I don’t remember seeing this before. Is this something new? Is this a widespread practice? Has this been done regularly after maintenance, and I just haven’t seen it before the paint wears off?
Locally, and not on CN, I have seen insulated joints being painted - mostly on secondary and yard type trackage where the insulated joints are a part of road crossing protection system - a indication to crews of where cars must be left so as to NOT activate the crossing protection.
The white paint on the switch points and guard rails, from the looks of it is being used as a ‘gauge’ to view the wear that these parts are receiving from passing trains.
I have never seen a compromise joint painted before, however, with the influx of new people to the railroads - in all crafts - it may have been done by the local Roadmaster or Track Supervisor as a form of education to new employees on his territory.
Some locations are also painting marks on yard tracks to denote the ‘Clearance Point’ for how close cars may be safely left on a track without fouling the ladder for cars going to an adjacent track(s).
You have to be VERY careful with color on the railroad, and each railroad is different.
This has been common on the western railroads for decades.
(1) White, a “neutral” color, is used on the switch points and frogs as wear gages.It also is an indicator of is the point open/gapped/closed ? and is the point slightly raised above the stockrail??(This helps keep Joe DumbBunny switchman from running through a rigid switch lined against him)… On the frog guardrail, this helps show (wear-wise) if there is a guard-face-gage or check gauge or is there a mechanical problem lurking.
Pre- lockout/tagout times also had us painting the spike or clamp that took out of service for a sidetrack that many times saved Joe DumbBunny from throwing his back out when he tried to throw an out of service switch and he failed to read his Form C or Superintendents’ Notices. (visual cue)
(2) Most railroad stockpiles are colored to identify weights of rail and the corresponding OTM that fit that rail. Most step joints are multicolored for this reason. (and then you had to be able to be able to identify the GL,FL,GR,FR gage and field flavor of the bars so they don’t slap the wrong one on)
(3) Yellow at clearance points and insulated joints/ I-bonds is common practice. On old Santa Fe, derails and clearance points were always orange. (BNSF now is kinda wonky on yellow or orange)…The location of the clearance point is also an issue on railroads. Railroad operating folks hate the location that railroad engineering/surveying use for clearance points because storage capacity almost always drops by a few cars.
Santa Fe painted the ties and rail orange at clearance points. With treated ties, there was always the issue of dealing with the ties either drinking the paint or oozing creosote. We all had ways of dealing with the problem, but the crews likes the more visable cues. (Most of us nailed a piece of plywood
Let’s see… our clearance point marks were originally yellow, then they became orange, and now are green. Well, most are green - there’s still some orange and even yellow marks out there. Yellow was the best, IMO, as far as being able to see it day or night. Green is too dark to see anytime, and orange paint on a rust-colored rail is almost impossible to see at dusk (esp. if you aren’t employing the services of Mr. Lantern yet).
Then the powers to be painted blue lines where the blue flags were laying and white marks indicating air lines, Some people get spray paint happy.
We use yellow for foul points. Storage capacity isn’t generally an issue with us. The pain with foul points is when we’re doing something like our usual runaround at each end of our runs. By rights, the locomotive needs to move past the foul point onto the siding (the train being on the main) before stopping. Makes for a bunch of walking…
The only blue I’ve seen used here was to mark ties to be replaced by a contractor.
Thanks, everyone, for the responses. I don’t recall ever noticing the colors before.
Mudchicken, being an outsider, I was puzzled by your comment:
“What no railroader wanted to see was spraycan color anytwhere near the balast section, especially if there was an FRA/PUC person around (like moth to a flame)”
Does this indicate some problem requiring maintenance?
Zugmann, I suspect you’re the victim of “think tank” mentality. Studies have shown that green is more discernible in dim light. As the light dims the red rose turns black while the leaves remain green. I think that’s why fire trucks started turning green back in the 70’s, so that you had green fire trucks “contrasting” with all the green grass, shrubs and trees. Never made sense to me.
I think the Mudchicken has most of your answer, and to add my two cents…
Because the paint is new over what appears to be somewhat worn joints and such, which look to have been “tuned up” so to speak, it just might be the siding was revamped some, and the paint is to indicate to anyone looking, like track inspectors, or the FRA, where the work was done.
The white paint is exactly what Muddy one said, it allows wear to be visual judged easier.
On the CSX A&WP sub all culverts of any size has the center line of culvert marked white on both sides of each rail so a siding would have all 4 rails marked including any that are off perpendicular. White paint not on cross ties.
I like the tracks by the golf course! … Guess a horn could really mess up your back-swing, not that mine needs any additional help to stink.
I wonder if those culvert marking have to do with some surveying or some potential MOW activity like ballast cleaning that may need to be alerted to the culverts so not to fill them with debris.
Mudchicken thimks that is not the railroad’s markings, but rather that of the local water utility getting ready to do something with a cased water line crossing. (Better be cased or CSX will have another issue with these knuckleheads)
It’s an asphalt crossing [+o(], but at least its got a gage and field side Epflex insert around the rail.
There has been a lot of MOW activity lately (hirailers, maintaince trucks, Sperry rail testing, other MOW vehicles) - possibly from the tropical storm that hit here. The other day when they made those markings, a guy got out of a hirailer with the spray paint and tape, and marked all of the golf cart crossings.