Alternative to Costly RR Shunting Fees: The Plymouth WDT Industrial Switcher

[gdmichaels]

Each time a railroad provides yard, terminal, transfer and other switching duties for freight cars, the owner of the freight car is charged a fee for this service. The typical floor price for such a move / service is $200. For an industrial complex with an active rail yard that must shunt 100s of cars every day, this price structure can quickly result in exorbitant fees. To avoid these expenses, it’s more cost effective for freight car owners to own switchers rather than rely on a railroad for switching / shunting services. Thanks to Plymouth Locomotive Works, this was possible. Read more http://www.trovestar.com/generic/blog.php?Article=45.

[Spikre]

 
  used EMD SW1s,Alco HH600,S-1s,and Baldwin 600 HP switchers were much more
  common at Industrial sites after 1960 than Plymouths,Whitcombs,Brookvilles,GEs,etc.
   keep looking at pics of Steel Mills,Auto plants,and other large industrial areas.
   in more current times,Trackmobiles have killed most small critter type locos.
     Spikre
     
     
 

[nkalanaga]

One small-town grain elevator along the NP used to move cars with a tractor - I have no idea what brand, but a standard, quite old (for the 70s), farm tractor.  It had a big steel plate on the front, to protect the radiator, for pushing cars, and a chain on the rear, for pulling them.  Loop the chain around the coupler, and off they went.  Braking, either way, was provided by a guy riding the car setting the hand brake.  I don't know how many cars it could move, but on level track, probably as many as the small elevator could load at a time.

[randgust]

Accurate on the freight car switching charges, but another huge issue is that if the connecting common-carrier is providing switching services, they also determine if the track is suitable for safe operation - usually with a road unit,, and can refuse to provide service if it falls below their minimums or has other issues.   If it is a private industrial property switched by their own equipment (including a tractor) they determine their own level of comfort with track conditions.

There's a lot of trackmobiles out there now replacing industrial locomotives in a lot of situations.   There's still an interesting collection of critters and worn-out road units, but every time one of them goes down, it usually gets replaced with a trackmobile in the current world for light industrial switching.  Two local plants still have vintage critters in storage for backup and have moved to them for day-to-day car movements.

But as Monty Python said, 'they're not dead yet'.... the last time I nearly twisted my head off with a critter was spotting one of these at Curry Rail Services in Hollidaysburg:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k6o0FcBfkQE/hqdefault.jpg

That thing really looks like a kitbash, and wouldn't be that hard to make if you had an end-gear-tower SD truck and a micro gearhead motor.

[Mark5]

But as Monty Python said, 'they're not dead yet'.... the last time I nearly twisted my head off with a critter was spotting one of these at Curry Rail Services in Hollidaysburg:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k6o0FcBfkQE/hqdefault.jpg

That thing really looks like a kitbash, and wouldn't be that hard to make if you had an end-gear-tower SD truck and a micro gearhead motor.

Wow man, looks like something someone put together for fun - that's really wild!

http://hawkinsrails.net/industrials/crs/crs.htm

[Missaberoad]

They're Production Units... TP56 built by Tractive power Corp 

http://www.tractivepowercorp.com/
http://www.tractivepowercorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/TP56%20_DEC2013-mini.pdf

[C855B]

One small-town grain elevator along the NP used to move cars with a tractor - I have no idea what brand, but a standard, quite old (for the 70s), farm tractor.  It had a big steel plate on the front, to protect the radiator, for pushing cars, and a chain on the rear, for pulling them.  Loop the chain around the coupler, and off they went.  Braking, either way, was provided by a guy riding the car setting the hand brake.  I don't know how many cars it could move, but on level track, probably as many as the small elevator could load at a time.

Car shops hated operations that did stuff like this. The other common "make do" is a front-end loader to push cars around. Tractor operator gets in a hurry, is distracted or is otherwise having a bad day, and the car is broken. Biggest casualty was usually safety equipment like grabs and ladders, and with chains, air piping. I knew some agents "back in the day", and once or twice I saw a memo that such-and-such a grain elevator was not going to be switched until the there was a serious discussion and some resolution about car handling, or forced RR-provided car moving.

[wazzou]

The UP has been dumping both SW-1500 and MP-15's in very large numbers at auction over the last few months at prices well below half or even 1/4 of what the little TP-56 units go for.

Union Pacific sold 36 surplus switchers a couple of weeks ago at auction at Metro East Industries in East St. Louis, IL.
There were four SW-1500s and 32 various models of MP 15N; MP15AC in various conditions and stages of completeness.
I won't go into the units one-by-one but the average selling price was around $172,000.

The "steal" of the day was SW-1500 UPY 1086 which went for $25,000; the "Rolls Royce" on the lot was 1975 built MP-15N UPY 1456 which brought an unbelievable $340,000 (wonder what it cost new 40 years ago?).

All except the SW-1500s had alignment control draft gear and UP offered one free move off the property within 30 days; SW-1500s cannot be moved until they are converted to alignment control at a cost of 30-50 grand.

UP seems to be Hell bent on eliminating all traces of evidence that they provided switching service; however, there are still a very few examples still in service.

[davefoxx]

Just past weekend, we saw a couple of trackmobiles and switchers on some industries off the NS Conemaugh Line.  We saw four of these little buggers at one steel mill; almost looks home-brewed.



Sorry for the poor photo quality.  The weather wasn't cooperating; either we got clouds/rain or, when the sun decided to come out, it was backlit shots. 

DFF

[Missaberoad]

One small-town grain elevator along the NP used to move cars with a tractor - I have no idea what brand, but a standard, quite old (for the 70s), farm tractor.  It had a big steel plate on the front, to protect the radiator, for pushing cars, and a chain on the rear, for pulling them.  Loop the chain around the coupler, and off they went.  Braking, either way, was provided by a guy riding the car setting the hand brake.  I don't know how many cars it could move, but on level track, probably as many as the small elevator could load at a time.

I've seen that too, basically a coupler welded to a tractor bucket, A concept still in use today, in a slightly more refined form...

http://www.acs-coupler.com/wheel_loader/railcar_couplers

Then of course there's winches, and manual pry bars to get cars rolling...

[nkalanaga]

Mike:  I wouldn't doubt that many small customers didn't handle the cars very well, so your agents probably had a good point.  On the other hand, there were likely a few who did a good job, and my father never mentioned the railroad having trouble with any of the local industries.  As a retarder operator, he might not have heard anyway, but gossip did reach the upper levels of the tower.

Ryan:  I have used a "wheel jack" to move a boxcar.  As a teenager, several of us got a demonstration by the Pasco depot agent of how to use one, and we each got to try it.  They had an old MOW boxcar on one of the freight platform tracks at the depot, and we took turns moving it back and forth, as well as being allowed to set and release the hand brake.  No, we were NOT allowed to work the brake and move the car at the same time!  The agent worked the brake while we moved the car, and we worked the brake while the car was stationary.

Today, of course, we probably wouldn't be allowed to touch the car, much less move it, although since it was next to the passenger platform, anyone could get close to it.

[jmlaboda]

Yah, that's a Republic Locomotive RX500... capably of pulling the same as a GP38 but not nearly as fast.  An earlier incarnation of the company was heavily involved in Cat-repowering but a contract job to rebuild some FL9s with new up-to-date diesel engines and Alstrom electricals hit a snag because of union problems at Alstrom and by the time they delivered the rebuilt units the company was nearly dead.  That project, and an ill fated Cummins powered road units that couldn't pull itself let alone any cars basically killed the company.  The new company seems to be doing better... 'course that's because the RX500 can pull more than its own weight.

[randgust]

I look under the frame on that Republic one and see a Kato 11-103 frame design.....

Can't find any dimensions online.   Anybody out there have one in their neighborhood?

[nkalanaga]

"Republic Locomotive RX500"

No relation to Marshall Thompson's Republic Locomotive Works, makers and distributors of Nn3 products.  But if you Google "Republic Locomotive Works" you'll probably get both of them.  I tried it a few years ago and did.

[u18b]

One small-town grain elevator along the NP used to move cars with a tractor - I have no idea what brand, but a standard, quite old (for the 70s), farm tractor.  It had a big steel plate on the front, to protect the radiator, for pushing cars, and a chain on the rear, for pulling them.  Loop the chain around the coupler, and off they went.  Braking, either way, was provided by a guy riding the car setting the hand brake.  I don't know how many cars it could move, but on level track, probably as many as the small elevator could load at a time.

I also have seen tractors used for switching.
The CSX terminal in Pensacola, FL in 1989 was using a blue tractor to move cars in and out of the shop.

And Frascati Rail Services in Mobile, AL had a 50 ton switcher.  But if it was in use or down then I saw guys use a plain old back hoe with a big chain to move a car in and out of the repair spot.