Hi Greg et al,
With the exception of the use of ramped 'frogs' or 'k-crossings' which cause the lurching of trams, I believe that Melbourne has otherwise got their act together with track construction.
But when it comes to track scrubbing, those in command came off the rails years ago when they discarded regular, or even as required, track scrubbing.
Nevertheless although I am always alert for corrugations in Melbourne, I must admit that while there are few audible corrugations, there are plenty of ones that are visible. It would only take a light scrub with a scrubber car operated by a competent driver to get rid of them and prevent them from becoming noisy.
Nearly all the traditional tramways in Germany at least when I was last there seemed to operate scrubbers as required and of course the trams just glided along.
Brussels from time to time hires a Speno ?planer ?grinder. But if it anything like the grinding vehicles used by railways, it will replace one rail noise with another.
Years ago I saw at a distance on the newish Nantes tramway a bogie car which certainly was not a passenger car but painted in the company's colour scheme. Unlikely to be a freight car, I expect that it was a scrubber acquired after several years of operation.
I totally agree with Greg’s suggestion that a modern scrubber should be purchased from overseas and shared amongst the 4 tramways currently in operation. The only mild difficulty would be to agree on a compromise wheel flange shape which would suit all systems.
The first attached photo shows visible rail corrugations. The shine should be constant, not a variation of shiny and less shiny patches.
The second attached photo is of an unramped track frog in Melbourne. Two that I knew of were the crossovers in Riversdale Rd outside Hawthorn Depot and in Flinders St right next to the station. Both crossovers have been completely removed since with track rearranging.
Richard
On 19 Jul 2017, at 9:05 am,transitclassics@... mailto:transitclassics@iinet.net.au [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@... mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
> Hi Richard, et al,
>
> You have touched on a subject that is close to what I call a heart!! Rail grinding, for some reason, since the 90's, our tramways have had this aversion to rail grinders and scrubbers, Melbourne couldn't wait to get rid of them, I suspect that part of that reasoning came from the operator of 11W who refused to grind saying it made to much dust and would only run water!! After the cars were stored, I got management to allow me to demonstrate that they are effective when I took several (who shall remain nameless as they may still be there) managers out and scrubbed the Port Line, their their amazement, they had never seen results like I was able to produce with little effort! But they were still determined to use a truck which has proved to be totally useless.
>
> Now we also have the Gold Coast, Sydney and Adelaide who are or will be suffering the effects of corrugated rail. I have long argued that we use two Z1's with the inner end cabs removed, permanently coupled and the inner trucks used for scrubbing (all functions of those trucks other than track brakes would remain) but this has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears.
>
> In Europe, system there are well aware of these problems and have purpose built scrubbers and grinders that do a fantastic job. A friend, just back from Helsinki has sent me photos and a link to the manufacturer. Why on earth can't we get something like this. for the price of about one passenger tram, you could save a crap load on rail replacement, let along the noise!! Even if one was bought between all the operators and sent when needed. Anyway, here's the link:
>
> http://www.windhoff.de/index.php/fahrzeuge/rail-grinding-maintenance-vehicles/?lang=en http://www.windhoff.de/index.php/fahrzeuge/rail-grinding-maintenance-vehicles/?lang=en
>
> Greg
>
>