the main in Fernley. The workers you see at the end of the video are contractors working on one of the freight sidings in Fernley's small yard. They were working on the track that holds cars being loaded by Imerys Minerals at their diatomaceous earth plant here in Fernley, where they manufacture Celite® sorbents.
This afternoon, a continuous welded rail train came through, but I did not get any pictures of it. It looks like we're getting more maintenance on the Nevada Sub, which is good, because we have a lot of heavy, fast trains running through here on the "Overland Route."
I'd heard the Union Pacific dispatcher talk about this vehicle tying up traffic on the Nevada Subdivision the previous week. These vehicles have specialized equipment for detecting flaws in the rails. Some Sperry cars are full-time railcars, while others, like this one, are "hi-rail" equipment that can drive to where they are needed on the highway, then move down the tracks on rail wheels.
Lisa says that the fellow in the high-vis clothing in the photo above climbed aboard the back of the defect detector car and that it looked to her like he operated the vehicle from there as they backed down the main in Fernley. The workers you see at the end of the video are contractors working on one of the freight sidings in Fernley's small yard. They were working on the track that holds cars being loaded by Imerys Minerals at their diatomaceous earth plant here in Fernley, where they manufacture Celite® sorbents.
This afternoon, a continuous welded rail train came through, but I did not get any pictures of it. It looks like we're getting more maintenance on the Nevada Sub, which is good, because we have a lot of heavy, fast trains running through here on the "Overland Route."
