highboy highrailer
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highboy highrailer
as my screen name states i was wondering if any one had any pictures of these old trucks out working on the rails? i drive highrail truck everyday but its a cheby and it cant handle the weight of the high rails at all front end has been rebuilt 4 times in 250000 miles. has anyone seen or heard of any old dents with high rails.
Lead Driver
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 5,250
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From: West Virginia
nope, my brother worked on the railroad but never seen or heard of any high rails. Most of the older equipment I've seen was chevies... never seen much older than late 80's early 90's though. The only hi rail trucks I've ever seen from the 70's were the medium to heavy duty stuff.
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Joined: Jul 2009
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From: KCMO
Well, a few years ago while traveling for work (doing contract work for the U.P. oddly enough) I seen a '76 F250 crewcab 4x4 setting at a shop/ business on the outer road along side the interstate. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to take the next exit to go check it out, when I pulled into the lot the first thing I noticed was it had highrail gear on it!!! Thats the first and only one I'd ever seen, it was set up with a flatbed and a sprayer rig mounted on back with sprayer bars that swung out to the sides to cover a wide area. The truck had been converted to a DRW setup but still had the single wheel front end. It also had 16" wheels and not the 19.5"s like alot of RR trucks have. I'm not sure if it was an original RR truck from one of the major RR companies because it had no markings or badges on it and it was painted a dark metallic brown color, but that don't mean it couldn't've been repainted. I'm thinking the truck was probably used for vegetation control?
Would've been neat to add it to the collection for sure! Wish I'd a taken some pics.
Would've been neat to add it to the collection for sure! Wish I'd a taken some pics.
Lead Driver
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 5,250
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From: West Virginia
did you happen to notice if it was a flat frame in the back, like originally a chassis cab, or if it had the hump frame from a regular pick up truck? Because a lot of the hi rail trucks use a standard width front and a narrow rear to keep the tires in contact with the rails.... but a crewcab chassis cab must be really really rare, I've never seen one from the 70's. Saw a couple from the 60's.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jul 2009
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From: KCMO
did you happen to notice if it was a flat frame in the back, like originally a chassis cab, or if it had the hump frame from a regular pick up truck? Because a lot of the hi rail trucks use a standard width front and a narrow rear to keep the tires in contact with the rails.... but a crewcab chassis cab must be really really rare, I've never seen one from the 70's. Saw a couple from the 60's.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jul 2009
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From: KCMO
the truck I seen wasnt too awful far from where your located...it was off to the westside of 71 highway around Lamar MO.
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Lead Driver
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 5,250
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From: West Virginia
Yeah sure seems like the railroad holds on to its equipment. Guess it says something about the cost of the hi rail equipment and etc that they will keep one for 20 years and 500k before they retire it.
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not just the cost put down time is a big one. when the motor let go in the grapple truck i was driving 5 years ago when it got to the shop it was put in first and was back in my hands in under 4 days.
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Joined: Feb 2007
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From: S/W Missouri, Polk county
Well there are a ton of them new one's on the net....here is one I am bidding on. Yea not RR, but FD and a F350 SC 4x4. I could see a flat bed on there in a heart beat.