BERLIN-BASED contractor MGW Gleis- & Weichenbau GmbH & Co KG is using an RM 95-700 high capacity ballast cleaning machine from Plasser & Theurer for maintenance work on the German rail network. The eight-axle articulated hydraulic machine offers a precise, laser-aligned cutting of the subgrade, with integrated supply of new ballast.
The excavation chain is an endless pentagonal scraper chain 300mm high. Its speed is adjustable and a hydraulic chain cutter bar reduces the set-up time. Accurate guidance of the excavation chain is vitally important for the quality of cleaning, and a laser reference base is used. A digital four-channel plotter records excavation depth, formation cross fall, superelevation and twist.
Two sturdy oscillating screens give a total surface area of over 40m2. Cleaned ballast passes from the screens to a storage hopper, and then to the ballast chute and ballasting belt from where it is returned to the track. Adjustable plough blades ensure uniform distribution of cleaned material. The store provides a reserve of ballast for use at the start of each cleaning session. New ballast can be supplied from wagons hauled by the RM 95-700, and deposited as required by adjustable discharge chutes.
On-board conveyor belts carry spoil to the front of the machine, and these can turn 180í to deposit spoil by the lineside or into wagons stood on adjacent tracks. Alternatively, the three powered bogies allow the RM 95-700 to propel a rake of spoil wagons, eliminating the risk of waste material spilling onto cleaned sections of line.
Plasser & Theurer, Austria
Reader Enquiry Number: 145
