THE FUTURE OF M/W MACHINERY--A LOOK AT THE OPTIONS

The types and volumes of track maintenance machines to be acquired in coming years are forecast. With present methods of maintenance that require machines to stop at each tie nearing their limits, other means of reducing cost and track possession time are being sought. Ballast cleaning promises to become more important as does the European concept of track renewal. Outlook looks promising also for track geometry cars and for large multi-function machines such as the rail changeout machine. A requirement for future maintenance machines must be the ability to deadhead more rapidly over track to shorten time to reach work sites and to increase the productive time during track possessions.