Does anyone have any views on which is better, road-rail plant or conventional rail track plant?

We're getting advice that Network Rail is against road-rail machines as they are considered more dangerous.

Are Network Rail specifying the type of road rail machines they consider to be more dangerous?

 steam boss

As I understand it, the problem is down to road-rail excavators being used too much for lifting.

Network Rail wants its contractors to use cranes for these kind of tasks.

Ok I see

I would say that the cost of a purpose built rail going crane or even a mobile crane converted into a road rail machine will be much more than a road rail excavator used as a crane.

but you get what you pay for and if NR are prepared to pay more, why not.

 though i am sure the majority of contractors or hire outfits would baulk at the thought of investing in purpose built cranes permanantly fitted to rolling stock.

at least with a mobile crane fitted with road rail gear you can use it for other purposes.

i wonder if they have ever thought of having their own fleet of railway cranes and lease them to the contractors who win the work?

 steam boss

steam boss:

but you get what you pay for and if NR are prepared to pay more, why not.

I don't think that's what going to happen somehow!

But you're right that it will mean substantial investment in new kit.

Again a case of the client saying jump and the contractor/hirer saying how high!

Apart from the extra cost of a mobile crane against a road rail excavator used as a crane, is the problem with overhead catenary.

I cant think of any mobile cranes that have any lifting duties with the boom horizontal (or flat out) and thats a problem.

The thing with an excavator is that it will ift with the boom horizontal and has the mid point knuckle between the boom and dipper arm.

I think the only way to use a proper crane on most of the nations railways would be to use a knuckle boom Hiab type lorry loader.

We did this at the tunnel with a f..k off (that means big in black gang speak by the way) Hiab mounted on a flat bed rail wagon with a donkey engine and it worked very well.

The crane was the full monty for that time with radio remote about a million extensions (it just kept coming out of somewhere meter after meter of it ) and it was fitted with a Kinshofer hydraulic grab with rotator and a wrist action device.

The grab was an amazing bit of gear as it had a sensing system that applied just enough pressure to whatever it was picking up to stop it slipping. It could pick up an egg without breaking it - or a 2 tonne steel H column from horizontal and stand it upright to vertical from the rails under the catenary. And it had to pick the columns up not in the middle but about a third of the way along it.

TML safety dept demanded to know how it worked wanted detailed drawings and technical details - Kinshofer told them to go forth and multiply and quite rightly.

Funny thing was at the end of the job it was taken off the flat bed wagon and put under overbridge 1 at the uk terminal and got knicked

So to stop the story getting any longer - I think the only way to do what NR want is to use Hiab type knuckle boom truck loading cranes and all up they would be cheaper than a mobile crane but probably about the same as a road rail excavator.

steam boss