Cordova Bay Station web pages require a JavaScript enabled browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer version five or greater or Netscape version four or greater. Alternately, JavaScript may have been turned off in your browser. Open your browser preferences and enable JavaScript. You do not have to restart your computer or browser after enabling JavaScript. Simply click the Reload button. When enabled, JavaScript has no effect on your privacy settings and no cookies will be written to your computer - William C. Slim.
       

Summer 2004

Canadian Pacific Railway Employee Communications
Room 500 401-9th Ave S.W. Calgary AB T2P 4Z4


Track Renewal Aided
by Satellite Link

Dave Jones


Equipped with global positioning satellite transponders, Herzog's P.L.U.S. Train revolutionizes the way we spread new ballast to maintain the integrity of our roadbed.

GPS system puts ballast where it's needed - and only where it's needed.

   Click to enlarge
A laptop computer provides the link from satellite to train.
 
New technology is putting CPR on a more solid footing - literally. In early April 2004, we were the first Canadian railway to lease a P.L.U.S. Train, a high-speed ballast unloading system from Herzog Contracting Corporation of Missouri.
 
The acronym stands for "Programmable Linear Unloading System" and it's revolutionizing the way we spread new ballast to maintain the integrity of our roadbed.
 
With the aid of a laptop computer, a global positioning satellite transponder and a hi-rail truck, a track maintenance supervisor can quickly survey a stretch of track, recording the locations where we want ballast applied or - just as importantly, for overpasses, level crossings, and such - where we don't want it applied.

 
Ballast cars are equipped with electronically controlled, fully automated hydraulic doors.
 
The information, recorded on a special software program, later allows the P.L.U.S. Train to link to global positioning satellites and apply as smooth an application of new ballast as you could wish, with virtually no waste.
 
"This is a good fit as part of our company's commitment to embracing technology to remain agile and responsive to the needs of our customers," said Vern Graham, CPR's vice-president of engineering operations. "First and foremost, we can dump ballast at any time and at a speed that will not reduce the overall capacity of the corridors on which we are working."
 
Using previous methods, it would take about 40 hours of track time to dump 60 carloads of ballast onto the shoulder of one or both sides of a stretch of track. Four or five people were needed to watch for obstructions and to open and close the doors at the bottom of the ballast cars using long bars or, in recent years on the Soo Line, remote control devices.
 
The new GPS system is supported by ballast cars equipped with electronically controlled, fully automated hydraulic doors.
 
"Now we can dump the same amount in 2.5 to four hours, day or night, rain or shine, with only one technician," Vern said. "So it gives us greater value. It doesn't reduce the overall capacity of the corridor and we gain efficiency in the use of locomotive, our employees, and railcars.
 
"We're looking forward to embracing the technology. Our guys are excited."
 
The 60-car P.L.U.S. Train set will allow CPR to dump 250,000 tons of ballast in six months on subdivisions in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and northern Ontario. The efficiencies realized by the new technology are expected to include the savings of many worker days, or more than half a million dollars in costs, as well as a five to ten percent saving on ballast as a result of the precision dumping.
 
Safety is also enhanced. "We can now do the work, quicker and more efficiently," said Gord Pozzobon, CPR general manager for engineering operations. "That means fewer people on the ground, less overtime and - one of the greatest benefits - a reduced potential for injuries.
 
"We've yet to quantify the full measure of the safety and occupational health benefits of using automated ballast unloading trains, but we expect they will be substantial.


This Momentum article is copyright 2004 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.