by Nick Drew | Tue 05 Dec 2017
Cat on the rails
As we head on down the track towards Christmas I’m sure plenty of the lads engaged in the rail maintenance industry will be gearing for the annual big money spinner over the shutdown period, sacrificing their Xmas dinner for a 12 hour shift on the rails, in this blog post I thought we would take a look at Caterpillars new offering for the sector.
When I was involved in the rail industry the “daddy” of on track road-railers was the Case 988 and I spent many an hour on them. Times have moved on though and although there are still plenty of the venerable old machines still in use, new kit is being launched all the time as in any other industry. We first caught sight of a prototype version of the Cat M323F railroad excavator in Munich during Bauma 2016 where the machine was gaining a lot of interest in the massive hall that Caterpillar dominate every 3 years.
This new machine has according to Caterpillar, been designed in consultation with leading experts in the railway construction and maintenance industries and will offer the performance, efficiency, safety and reliability required for this highly specialized sector. Operators will also get the high levels of cab comfort that come standard on the F Series excavators. Check out this promotional video from Caterpillar to learn more.