MoW: Loram DC-3 (Ditch Cleaner)

(Update: I'm putting this post of videos of a shoulder ballast cleaner here until I can find my notes on the cleaner. I remember already researching it because this can be used instead of an undercutter if it is done multiple times because dirt under the track washes out into the shoulder over time.)

While I was looking for something else, I noticed these photos in the same folder. They were taken at the small BNSF/CB&Q railyard in Downers Grove, IL.

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I surmised that the front conveyor swings to one side or the other and than down to dig something up and transport it to the side-dump car behind it. But what does it dig and why? Then today I came across a link to an album of 551 MoW photos. And the first sequence of photos was of this same piece of equipment.

Ben Stalvey posted

In his photo I can clearly see it is a Loram DC-1. This gives me something to Google. And it teaches me that the DC-3 that I see on the caboose in my picture is significant. At first I thought they were model numbers. Now I think they are unit numbers.

Jim Pearson Photography posted

CSXT 911 leads B419 with a loaded coke train as it meets Loram shoulder ballast cleaner SBC-2401 waiting in the siding at the north end of Slaughters, Kentucky on the Henderson Subdivision on May 15th, 2022. The coke train made its way to Atkinson Yard in Madisonville, KY where it was picked up by the Paducah and Louisville Railway and taken on their line to the Calvert City Terminal at Calvert City, KY.

CSXT 911 is one of several specialty painted units that CSX has painted in the last few years and this unit honors First Responders.

The shoulder ballast cleaner removes ballast at the end of the ties, screens the ballast and discards fines and fouling material and restoring the good ballast to the shoulder. Integrated scarifiers break open end of tie mud pockets, removes fines, and restores ballast voids in the shoulders and under the tie ends and release damaging trapped water.

Tech Info: DJI Mavic Air 2S Drone, Altitude 61ft, RAW, 22mm, f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 140.

https://fineartamerica.com/.../csxt-911-leads-b419-with-a...
Gene Stormont: Ballast cleaner definitely not a friend of the signal maintainer.
Logan Sava: Shoulder ballast cleaning removes dirt and “spoil” from the ballast on the shoulder of the track. This allows for water to drain out the sides instead of pooling at the center of the track, as well as allowing for drainage of fine particles. Water can damage the ties and subgrade, and fine particles can allow the track to compress and put stress on the rail and fasteners.
Chuckie Ratliff: Where did the coke loads originate at?
Jim Pearson Photography: Chuckie Ratliff Hammond, IN

We have already seen that one of the summer jobs for a Jordan Spreader is cleaning drainage ditches that are beside tracks. If the ditch is too deep and/or far away for the spreader, then you contract for one of these to clean the ditches.

Loram DC

Note that the rear conveyor can also swing to the side. Most of the pictures I have looked at show that the second conveyor seldom deposits the dirt into the side-dump car. Above we see the dirt being dumped on the same side. In this Flickr photo, we see it being dumped on the opposite side. They probably use the dump car when they are cleaning a ditch close to a road crossing so that they don't dump dirt on the road (or the cars waiting at the gates).

I had noticed this sign in one of my photos. The action picture below shows that there is a rotating digger head. That explains why rocks might get thrown.

Loram DC

It can also be used to enlarge cuts.

Loram DC

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It looks like multiple people were standing on the bridge taking videos of this action. This video shows that they do shallow cuts and sometimes have to make multiple passes.
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Jim Pearson caught a couple of action shots and a transport shot of DC-2.