Any Railroad Guys Here???

kevinatfms

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WMATA is considered a sister company and Monday of my current higher-ups came from D.C. We are getting this interesting wheel press machine that is all in one. Has axles, gearboxes, journal bearings and brake discs stocked and the machine mostly automated the installation procedure. Less crane work. We also have a MPI machine pre-wheel press but we have zero qualified certified MPI inspectors.

Wonder how many times BART has asked for business from your company.

Never had any BART quotes but dont really expect to quote or bid a job that is across the country from us. We are mainly a general contractor in the DC/VA/MD area with an occasional job in NC/SC and as far north as NJ.

I have heard that WMATA and BART share certain aspects of the track design, materials and car layout? I know when we finished installing the 500T press they just got the new Kawasaki 7000 series cars with the trick new a/c units on top. WMATA guys were raving about how easy it was to maintain the units versus the built in version on the older 1000 and up series cars. What does BART use?

I've always been partial to Swing-Dingle & Cut Out ****. Yes we're definitely a different breed lol.

Great people though and if you're accepted into the brotherhood you're a member for life. But if they don't like you then watch out lol.

Some of the nicest guys ive ever had the pleasure of working with even as an outsider. Always on time, stayed till the job was done and worked in some of the most demanding conditions ive ever seen. I couldnt imagine swinging the sledge to knock in rail spikes for 8+ hours a day.

Track Guy Here. Kevin is spot on with his descriptions.

Machine or handwork? Both are brutal but those guys doing the handwork are carved from another cloth. They drink harder than sailors yet get up every day at the ass crack of dawn to knock rail spikes into plates for 8 hours or more in 100+ degree heat. Still baffled that no one died of dehydration.
 

Stanger00

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Never had any BART quotes but dont really expect to quote or bid a job that is across the country from us. We are mainly a general contractor in the DC/VA/MD area with an occasional job in NC/SC and as far north as NJ.

I have heard that WMATA and BART share certain aspects of the track design, materials and car layout? I know when we finished installing the 500T press they just got the new Kawasaki 7000 series cars with the trick new a/c units on top. WMATA guys were raving about how easy it was to maintain the units versus the built in version on the older 1000 and up series cars. What does BART use?

Ahh ok. That makes sense. We had some crews from back east setup up devices during our testing on a new tapered wheel cut and compared the data to our cylindrical wheel cut. Tapered wheel cut is industry standard from what I hear. We had bad tire noise and flanges wore down to 6 within 2 years and BART did this for 35-40 years! Crazy expensive!

All of the equipment is still installed under the car. If it were on top that would mean harnesses, cranes, latching systems for tooling etc. CALOSHA would have a field day with our Motley Crue, haha. We already have issues with hooking cranes to the car with dropped tools and hardware. However, these systems are designed to remove a few canon plugs and 4-8 bolts and they drop out. No fooling around with component level troubleshooting on the car.

We're getting new heavy rail cars from Bombardier at the moment and the systems are bigger but laid out better and easier to maintain and remove. However, Bombardier is slow and way behind schedule and we already have 600 major modifications to perform on the first 50-60 cars that are built. You know normal kinks for a major redesign.


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kevinatfms

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Ahh ok. That makes sense. We had some crews from back east setup up devices during our testing on a new tapered wheel cut and compared the data to our cylindrical wheel cut. Tapered wheel cut is industry standard from what I hear. We had bad tire noise and flanges wore down to 6 within 2 years and BART did this for 35-40 years! Crazy expensive!

All of the equipment is still installed under the car. If it were on top that would mean harnesses, cranes, latching systems for tooling etc. CALOSHA would have a field day with our Motley Crue, haha. We already have issues with hooking cranes to the car with dropped tools and hardware. However, these systems are designed to remove a few canon plugs and 4-8 bolts and they drop out. No fooling around with component level troubleshooting on the car.

We're getting new heavy rail cars from Bombardier at the moment and the systems are bigger but laid out better and easier to maintain and remove. However, Bombardier is slow and way behind schedule and we already have 600 major modifications to perform on the first 50-60 cars that are built. You know normal kinks for a major redesign.
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WMATA specified that tapered wheel cut on the truing machines. Simmons Machine Tool is who manufactured the wheel truing machines told us that it wasnt industry standard? They thought it was odd but the WMATA superintendent who specified the machines say on the rail around the DC area it helps with wear and NVH. I would have thought the opposite, especially in curves when the wheel skips through a joint. They used to have cars come in with some pretty ratty looking wheel sets.

Either way, this guy was saying they run a tremendous amount of miles on the tapered wheel with no issues. So far so good since we havent had any warranty replacements on the custom built bits. If i can find it, ill post up some pictures of the WTM's and the 500T press. They were seriously impressive machines. The ones they removed that were 20+ years old were refurbished and sent out to another municipality like 3 weeks after we removed them. I couldnt believe they would still be of use but SMT said they do it all the time. Cost for us per machine was $2.5million with a $635,000 credit per machine that went back to SMT.

The in car A/C units were a pain from what i heard and they built a huge gantry/walkway system with 2.5t crane for those cars specifically. It was under another contract but the designer of our project did both so he showed us what was in store for each service shop. The whole unit basically unbolted from the top of the car and could be serviced or they could just swap in a new unit. Faster for them if there was a failure that required an extended removal period. Lessens the time the car is out of service and to WMATA that was everything.
 

kevinatfms

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Here are two pics. One of the first WTM factory test up in New York and the other of the 500T press ready for shipment. Both are gigantic but that freaking press was the size of a bus. We had to skate it across an elevated slab using sand and 1" thick steel plates. The project manager of the contract was sure that thing was going through the floor due to the weight of it. Everything went off without a problem though. Thing is going to be in use 24/7 for the next 25 years.
 

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ScottyD

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On the Hunter issue, CN still actively practices “Precison Railroading”. I do, however, struggle with celebrating a mans death. I will say he wasn’t popular amongst the ranks.
 

Stanger00

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WMATA specified that tapered wheel cut on the truing machines. Simmons Machine Tool is who manufactured the wheel truing machines told us that it wasnt industry standard? They thought it was odd but the WMATA superintendent who specified the machines say on the rail around the DC area it helps with wear and NVH. I would have thought the opposite, especially in curves when the wheel skips through a joint. They used to have cars come in with some pretty ratty looking wheel sets.

Either way, this guy was saying they run a tremendous amount of miles on the tapered wheel with no issues. So far so good since we havent had any warranty replacements on the custom built bits. If i can find it, ill post up some pictures of the WTM's and the 500T press. They were seriously impressive machines. The ones they removed that were 20+ years old were refurbished and sent out to another municipality like 3 weeks after we removed them. I couldnt believe they would still be of use but SMT said they do it all the time. Cost for us per machine was $2.5million with a $635,000 credit per machine that went back to SMT.

The in car A/C units were a pain from what i heard and they built a huge gantry/walkway system with 2.5t crane for those cars specifically. It was under another contract but the designer of our project did both so he showed us what was in store for each service shop. The whole unit basically unbolted from the top of the car and could be serviced or they could just swap in a new unit. Faster for them if there was a failure that required an extended removal period. Lessens the time the car is out of service and to WMATA that was everything.

We are doing the same with our old machine. We will have 2 wheel press. The old will mostly be used for demounts. Another thing our company recently got was ISO 9005 certification and our QA department is working on getting some more certifications to perform wheel mounts for outside companies (probably 5ish years out from being a reality). The wheel press machine we had built is dual gauge. BART track gauge is 6" wider than standard track gauge.

I understand now. That's pretty smart with the gantries.

Unscheduled maintenance with HVAC is a huge problem with us as well.

Here are two pics. One of the first WTM factory test up in New York and the other of the 500T press ready for shipment. Both are gigantic but that freaking press was the size of a bus. We had to skate it across an elevated slab using sand and 1" thick steel plates. The project manager of the contract was sure that thing was going through the floor due to the weight of it. Everything went off without a problem though. Thing is going to be in use 24/7 for the next 25 years.

That is pretty beast right there. I go back to work after 6 weeks off for paternity leave tomorrow. I'll see if I can snap some pics of this new setup we have.

We also bought a wheel cut large machine that is basically set it and forget it. It has lasers to measure and perform the cut. No programmer required to tell the machine to cut.


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