Ballast distribution, regulation and reclaiming railroad maintenance device

A railroad maintenance system for distributing ballast at any point along a railroad track bed while said system transits along said railroad track bed, comprising:

• a plurality of ballast cars operably coupled together and to a self-powered motive car into a ballast train, each of said ballast cars including rail engaging wheels for supporting said respective ballast cars along said railroad track bed, each of said ballast cars further including a plurality of ballast hoppers, and each of said hoppers having a lowermost ballast door shiftable between a closed position wherein ballast can be retained within said respective hoppers, and an open position wherein ballast carried within said respective ballast hoppers can exit through said respective ballast doors on to said railroad track bed;
• drive means operably coupled to each of said ballast doors for shifting said respective ballast doors between said open and closed positions;
• actuating means operably coupled to each of said drive means for selectively actuating said respective drive means for shifting of said respective ballast doors;
• radio frequency receiver means operably coupled to respective ones of said drive means for selectively providing said respective drive means with actuation signals for operating said respective ballast doors of said respective ballast hoppers;
• radio frequency transmitter means for selectively transmitting a coded radio frequency command signal to said receiver means for initiating said actuation signals whereby selected ones of said ballast doors of selected ones of said ballast cars can be selectively remotely actuated for shifting between said closed and said open positions, such that ballast from selected hoppers from selected cars can be remotely, alternately deposited at any selected portion along said roadbed while said ballast train transits along said railroad track bed;
• and
• control means operably coupled to said actuating means for coordinating the positions of said plurality of ballast doors to control the discharge of ballast from said system at a predetermined optimum ballast flow rate while said ballast train transits along said railroad track bed, said control means including means for establishing said predetermined optimum ballast flow rate based on the number of ballast cars in said system, the amount of ballast in each of said cars, the amount of ballast desired to be deposited along said road bed, the size and number of operable ballast doors, the length of the road bed to be maintained, the distance between ballast doors, and the size of the ballast to be deposited and means for determining the amount of ballast in each of said ballast cars.