Material Handling - Rapid Rail Handling System

Loram has expanded its offering and resources with the addition of Georgetown Rail Equipment Company (GREX) to offer industry-leading Material Handling solutions. The combined Material Handling offering includes rail handling and rail car cleaning solutions, ballast handling and placement solutions, and work platforms for enhanced productivity in a variety of maintenance operations. Loram’s solutions utilize powerful automation and handling technologies, high capacities and intelligent designs to provide a safer, more cost-effective way to handle railroad materials while drastically improving productivity and reducing operating and labor costs.

A better, faster and safer way to handle long rail

Since the introduction of continuously-welded rail, delivering rail from the welding plant to the worksite and picking up used rail from trackside, has proven to be a manual labor intensive and unsafe process.

Loram’s Raptor rail train is a long rail pick-up, handling and delivery system that manages cradle-to-grave rail logistics. The Raptor consists of twin, independent rail loading machines with telescoping booms and a 3-car work unit with rail joining workstations, coupled with high-capacity rail transport trains.

Safety and efficiency

The Raptor Rail Handling System improves safety by reducing manual handling of rail and keeping people out of harm’s way. The twin-independent rail-loading machine booms capabilities eliminate the need for a ground crew as well as the need to guide the rail through the transport train during loading. The Raptor also has an ergonomically designed cutting and joining station that locks the rail in place when human interaction is required and provide superior access to power tools and supplies, which greatly improves efficiency and safety rather than traditional methods of doing it track side.

Loram Raptor features and capabilities include:

• Vast reductions in man power that can be redirected to other tasks
• Significant reductions of safety risks associated with rail handling
• Each rail loading machine is equipped with 20,000 pounds (9,000 kg) of tractive effort to pull many rail lengths onto the train without assistance
• Ability to grasp and load any rail segment located within 12 feet (3.7 m) of the track centerline and 4 feet (1.2 m) below top of rail
• Separate rail loading machines allow the system to load right and left rails independently, delivering a significant productivity advantage over other competitive loading equipment
• Raptor-based rail replacement and logistics programs fully-staffed and managed by Loram reduces capital equipment investment and ensure high efficiency

Versatile, high capacity rail transport solution

The Loram Rail Transport Train consists of 27 transport cars that store 1,620 feet strings of rail. Each rail transport car consists of a series of drawbar-connected platforms, approximately 60-feet long over coupling faces. The transport train is designed to accommodate five tiers of 10 rails each, for a total storage of 50 rails.

A modular architecture support system for the roller racks, tie-down racks, and bulkhead doors provides application flexibility in the field, and offers the convenience of two roller stands in the same locations on each platform. A three-post design for roller stands offers greater strength and stability than two post designs and expansion joints are located between each platform of the train.