Cleanup after train derailments out West puts Volvo EC290B excavators to the test
OGDEN, Utah – They’re not superheroes, but when there’s big trouble on the rail lines out West, Dennis and Bruce Durbano get the call.
When a train derails in Wyoming or a flood washes out a track in Nevada, one can almost hear the cry: “This looks like a job for Durbano Metals!”
The Durbano brothers, who started out as scrap metal recyclers from Ogden, Utah, have found their niche in the cleanup and restoration related to train derailment and track problems. Often faced with cleanup jobs that may be daunting to most companies, these “men of steel” confidently approach each project with the help of their Volvo EC290B excavators.
“With our Volvo excavators, we can do just about anything,” said Bruce Durbano, who with brother Dennis operates Durbano Metals. “An excavator is the most versatile piece of equipment that you can own. And when you have the right one, they make you very productive.”
And, the right machines, he said, are the two Volvo EC290B excavators they have on the job.
It’s in the primary portion of the firm’s business where the EC290B excavators shine. A substantial part of Durbano Metal’s business is clearing train wrecks, derailments and track washouts for Union Pacific Railroad. Durbano Metals handles all rail work for Union Pacific within a 500 mile-radius of Ogden, including Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada.
“These jobs create a lot of scrap metal,” Bruce said. “We also process condemned rail cars, old rails and other metal from them. We probably get 90% of our scrap metal through Union Pacific.”
The job is demanding and the pressure is great. “When a major rail line is down, Union Pacific is basically out of business,” he said. “Having a main line shut down can cause problems all the way to the West Coast, and sometimes both coasts.”
That’s when the call for ”help” goes out to the Durbano brothers.
“We have to be ready to stop what we’re doing, trailer our heavy equipment and excavators and be on our way any time of the day or night,” Bruce said. “Time is always short.”
Founded nearly 30 years ago as a scrap metal recycling operation by the duo’s father, Durbano Metals has handled train derailments and track problems for the past 25 years. “No other company in the United States has been doing it as long,” Bruce said. “We’ve built special skills and a good reputation. It doesn’t hurt that Ogden is a central hub to rail service in the West, either.”
Key to the operation’s success are the two Volvo EC290B excavators, which Bruce says are versatile enough to go from working in the organized and well laid-out confines of the company’s scrap yard one day, to chaotic derailment sites in some of the most rugged and remote areas of the West the next.
The firm recently spent four months on a large job in southern Nevada, where flooding had washed out track and even carried a 26-car train into a river.
“Several miles of a main line to the West Coast were washed out for two weeks down in those canyons,” Bruce said. “The access roads were washed out, too, so getting to the tracks wasn’t easy.” According to Durbano, normally more than 50 trains a day run through that rail section.
“There were ships in West Coast harbors that couldn’t be unloaded, and all kinds of freight couldn’t get to the rest of the country,” he said, noting that Union Pacific was under substantial pressure to get the line up and running.
“Our first job at a site is to get the track clear and reopened,” he said. “We remove any cars or engines, tear up damaged track, repair rail beds and reinstall new track. In addition to dozers, loaders and cranes, we use the Volvo excavators for all those jobs.” Operators then cut up the damaged cars and tracks, load them into trucks and return them to Ogden for recycling.
The Volvo 29-ton excavators, equipped with hydraulic quick couplers, have proven extremely versatile and productive for Durbano Metals. “We use the quick coupler to switch between a magnet, grapple, bucket and our own patented Panel Boss.”
The Panel Boss allows operators to grab and unload a 39-foot, 10,000 lb. pre-fabricated panel of ties and rails from a flatbed truck or rail car, rotate it, travel to the spot and place it precisely with very little manual labor.
“Placing rail panels has always been dangerous work,” Bruce said. “Using the Panel Boss attachment with the Volvo excavators makes it faster, more precise and a whole lot safer.”
Durbano Metals owns more than twenty pieces of heavy equipment, including excavators, wheel loaders, dozers and cranes. “Up until we bought our first Volvo EC290B excavator about 2-1/2 years ago, we’d run mostly Cat,” he said. “But, we’d had a run of mechanical and other problems, and that made me look at alternatives, including Volvo. I was aware of Volvo’s reputation for quality and I knew they made good equipment.”
In the final analysis, Durbano says value was what made him buy his first Volvo excavator. “The Volvo was a good product at a fair price, and it had a better warranty,” he said. “That told me they had confidence in their equipment’s reliability.”
Durbano said the excellent service his firm receives from Arnold Machinery, in Salt Lake City, is also key to his satisfaction with Volvo. He says, “Arnold has other operations throughout our service area, so if we need parts, or have a problem, they’re nearby and ready to help. And our salesman, John Niemeyer, takes very good care of us. I know John would drop everything and drive 50 miles anytime we need him. That gives us confidence in Arnold’s whole team.”
Still, it all comes down to productivity, and Durbano puts Volvo at the top of the list.“They’re reliable and have very little downtime,” he said. “Another thing is that the Volvos are well-designed and efficient. They work faster and better than the competition, have fast travel times and a fast cycle time on the boom.
“The EC290Bs simply allow us to do more work in a day,” he added. “We still operate a few other machines, but our operators prefer the Volvos.”
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