< View previous picture - View next picture > Photographer / Copyright Kim Rennie Images should not be reused without permission. View vehicle details Location Link/s Ruislip Depot Date added to site 17/06/2009 Printer-friendly version of this page

Details: This strange-looking contraption was photographed at Ruislip Depot on 21st March 2009. Lettered as a TUBEVAC I presumed it was used for tunnel cleaning. However a contact was able to put me right so I can reveal that this is in fact a DISAB Ballast Sucker! Its role is to deal with wet spots where the ballast has become waterlogged. Partly out of frame to the left is an articulated hose that can be lowered to track level to allow wet ballast and spoil to be sucked up. The materials are presumably collected in the yellow contraptions, while flexible hoses continue onto the next wagon. The equipment is mounted on a low-deck wagon numbered MW958. Procor built 12 wagons in 1987, formed into 2-car sets with an intermediate low-level coupling. Each pair originally comprised a cement mixer wagon (CM950-955) and a match wagon (MW956-961). CM951, 951, 954 and MW958 were modified as DISABs in about 2005.

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