About a month or more, ago, on the Roanoke traincan, I watched a work train set out 12-15 crossties near the 1st cantilever mast. Those ties are still there. How far in advance do they usually set out the ties before they get around to putting them in? BTW, the Roanoke cam is up and working as I write this. TIA
Ive worked those trains and we set ties out about 30 days before the gang is to arrive but has been streched out to 3 months due to other things happening that was more important.
(1) TKO’s don’t grow on trees
(2) Extra gang activity is limited by a fixed amount of machinery.
(3) Replacing ties with the meager local maintenance forces (section gangs) is often determined by availability of a backhoe and the people running around “putting out fires” in the area. What has the higher priority?
(4) When material shows up in a railcar, you empty the car pronto. The operating department wants the car back even before it’s unloaded. (It may sit empty in the yard for months afterwards, but that’s the operating department’s problem why the car is not back in rotation.)
Thanks for the input. It makes sense now.
Constant source of irritation around here. Who’s irritating who depends on which “side” you’re on!
The other responses above have pretty much covered this. Neverthjeless, herewith a few further thoughts:
12 to 15 ties is not much for any decent-sized gang, even if they are only local forces - maybe a 1/2 day’s worth of work, ‘depending’, if it’s a ‘stand-alone’ project. So they might well be waiting until they’re going to be doing something else nearby that will also use up the rest of the day.
Likewise, maybe the crew is waiting for a tamper to be available, if the tie replacement is logically part of another track maintenance operation, like raising a dip in the track.
Also, perhaps they were unloaded there just to ‘finish off that car’ at a convenient location, and have nothing to do with local needs or projects - in which case, they need to be hauled to someplace else, and are waiting for that to occur.
- Paul North.
As the late long-time Trains Editor David P. Morgan wrote that his commanding officer during his Army days once said to him:
''Morgan, it all depends on whose ox is being gored . . . ‘’.
- Paul North.
If the carriers handled their paying customers business as badly has they handle their own ‘company material’…they would not be in business very long.
Track time on any Main Line railroad is a scarce resource. Track work itself requires track time…getting the right of way ready for major track work (tie replacement & surfacing, rail replacement, curve rail replacement and transposition) also require track time to put the required materials in the areas where they are going to be needed. The bigger the track work…the more time that is needed to get ready for the track work.
For the uninitiated or unfamiliar: ‘‘TKO’’ = TracK Occupancy = permission from the Dispatcher - and the Operating Dept., before it reaches him/ her - for the Maintenance-of-Way forces to occupy/ ‘block’ the track to perform the tie replacement work. Usually, though not always exclusive - but almost always under control of the Track Foreman, who decides if and when to let trains through, or not.
- Paul North.
I’ve watched and photographed tie gangs at work on the CN in Michigan. They have adequate machinery, ad don’t let grass frow while they are working. I have a series of stills showing them in action. Would have been better if it were a video.
Gee, maintenance in the way never seems to have a problem getting track time right ahead of me.[(-D]
Jeff
MofW is your greedy brother…they ask for an hour of track time and keep it three hours. You threaten them to get in the clear and they take the track out of service.
…Your dispatcher buddies must be having a great time yanking your chain[:-,]
TKO - Tie Knockout Machine (TKO & TKO-II)…fastest and most reliable way to change ties.
http://www.harscorail.com/products/tie-handling-TKO.aspx
Dealing with the dispatchers and the other hypochondriacs in the operating department while fighting for track time is a whole different nightmare.
Whatdya mean? It’s MofW’s track, we just let those operating characters out on our railroad just to pay the bills and hope they don’t tear it up too bad [banghead][banghead][banghead]
Balt ACD,
Let’s face it. MOW using track time costs time and money that could be made when trains are running, and management is loathe to give them time. I’ve seen MOW crews given less than a two hour window to replace a crossing. I’m not a RR employee, just a photographer who wants to record a bit of history as it relates to the turn of the new century. It is my preference to record history rather than stand by the tracks taking ‘wedgies’.
Locomotives are an interesting but somewhat unimportant pert of railroading. I prefer the historical aspect.
Oh, it’s fun to joke about it. Even the MOW guys will use the term “maintenance in the way.”
I must admit, it’s a lot nicer to hear your train included when the dispatcher tells a track rider he has to wait for so many trains to go by. Still, if the MOW guys don’t do their work, eventually I won’t get to do my work and then no ones making any money.
Jeff
MC: you would be very interested in the fact that Amtrak is actually ahead of schedule using their TLM fir the concrete tie renewal . For the month of April they replaced 27,000+ ties. That caused a lot of delays for MARC on the Penn line and is still causing some. Almost $25M spent in Apr for the TLM and a total of $33M for the FY. The replacements are way ahead of schedule and of course over their allocated budget and the FY forecast is also over budget. Supposed to finish on the Penn line around June 15th and then some work NH - BOS.
Evidently they have been giving a lot of track time. MARC has had up to hr delays on some trains due to single tracking. Guess your statement here is very timely.
I recall seeing a tie crew working on the old C&O (now CSX Saginaw Sub) in Michigan years ago. The tie machine neatly cut each tie in three sections (with a pair of saws that measured the tooth pitch in inches per tooth instead of teeth per inch). Hydraulic arms then pushed the outside pieces out each side while the center section got picked up and passed out to the side as well. I really don’t remember if the same machine then pushed a new tie into place, but I’d guess that’s likely. We’re talking early 60’s here.