Rail King

The number of rail cars the mobile railcar mover can move is not based on the machine, rather the track layout at each facility or yard. The machine has a fixed capability, and it is mainly based on weight and the co-efficient of friction. Tractive Effort and Drawbar pull are essentially the same thing. In come cases a large machine can move 18 to 20 railcars, and in another scenario, it can barely move 4. The railcar mover specialists can typically do the math with a few details such as track curve (in degrees), grade (in percent) and the weight of the cars moved.  Cold weather is usually a factor with rubber tire machines, but not for the steel wheel designs.  Wet, ice and snow are all issues as well, but there is traction aides like sand or TrackGlass to offset these issues!

Essentially there are two common types of mobile railcar mover, both allow you to get on and off the track and utilize the train air brakes and couple to the railcars.

1. The rubber tire driven which uses guide wheels to align it on the track, utilizing a separate hydraulic managed rail guide system to manage the amount of pressure the rubber tires have against the track, in relation to the guide rail wheels keeping the machine from derailing. The rubber tires allow the machine to pull exceptional amounts of railcars without borrowing weight from the railcars, in warm weather. The tires do get quite hot and will form a groove that will deteriorate the tire in a few months. Operators that are not mindful can cause tire wear in minutes and if the machine is not maintained properly the hydraulic system could have issues that result in derailments or downtime.  The rubber will groove whether the operators spin the wheels or not, because the friction from pulling or slowing will still melt the tires on the track, even if they do not spin or slide.
2. The steel wheel driven which uses a regular steel rail wheel that is connected to a differential and driven like a locomotive. These machines typically borrow weight from the railcar they are moving for additional weight capacity. The rubber tires on these machines are exclusively for road use. The steel wheel machines are limited in their capacity from the base machine weight and their borrowed weight, but the machines are more resilient to heavy operator use and they do not lose capacity in cold weather.

Both machines use weight to gain their tractive effort or drawbar pull. They also rely on operators using the Train Air Brakes to stop the railcars being pulled, to prevent excessive wear on brakes, wheels, tires and the machine.

The steel wheel drive railcar movers are typically more reliable in the cold weather. The wet or ice on the tracks can easily be offset with the sand or TrackGlass being deposited on the rail by the sander system. The rubber tire drive units would lose their co-efficient of friction in temperatures below 7˚C.

You install winter tires on your vehicle, but they do not offer this option for industrial tires. In addition to the tires becoming hard in the cold, if you add wet or snow, this even further reduces the traction of the wheel. The sand system no rubber driven units is not as effective because they add air blades to blow the track dry, and it will not retain the sand.

Co-Efficient of Friction on Rubber tires is commonly referred as 60% adhesion; steel wheels are around 33% In cold weather that rubber rating of 60% drops significantly down to the 35% -> the Steel wheel machine does not lose any rating. So in most cases the weight transfer version can still gain more weight to add to the capacity and retain their full rating in all temperatures.

There is benefit to having a larger compressor, however most compressors over 50CFM are screw type compressors. These typically do not have a reservoir, and they require very routine and extensive maintenance at 1,000hours of operation. The benefit of having a large air reservoir like the Rail King 60- Gallon in addition to our redundant dual compressors, we do not need to immediately throttle up the machine to fill the Train Air on the railcars. Most compressors require their RPM to increase in order to achieve their rated capacity. Screw compressors are also problematic in cold weather. The Rail King uses a combination of engine and hydraulic driven auxiliary compressors and multiple air tanks to allow the machine to retain its air system while filling the railcars. We do offer the 100CFM compressors as an option, however users in our highest capacity operations are satisfied with the reliability of this air system design. All operators manuals show that it take 4-7 minutes to charge the first railcar, and 1 minute for each additional car… This is because the RAILCAR dictates how quickly you can charge the air brakes.

The railcar mover with remote controls option is not useful in general yard switching operations; it is recommended primarily for unloading railcars with hoppers or maintenance operations where consistent bump style movement advance the car ahead. Locations with several operators, brakemen and constant shunting in the yard would be unsafe and not recommended for an unmanned machine. You can quickly lose sight of the lead position with the tall railcars and curves. Remote controls are excellent in those fixed positions for unloading, the operator can see quickly how far they need to move the railcar over the hopper unloading position.

Fuel savings and maintenance costs alone will pay for the increased value of the mobile railcar mover. Most railcar movers can be paid for within three years of use versus most locomotives. You may need to break the moves into smaller consists, but they can still move quickly and without the use of a fully certified locomotive operating engineer. Most operations can manage with a railcar mover even if they moved 20 to 30 railcars at a time. The mobile railcar movers can be maintained by the local heavy duty equipment mechanic, parts are readily available and there is an ability to move the machine in a shop or grab a rental in a short time, as the logistics are far more reasonable.