for the past 4 weeks CSX has been working the north end ( Lagrange - East point ) with a MOW crew. Larger than normal ballast quantities were dropped and then a Loram undercutter worked various locations with the spoils going into rip - rap dump cars. After surfacing the line ballast was observed to be abot 8 - 10 inches outside the ends of the cross ties vs the normal 4 inches. The only exceptions were certain tighter curves having up to 1 ft + on the outside of the curve and the various bridges and culverts that could not handle the wider ballast.
According to the CSX web site work will wind up around May 17.
I also observed a portion of the Lineville sub from LaGrange to Manchester appearing to have the same pattern. ( was worked while I was in hospital Feb - March ).
One problem has been the whole north end has had a slow order in place and my siding has had as well yellow square warning signs at both ends. Many trains have been parked for work windows and crew HOS at various locations.
anyone know if this is some kind of test ? Mudchicken ?
Mac; That is very interesting. The rail has been welded since before 1990. At that time it was 112 RE relay. Then replaced with 127 RE new. Then in 2008 141 RE welded rail. But at no time has ballast been anything but 4 inches beyond the ends of cross ties until 3 weeks ago. one puzzle is that there has been this slow order in place for 3 weeks ??
Makes one wonder if the lack of 12 inches is one reason for the many heat restrictions on CSX around Washington ??
In a word, sunkinks. Jointed rail has a bit of slack that can be closed when rail expands on a hot day. Welded rail has no joints, no slack, so it must be well anchored.
Both types of rail want to go sideways on hot days, and generally welded more than jointed all else equal. When track is just sitting there in the sun, the only thing holding it from going sideways is the resistance between the tie and the ballast AND the resistance provided by the mass of the ballast shoulder. The wider the ballast shoulder, the greater the resistance it can offer to sideways shifting.
The undercutting is a big hint the ballast section was failing. Undercutters typically remove greater than 50% of what was there, usually filling in the voids. The quality of the ballast material may have been better than what the M/W people expected. If that ballast section included cinders, slag and limestone - they have a tiger by the tail. There may be an additional tie gang coming to take care of everything other than joint ties and a future rail relay. If that’s 1950’s -60’s rail, it’s either about to be facebut welded and cropped or relayed. (undercutting jointed anything is about of unheard - of anymore)
CSX suffered from years of deferred maintenance created by a myoptic few that tried to control everything from a balance sheet and never got up and looked around. A lot of good M/W folks struggled to hold the railroad together in the interim. Fortunately, a new mindset is now at the controls.
Heat will always create slow orders. Stable rail structure requires more than just ballast shoulders. How aggressively CSX attacks the other factors will determine if slow orders are not needed as often.
