Railway worker supervising ballast cleaning machine
Single (one) railway worker in high visibility orange safety clothing overseeing railway track ballast cleaning machine. Night, floodlit, lots of dust and loud noise. Known as the High Output Ballast Cleaning System (HOBCS), the train works on the railway tracks’ ballast foundation. Ballast becomes contaminated with stone dust, called ‘fines’, over time and clogs up. Ballast cleaning is a process to remove the ‘fines’ and add new ballast to the area to increase the performance and life of the track. Continously: Excavating ballast from beneath the track, while holding the track in position; Passing the excavated material through large vibrating sieves; Removing ‘fines’ to specialist wagons in the train; Returning the larger pieces of ballast back to the track; Adding new ballast from wagons within the train to make up for the ‘fines’ removed. Longest train in UK (800 metre, 3,200 tonne). Operated and maintained by First Swietelsky. The machine was built in Austria by Plasser & Theurer and in its entirety is called the High Output Ballast Cleaning System. It is made up of three main types of machinery: Single Line Ballast Distribution System (SLBDS); Single Line Spoil Handling System (SLSHS); and the RM900-RT High Output Ballast Cleaning Machine.
Size: 5023px × 3349px
Photo credit: © Scott G Johnston / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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