Neat!

I have always hated the sound of vacuum cleaners, and I'll bet that one was worse than all the others I've heard, combined!  I wonder how well it worked, though..

It's interesting to see how different railroads did the same job.  Southern had machines (deveolped in the '50s or '60s, I believe) which basically dug up the old ballast, sifted it, and then dumped the clean ballast back on the track.  We still use those ballast cleaners today.

I wonder

if they have a sound module with vacuum cleaner sounds? I also wonder where the filter bag goes?

Bernd

Is that the first Dyson ?

Is that the first Dyson ?

Good Question

Close, but no cigar.  

Bernd

Probably didn't suck...

...... because I never saw any other pics, or any evidence of being used by any other RR. Jose.

Just because you've never seen it...

Be careful with statements like that.  If I've learned anything in my years in the hobby, it's that there is still a lot left for me to learn!  There are many things which I've never seen or heard of, and yet they are/were out there.  A lot of weird things were done in the first half of the 20th century.

Ken: note that I wrote...

... I never saw but did not state that they don't exist. Did enough legal reading already. Jose.

CPR Vacuum

I remembered hearing about a vacuum cleaner to pick up grain spills through the Rockies. These spills attracted the bears and some of them got hit. According to the article, once they started feeding, the bears totally ignored the approaching train. Here is the link to the newspaper article. 

Parks Canada, Canadian Pacific Railway work on ideas to cut grizzly bear deaths