Switcher Saturday 03-11-23

@Bill Swatos posted:

Indeed. I wonder how the MTH 44-ton compares to the WBB 44-ton in turnout performance. I have the WBB 70-ton and, as I mentioned a couple of SWSAT's ago, she runs great but I don't have turnouts yet so I don't have any direct experience in this regard.

I find MTH engines with PS3 to be incredibly smooth. The best of all my models.

MELGAR

jhz563 - great read about the SF “cyborg” diesel, and all its various iterations. Find it amazing that SF had such talented mechanics in house to do those revisions. Thanks for posting.

I have been asked in the past how this tower gets filled with sand.  I stopped in this morning to find out.  It turns out since we have so many big toys around here, it gets filled via mobile crane.  When the sand in the tower gets low the crane is used to lift a super sack of sand into position and the bottom of the bag is opened.

I was told that sometimes when filling the lokie the operators have been known to forget which way is open vs. closed, resulting in a large pile of sand on the engines! 

@jhz563 posted:

I have been asked in the past how this tower gets filled with sand.  I stopped in this morning to find out.  It turns out since we have so many big toys around here, it gets filled via mobile crane.  When the sand in the tower gets low the crane is used to lift a super sack of sand into position and the bottom of the bag is opened.

I was told that sometimes when filling the lokie the operators have been known to forget which way is open vs. closed, resulting in a large pile of sand on the engines!

I always wondered, thanks for finding out.

Sometimes the low tech solutions are the best.

Using what's already on hand instead of buying or building something else to maintain.  Very smart!

@jhz563 posted:

I have been asked in the past how this tower gets filled with sand.  I stopped in this morning to find out.  It turns out since we have so many big toys around here, it gets filled via mobile crane.  When the sand in the tower gets low the crane is used to lift a super sack of sand into position and the bottom of the bag is opened.

I was told that sometimes when filling the lokie the operators have been known to forget which way is open vs. closed, resulting in a large pile of sand on the engines!

Every plant I worked at used Super Sacks to handle polymer products in various forms from powders to pellets. I never knew they'd be strong enough to handle sand. Guess that's where the "Super" comes from!