A work train (departmental train or engineering train/vehicles in the UK) is one or more rail cars intended for internal non-revenue use by the railroad's operator. Work trains serve functions such as track maintenance,

maintenance of way Maintenance of way (commonly abbreviated to MOW, also known as "Permanent Way Maintenance" or "PWM" in Britain) refers to the maintenance, construction, and improvement of rail infrastructure, including tracks, ballast, grade, and lineside infras ...

, revenue collection, system cleanup and waste removal, heavy duty hauling, and crew member transport.

Types of equipment

Track inspection

A number of railroad vehicles are used in the inspection of railroad tracks and infrastructure to identify flaws and areas in need of routine maintenance. * Rail inspection cars and

Sperry Sperry may refer to: Places In the United States: * Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County * Sperry, Missouri *Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County * Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana * Sperry Glaci ...

rail cars - Inspects tracks for flaws and defects. * Rail bridge inspection - Rail vehicles that have specialized equipment, such as

Aerial work platform An aerial work platform (AWP), also an aerial device, aerial lift, boom lift, bucket truck, cherry picker, elevating work platform (EWP), mobile elevating work platform (MEWP), or scissor lift, is a mechanical device used to provide temporary ...

s to enable access the bridge. *

Dynamometer car A dynamometer car is a railroad maintenance of way car used for measuring various aspects of a locomotive's performance. Measurements include tractive effort (pulling force), power, top speed, etc. History The first dynamometer car was probably ...

s - Rail car that measure locomotive performance, such as traction effort, speed, etc. *

Track geometry car A track geometry car (also known as a track recording car) is an automated track inspection vehicle on a rail transport system used to test several parameters of the track geometry without obstructing normal railroad operations. Some of the ...

s - Rail car that collects information on track properties, such as banking of curves,

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

, etc. * Scale test cars - Rail car that is built to be an exact weight, used to test railroad car scales for accuracy. * hi-rail trucks/SUVs - Road vehicles that are able to also be driven onto train tracks.

Track maintenance and renewal

Track maintenance and renewal trains often consist of many pieces of separate equipment that are capable of servicing specific track components. *

Ballast regulator A ballast regulator (also known as a ballast spreader or ballast sweeper) is a piece of maintenance of way, railway maintenance equipment used to shape and distribute the gravel track ballast that supports the railroad tie, ties in rail tracks. Th ...

s - Distributes

ballast Ballast is dense material used as a weight to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within ...

to a desired shape and position. *

ballast tamper A tamping machine or ballast tamper, informally simply a tamper, is a self-propelled, rail-mounted machine used to pack (or tamp) the track ballast under railway tracks to make the tracks and roadbed more durable and level. Prior to the intr ...

s -

tamp A tamper is a device used to compact or flatten an aggregate or another powdered or granular material, typically to make it resistant to further compression or simply to increase its density. Examples * Small, handheld tampers are used to compre ...

s or levels and compacts ballast to make the trackbed more secure. *

Ballast cleaner A ballast cleaner (also known as an undercutter, a shoulder ballast cleaning machine) is a machine that specialises in cleaning the railway track ballast (gravel, blue stone or other aggregate) of impurities. Background and development Over ti ...

s - Collects and cleans ballast to prolong its life and improve drainage by removing debris. * Cranes - Rail mounted cranes. * Ballast hopper - A specialized hopper car that is designed to spread ballast between rails and to the sides of rails, and the ability control ballast flow. *

Rail grinder A railgrinder (or rail grinder) is a maintenance of way vehicle or train used to restore the profile and remove irregularities from worn tracks to extend its life and to improve the ride of trains using the track. Rail grinders were developed ...

s - Uses grinding wheels to restore rails back to a ideal shape, extending life time of the rail. * Spreaders - Rail based plow that is used to move ballast and create ditches beside train tracks. *

Side dump car In North American railroad terminology, a gondola car or gondola is typically an open-topped railroad car used for transporting loose bulk materials, although general freight was also carried in the pre-container era. Because of their low sid ...

s - Rail car that was built so that it can dump it's load, often ballast, to the side, at any location. *

Spike puller A spike puller is a railroad maintenance of way machine designed to remove rail spikes from ties. The spike puller automates the task of spike removal, allowing it to be done at a rate greater than can be achieved by hand. Spike pullers range from ...

- Pulls out

spikes The SPIKES protocol is a method used in clinical medicine to break bad news to patients and families. As receiving bad news can cause distress and anxiety, clinicians need to deliver the news carefully. Using the SPIKES method for introducing and ...

from railroad ties. *

Spike driver A spike driver (also known as a spiker) is a piece of rail transport maintenance of way equipment. Its purpose is to drive rail spikes into the railroad tie, ties on a rail tracks, rail track to hold the rail in place. Many different sizes of spike ...

- Inserts new spikes into railroad ties. *

Tie exchanger A tie exchanger (also known as a TKO for Tie Knock Out, or by various combinations of tie exchanger, extractor, replacer, or inserter) is a self-propelled railroad maintenance of way vehicle that removes old railroad ties (also known as sleepers) ...

- Removes and inserts

railroad tie A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper ( Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties trans ...

s from under rails that are already in place. * Continuous welded rail trains - Specially modified flatcars for carrying long sections of

continuously welded rail Railway track ( and UIC terminology) or railroad track (), also known as permanent way () or "P way" ( and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers ( railroad ties in Americ ...

for installation, often accompanied by flatcars with equipment for welding sections of rail together. *

Track renewal train A track renewal train (also known as a track renewal system or new track construction machine) is a work train that consists of many units of machinery and materials required for Track (rail transport), track renewal (rail and Railroad tie, sleep ...

- A train capable of doing multiple tasks to replace multiple track components (ties, rails, spikes, etc).

Snow removal

Trains are susceptible to issues related low rail traction as well as being immobilized by significant snowfalls. * Wedge plows - A simple V-shaped plow, pushed by one or more locomotives. *

Flanger Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and (usually) gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces a swept comb filter effect: peaks and ...

- A rail car that removes snow and ice from between rails. * Spreaders - Spreaders can also be used for snow removal, offering more control over where the snow can be directed. *

Snow blower A snow blower or snowblower or snow thrower is a machine for removing snow from an area where it is problematic, such as a driveway, sidewalk, roadway, railroad track, ice rink, or runway. The commonly used term "snow blower" is a misnomer, a ...

- A machine that uses augers or impellers to throw the snow clear of tracks. *

Rotary snowplow A rotary snowplow (American English) or rotary snowplough is a piece of Rail transport, railroad snow removal equipment with a large circular set of blades on its front end that rotate to cut through the snow on the track ahead of it. It was devel ...

s - A type of snow blower, that uses a massive rotating blades to cut through and throw snow clear of tracks. * De-icer cars - Rail cars that use chemicals or heat to melt snow and ice on tracks. *

Rail adhesion car A rail adhesion car or rail adhesion train is a modified vehicle used on a rail adhesion system where the standard equipment does not have locomotives' rail sanding ability. In particular, it may involve tanks and dispensing equipment installed ...

s - Rail cars that are used to address areas of low rail traction.

Vegetation control

The uncontrolled growth of weeds and other vegetation along railroad right-of-ways can cause significant issues with drainage, obstruct worker access and become a nuisance to adjacent property owners. * Weed spraying trains - Trains that deploy weed killer in order to control the growth of weeds on railroad tracks and ditches along tracks. * Bush cutters - Used to cut weeds and other vegetation from railroad tracks and ditches along tracks, using blades or saws.

Other railroad cars

In addition to specialized equipment above, most railroad have allocated regular rail cars and locomotives to railroad maintenance duties. This is often older equipment that has either reached the age limit that prohibits it from

interchange Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...

with other railroad, and is required to stay on the railroad that owns it, or equipment that has been rendered obsolete by newer, often higher capacity versions: tank cars, * flatcars, hoppers,

gondola The gondola (, ; , ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull, in a scul ...

boxcars A boxcar is the North American (AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatil ...

as well as

locomotives A locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for longer and heavier freight train ...

. Railroads have historical kept rail mounted cranes of various sizes, to assist with maintenance work, major construction projects as well as respond to derailments and natural disasters. These have in large part been displaced by a mixture of road biased

mobile crane A mobile crane is a cable-controlled crane mounted on crawlers or rubber-tired carriers or a hydraulic-powered crane with a telescoping boom mounted on truck-type carriers or as self-propelled models. They are designed to easily transport t ...

s and sideboom bulldozers. Beyond typical railroad cars, hi-rail technology has allowed railroads to put conventional heavy equipment such as

excavator Excavators are heavy equipment (construction), heavy construction equipment primarily consisting of a backhoe, boom, dipper (or stick), Bucket (machine part), bucket, and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The modern excavator's ...

s, mobile cranes,

bucket truck An aerial work platform (AWP), also an aerial device, aerial lift, boom lift, bucket truck, cherry picker, elevating work platform (EWP), mobile elevating work platform (MEWP), or scissor lift, is a mechanical device used to provide temporary ...

s, Concrete mixers, etc, right onto the tracks.

Subways and metros

In addition to variety of equipment above, subways often have specialized equipment intended to address unique issues within subway systems, such as the difficulty in removing trash from underground stations. * Trash collection trains - Trains that visit stations to remove trash. * Revenue collection cars - Trains that visit stations to collect money collected from turnstiles and ticket sales. * Vacuum cars - A rail car that vacuums up litter and dropped objects from the tracks, as they accumulate in the closed environment of a subway tunnel. * Flood cleanup cars (reach cars, pump cars, hose cars) - Trains deployed to remove water following tunnel flooding.

Gallery

WMATA PM35 at Eisenhower Avenue.jpg, A

Washington Metro The Washington Metro, often abbreviated as the Metro and formally the Metrorail, is a rapid transit system serving the Washington metropolitan area of the United States. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ...

work car in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

providing support for a track maintenance operation Ballast Tamper.JPG, Ballast tamping machine as used in railroad track maintenance in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

File:Work Equipment Snow Preparations (11716060543).jpg, Various New York Subway work trains at Brooklyn's 38th Street Yard Work_train_macarthur_station.jpg, Work train at the construction of a freight line in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia

References

External links

Maintenance of way equipment Railcars {{Rail-transport-stub