Unload Railroad Car with Backhoe

[skippy_ps]

Looks pretty easy. :D

Murray

[Sandy G]

Well, that's ONE way of doing it...I'd ended up w/a torn up Cat backhoe, mangled railroad car, & prolly covered up w/shit to boot...(grin)

[Scorpion8]

Amazing. Those look like special plates on the stabilizers.

[RichPA]

Hmmm - I imagine that was fun to watch.

[Mark W.]

I work construction driving a dump truck and some of the stuff our operators do just makes you stand there with your mouth hanging open in amazement. This year we repaired a slide area on Santiam Pass near Detroit Oregon and they would drive a Cat 320 excavator up and down this "road" that I almost couldn't walk up it was so steep.

[drknstrmyknight]

I wonder if I could get that guy to teach my wife how to parallel park?

[similost]

That's a good operator for sure.. I've run my share of backhoes, and had some older guys teach me some really cool stuff, but never seen anything like that... What blows my mind more than what he did, was the fact someone even thought about doing that..

I wonder if that is OSHA approved :scratch2:

[Tedrick]

That's actually a specially modified front-end loader/backhoe made just for that application. Iit has three sets of adaptors (one on the loader bucket, one behind the front wheels, and one on the rear stablizers) that allow the tractor to safely straddle the top of an open-top gondola or bulk carrier. Its the only way to unload dry bulk goods from these types of cars if you don't have a bottom unloading facility. We had one at the mine I used to work at that we used to unload rail cars of mineral concentrates that had been shipped to us from another mine.

[Ultra-Hog]

I see them now that you pointed them out. That is still some crazy stuff. Getting out and down must be a real nail biter!

That's not for me. :no:

[mhardy6647]

Getting out and down must be a real nail biter!
Nahhh, gravity will take over if anything goes wrong.

[sleddogman]

That's cool! I'd love to see photos of how he goes about getting off of it.

[Fran604g]

That's cool! I'd love to see photos of how he goes about getting off of it.

Me, too! I thought I was slick by "walking" mine out of 3 feet of mud. I don't have the nerves for something like that!

[onepixel]

Kewl.

[doucanoe]

Kinda like the Spiderman of backhoes.

RC

[mulester7]

That's actually a specially modified front-end loader/backhoe made just for that application. It has three sets of adaptors (one on the loader bucket, one behind the front wheels, and one on the rear stablizers) that allow the tractor to safely straddle the top of an open-top gondola or bulk carrier. Its the only way to unload dry bulk goods from these types of cars if you don't have a bottom unloading facility. We had one at the mine I used to work at that we used to unload rail cars of mineral concentrates that had been shipped to us from another mine......bravo....in this instance it's open-topped hoppers....

[RichPA]

Nahhh, gravity will take over if anything goes wrong.

I suppose so, but IME sometimes gravity taking over IS what goes wrong ...

[similost]

Seems like a grab bucket would be safer

http://www.hydrauliccraneservices.co.uk/assets/images/clamshell.jpg

[ZebraBlvd]

HERE (http://www.herzogcompanies.com/rrservices/cartopper.php) is a video on the cartopper, pretty impressive performance & agility.

[rickr15]

Pretty cool but I can't believe that thing doesnt have a ROPS cage on it.