Specialty Excavating
Across every railroad, speciality trackwork areas—like tunnels, bridges, switches, and passenger platforms—are often too restrictive for traditional mechanised excavation. These locations are among the most expensive to maintain yet are frequently neglected due to their unique and difficult challenges. Conventional repair methods demand significant resources and extensive track outages, leading to delayed maintenance and severe ballast and subgrade problems.
Loram's speciality excavators are purpose-built vacuum excavators offering unique flexibility for non-invasive maintenance. These machines allow railways to properly maintain complex track areas with precise nozzle control, enabling targeted material removal without damaging track components.
This precision significantly accelerates the remediation of the track structure, boosting load-bearing capacity, restoring critical drainage, and increasing overall maintenance completion rates in these challenging spots. These self-propelled, track-mounted machines optimise railway maintenance activities and help avoid service interruptions.
Speciality Excavating Features and Benefits
- Designed with versatility, control and productivity in mind, Loram speciality excavators solve a variety of maintenance challenges including:
- Removal of ballast from tunnels, bridge decks and grade crossings;
- Removal of materials from yards, stations and cars;
- Excavation and cleaning of drain tiles and culverts;
- Cross trenching for cables and pipes;
- Cribbing and undercutting mainline mud spots;
- Excavation of compacted or ice-crusted ballast, mud, water, sand and soil.
Controlled Excavation with Unmatched Vacuum Power
Loram's LRV is a powerful, rail-mounted speciality excavating machine designed for efficient material removal. It boasts the market's most productive vacuum-based maintenance-of-way excavation, removing up to 50 cubic yards of material per hour using mechanical agitation and airflow. The LRV combines a diesel engine-powered manipulator arm with powerful, twin-engine vacuum pumps, enabling it to tackle challenging materials like compacted or ice-crusted ballast, mud, water, sand, and soil.
The versatile Loram LRV delivers precision control with unmatched power, applying an industry-leading 5,000 pounds of force to break up tough material more effectively than a rotating nozzle alone. Its compact power and precise control make it ideal for excavating speciality trackwork, trackside equipment, and yard applications. The LRV offers maximum accessibility to traverse and operate within restricted clearances, including tunnels, passenger platforms, and bridges.
Furthermore, the LRV provides unmatched flexibility for hard-to-reach track structures. Its nozzle can tilt 45° from vertical in any direction, allowing it to reach ballast under challenging areas like third rails. The nozzle can also work at distances up to 15 feet from the track centreline, maximising the work area.
LTV: Unmatched Vacuum Power for Precision Excavation
Loram's LTV is the market's most productive, rail-mounted vacuum excavator, capable of removing up to 50 cubic yards of material per hour. It combines 5,000 lbs of nozzle strength with fixed displacement vacuum pumps generating 12,000 CFM of airflow, allowing it to tackle challenging materials like compacted ballast, ice, mud, and soil. Its split hopper design enables continuous excavation, eliminating work interruptions during material offload.
The LTV is designed for efficient operations, travelling at track speeds while towing up to two fully-loaded material wagons. Its cab-forward design ensures operator safety and comfort. The manipulator offers precision control and unmatched power in a compact footprint, providing superior flexibility for sensitive areas. This allows for safe ballast removal around switches, signal wires, on bridges, or in tunnels, without risking damage to critical assets.
With industry-leading vacuum power and airflow, the LTV excavates material faster than any other product. The manipulator's nozzle can tilt 45° from vertical in any direction, reaching ballast under challenging structures like ties and third rails. The standard nozzle extends up to 16 feet from the track centreline and 5.5 feet below the top of the rail, maximising the work area.
The LTV's compact power and control make it ideal for speciality trackwork, trackside equipment, and yard applications, easily operating within restricted clearances such as tunnels, passenger platforms, and bridges.
For more information, go here: https://loram.com/pt-br/
