Loram ballast cleaner SBC-35 in action

6/5/20 On a beautiful summer day, I stumbled upon a Loram Shoulder Ballast Cleaner: SBC-35. These machines are quite complex, and work to remove dirt from the shoulders of the track. The large digging wheels pick up the ballast from the shoulder, and the conveyor belts move it to the screen. The screen shakes out the ballast from the dirt by separating them based on particle size, with the dirt being sent away from the track using another conveyor. The plows are then used to reshape the track profile. Though these machines are slow, they are very mesmerizing to watch! The first scene shows the machine moving towards the Detroit Lakes Subdivison on the Paynesville Subdivision, while the rest show the machine working in Vergas, Minnesota. Also included is a CP ballast train passing through Vergas with three GMD SD40-2s. More on that to come.