Large Scale Central

Ballast

Track and Trestles
#21
Jon Radder said:
Bart Salmons said:
HAlf ton is only the contents of the average front end loader's bucket.....sounds a lot heavier than it actually looks.....
YUP. You should see the front-end loader at this transfer plant. It fills the average dump truck in one scoop. Long dump trailers in 3. Probably a 4-5 ton scoop depending on material.

The bagged goods I used to buy were about 50 lbs. and only .5 cubic feet. I only expect to cover two-three inches or so of the trailer floor. Last year I used about 10 bags. If I get 800 lbs. that will equate to 16 bags - plenty for future expansion.

Now if I were TOC, I’d vacuum up the old, re-set the track on the sub-ballast, then clean and replace the old. A great economical plan if you have the time, or the work crews to do it.

JR


My tractor bucket is a “yard” and that’s about 1700 lbs of dirt or 2300 lbs of crushed limestone or wet sand. The Front end loader (CAT 955) I’ve been renting has a 3.5 yard bucket on it so… be careful with the “just load it on the trailer…or in the truck bed!” at the quarry.

Mark

#22

Thanks for the warning Mark :smiley:

The box on my trailer would hold 24 cubic feet if filled to the top. If my memory and math is accurate, “yard” is 27 cubic feet.

I told the scale house that I wanted under a half-ton of material. I don’t know what she told the loader operator, if anything. He filled his bucket about 1/4 full and slowly started to dump. When I noticed the trailer looking about half full I gave a thumbs up and he stopped. At the scale house the load weighed in at over 1300 lbs. At home I leveled out the load and I’d guess it to be 15-18 cubic feet of wet material. Based on that I’d guess a cubic foot weighs about 100 lbs. wet. That agrees with the Home Depot bagged goods at .5 cubic feet weighing about 50 lbs. each.

Looks like a 2 year supply. Guess I’ll build a patio :open_mouth:

JR

#23

Steve -

If I had those pumpkin Dash 9’s, about 200 more acres and a boat load of double stacks, that would look just like my roadbed :open_mouth:

JR