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Major Rail Project in North America
Published: 8 May, 2009
Balfour Beatty Rail, Inc. is about to finish the rehabilitation of 68 miles which is the major portion of the 90 mile project on Kansas City Southern’s route from Victoria, Texas to Rosenberg, Texas. When this line is open in June of this year it will ease congestion and shorten the KCS Texas to Mexico route by 70 miles.
This newly reconstructed rail line will have new ballast, concrete ties, rail and Pandrol Safelock 111 clips. Balfour Beatty is the main contractor and accepted a very aggressive production schedule that started in February and will complete the 90 miles in June.
Jose “Pepe” Garcia, Balfour Beatty’s Area Manager, stated: “one of the most challenging portions of this project is the rail de-stressing job, we needed to complete 65 miles in 60 days”. “We had a tough time meeting this production rate with the machines we had clipping and de-clipping, until the Rosenqvist CD500 clip machine arrived”.
The Rosenqvist CD500 was brought into the project by Mark Meyer, Balfour Beatty’s Director of Equipment U.S.A. in February. Since the machine has been on the project they have been able to meet the production rates required, de-stressing and welding over a mile a day 7 days a week. Mark Meyer was quoted saying, “The Rosenqvist CD500 clip machine was the key to our success in meeting the high production demands the de-stressing portion of this project required”.
Mr. Meyer went on to say that since “Esco Equipment Service Co. (Rosenqvist U.S.A. distributor) put the machine in service and trained our operator, the machine has been very reliable. We have continued to receive service from Esco, which helped us keep the machine very productive.” When this line is finished the Kansas City Southern says it will help to bring products from Asia to the U.S. via their Mexican Pacific coast ports.
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| Published R T & S July 2009 |
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| Coming To a Head
Railtech Boutet Inc. has completed some R&D of its own and now is offering a Head Wash Repair (HWR) system that can be used to repair transverse and corner gauge defects.
"This repair can be completed in 40 minutes vs. installing a rail plug and two welds," says Railtech Boutet Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Oliver Dolder, adding that the company is testing the system to repair defective plant welds and flash-butt welds.
Rail first needs to be ground up to one inch in depth and up to two inches in width before the HWR system is used to make a repair. The simplicity of the system and a shorter installation time "provide the user an additional easy and inexpensive option to make track repairs," says Dolder.
After a successful first round of tests at TTCI, the company received a final report from the Colorado center and will begin marketing the Head Wash Repair Weld in spring, he says.
The company has demonstrated the Head Wash Repair Weld to BNSF Railway Co., CN, Canadian Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad, says Dolder.
Railtech Boutet also offers aluminothermic welding systems, and a range of rail welding kits for worn rail and wide-gap welding. The company is in the final stages of launching production of its CJ One-Shot Crucible at a Napoleon, Ohio, plant.
Later this year, Railtech Boutet plans to conduct more tests as part of its continuing study on high-carbon and high-strength rail. The company is designing a weld kit for those rails.
"This will be closer to the metallurgical properties of those types of special rails, which will accommodate those railroads that are currently using these types of rails in mainline track and/or tangents and curves," says Dolder.
Article in Progressive Railroading by Walter Weart a Denver-based free-lance writer. 2/17/2010
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