On 25/03/2013 5:06 AM, Wolfgang Keller wrote:
>

> > A quick question. Will the Gold Coast Light Rail line need scrubbing

> > before it opens?

>

> What does the term "scrubbing" mean in this context?

>

Hi Wolfgang,

In my understanding an Australian 'scrubber tram' was a bit more specialised than others have described - although the term tended to be used for trams that were no more than track cleaners.

Here's a pic of one of the last scrubber cars in service in Melbourne - this one was imported from Sydney when the Sydney system closed.
http://tdu.to/10W_Brunswick_2002.jpg

You will see that there are two rectangular boxes attached to the truck frame between the wheels. They hold carborundum blocks that are forced down onto the rails by air pressure and 'scrub' the rail surface.
Melbourne stopped this practice at the end of the 20th century and since then Yarra have found that rail corrugations are slowly building up.
There's a pic of this sort of corrugation - that I am told is called 'roaring rail' at: http://tdu.to/95910.msg
I have been told that Yarra is looking at options to build a new scrubber tram.

I think that what I call a scrubber was sometimes referred to as a rail grinder in US terminology, but here in Australia a grinder was an all together more complicated beast.

Here's a pic of the grinding truck of one of Melbourne's home made grinder trams.
http://tdu.to/Grinder-truck_Bylands_5Aug2012.JPG
This truck allows for rail profiling in situ and was driven by a rather complicated system of ropes, pulleys and chains from a 'mother vehicle'.
There's a pic of mine showing it in use in the TDU archives at:
http://tdu.to/3902.msg
These grinders (there were two of them) were built by a local mining equipment company (Austral Otis) and served the MMTB from 1928 to the late 1960s.

Mal Rowe - who notes that the Bendigo Tramways regularly scrub their rails.