Cross tie measurements

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Came across several different several grade crossing rebuilds by CSX. A few questions.

  1. CSX is now using much longer cross ties under the pavement. ~~ 1 - 2 ft longer on each side. This length is even further from the outside of each rail than the concrete crossing panels. Is this to allow longer times between crossing renewals.?

  2. Talking to some track workers at another location they stated that concrete ties need different spacings for rail that is laid into curves. Each different rate of curvature requires different rail spacings ? ? Does anyone have more info ? ? Does the type of connectors have any bearing on this need ?

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[quote user=“blue streak 1”]

Came across son the need for different several grade crossing rebuilds by CSX. A few questions.

  1. CSX is now using much longer cross ties under the pavement. ~~ 1 - 2 ft longer on each side. This length is even further from the outside of each rail than the concrete crossing panels. Is this to allow longer times between crossing renewals.?

-Use of 10 ft crossties under concrete field side crossing planks is fairly common across the industry to better support the field side planks and keep them from wobbling. The wobbling comes from the end of the tie ends crushing under the impact loads produced by passing traffic. Old timber planks help disapate some of the load because of the timber cushioning of the fibrous material ; concrete planks just transfer the shock and forces directly to the ties below. Adzepads and rubber pads can only do so much.

Depending on the line, normal cross ties can be 8 ft; 9 ft., or the most common 8’-6"

  1. Talking to some track workers at another location they stated that concrete ties need different spacings for rail that is laid into curves. Each different rate of curvature requires different spacings ? ? Does anyone have more info ? ? Does the type of connectors have any bearing on this need ?

Skew concrete ties won’t fly. They have to be at right angles to the rail as the D-E Clip or pandrol clip connecting hardware is only so much forgiving. In sharper curves this becomes obvious. The issue is how much space is in the crib around the inside rail to tamp. (largely a non-issue, but if you run CAT tampers in a territory all the time, you could have issues w/ automatic indexing and tamping that affects the spacing/ slows the tampers down. Again, the low or inside rail spacing controls)</