Safety is undoubtedly the greatest concern for all rail facilities. A loading or unloading facility can quickly become a dangerous place when a railcar is not securely positioned. Soul Asylum said it best, “Runaway train never going back, wrong way on a one way track.” So how do you prevent a runaway train? With chocks!
Read MoreTags: railcar movers, railcar indexers, railcar dumpers, unloading, railcar holding
Railways keep the grain industry moving, quite literally. The majority of grain movement throughout North America is handled by truck, barge and rail logistics. Grain elevators, loading terminals and a variety of other facilities need to be able to index cars in order to get them loaded, unloaded and well on their way. Heyl & Patterson has perfected the art of railcar positioning in a simple and effective manner.
Read MoreTags: grain, railcar movers, railcar indexers, CUB railcar mover, train positioners
Urea, sometimes called carbamide, is a solid organic crystalline compound that is colorless, odorless and highly water soluble. It is formed naturally in mammals, and serves an important role in the liver as the main nitrogen-containing product that breaks down amino acids, proteins and ammonia into waste. The kidneys scrub the urea from the blood and deposit it into the urinary tract, and it then makes up the chief solid material dissolved in urine. Urea can also be synthesized inexpensively from abundantly available inorganic materials. Because urea offers wide-ranging uses in many different industries, it is produced regularly and is available in large quantities for use throughout the world.
Read MoreTags: bulk material handling equipment, railcar movers, fertilizer, railcar indexers, CUB railcar mover, train positioners
Repositioning railroad cars in a rail-switching operation has always been a formidable task. Prior to the development of specialized railcar movers, full-size locomotives were often employed to move the cars across relatively short distances. Locomotives are very expensive and overpowered for the situation. They often require a special rail yard design to allow them to move cars around or out of the way of connecting rail carriers, while older locomotives used specifically for this purpose may not have readily available parts.
Read MoreTags: trade shows & conferences, railcar movers, CUB railcar mover
The railcars in a unit train all carry the same commodity, originate from the same location and travel to the same destination. High-volume bulk materials such as coal, coke, iron ore and aggregates are typically transported this way, as well as bulk liquids like ethanol, crude oil and condensate. All the railcars tend to be nearly identical, inside and out. Unit trains save time and money for a railroad, and eliminates any delays and confusion associated with assembling and disassembling the trains at railyards at both ends of the operation. This type of service enables railroads to more effectively compete with truck transportation and river barges.
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Locomotives are a common means of moving railcars and strings of cars, but that action does not make them rail car movers. Ports, power plants and industrial facilities share the logistics of locomotive use to break trains into strings, transfer strings to the loading or unloading facility, position individual cars for loading or unloading, re-assemble trains and perform other rail duties at a particular facility. However, more manpower is needed, and safety is always a major concern. Line of sight is never optimal, so any train movement could result in injury or worse.
Tags: railcar movers, side arm chargers, railcar indexers, CUB railcar mover, train positioners
The more efficient an oil sands operation is, the more profitable it can be. The crude by rail industry has become an important means of transporting oil within Canadian provinces, to the lower 48 states, and to Europe and Asia. Rail has become so vital because development of pipelines such as the Keystone XL have been delayed, and construction on pipelines for oversea exports is just getting under way.
Tags: railcar movers, railcar indexers, CUB railcar mover, train positioners, oil sands
The sole purpose of a locomotive is to move a train along railroad tracks. It has no payload capacity of its own, and it isn't a very efficient mode of transportation. While it is an effective engine for powering supplies of bulk materials such as coal, iron ore, limestone and chemicals across the country, pushing individual railcars a few feet at a time into a rotary unloader is not the best use of its abilities.
Tags: railcar movers, train positioners
Repositioning railroad cars in a rail-switching operation has always been a formidable task. Before the advent of the railcar mover, large locomotives were often employed to move the cars relatively short distances. Locomotives are very expensive and overpowered for the situation. They often require a special rail yard design to allow them to move cars around or out of the way of connecting rail carriers, while older locomotives used specifically for this purpose may not have readily available parts.
Tags: railcar movers, CUB railcar mover
The approval of new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency regarding air pollution, water pollution and waste disposal could result in the retirement of 35-70 gigawatts of coal-fired power generation nationwide. Electricity rates will most certainly rise, and many believe that even if construction jobs are created in the green industry, virtually no manufacturing jobs are likely to be created from the replacement of coal. Transmission grid stability will emerge as a major issue, both because of power plant shutdowns and the intermittency of renewables.
Tags: Heyl & Patterson, trade shows & conferences, bulk material handling equipment, railcar movers, coal handling, wagon tipplers, railcar dumpers