Watch it! Long post coming…
The thread about hiding seams in cast rock faces got me thinking…
When a RR has an established route that runs along the base of a rock face they sometimes R track is expensive and while they want the rockn face made safe they don’t want to smash up the good track they already have. It’s quicker to cover/protect the track than cut out and replace bits that get dented.
It occurs to me that there are lots of other times that the rails get protected like this.
One of them is when any demolition is taking place.
If tracked vehicles are crossing protection is needed unless the caterpillar tracks have rubber shoes added… these seem to be a normal fitting on Hulchers.
Hazmats get put down when there is a spill
Hey! I’ve run out of ideas for the momenet… anyone else got examples? Anyone modelled any of this… or the gear being lined up ready for use?
Incidentally… when installing a model rock face…don’t forget to cover the model tracks!
tape it down… loose cover slides rapidly out from under every blob of goo…
This is a good tip. If you ever have to step near, work near, or operate near nicely layed track, you should prevent it from damage. Rock castings are one thing, but so is a cordless drill that flops over, overspray from _________, and any spilled glues or chemicals.
Without your tracks, you have, shall we kindly agree, an interesting diorama. With tracks…that work…you have a railroad of some kind. I don’t know which would fare better with some instances of impact, Code 100 or Code 70, but I suspect the former would withstand more careless treatment. So, if you have sprung for some Micro-Engineering Code 70, say about 60 pieces of it, and don’t take care once it is exposed…tsk, tsk.
[8D]
That’s exactly why my layout is getting demolished this weekend.
So that’s what all that cracking and sqeeking is that I heard from PA! [:D]
Maybe you should introduce some cod liver oil into your PA’s diet? It works for me…
Meanwhile, back at the subject…
I don’t know what happens over there but here the engineers also put up big scaffolding cages over the track when the powerline companies want to string a new route (or replace and= old one) over the tracks.
I once had an N scale layout with track that ran close to a rock face. To keep falling ‘rocks’ off the track, I built a variant of the snow shed, but with a much steeper and reinforced roof to deflect rocks away from the track. While it made a very interesting model I have no idea how well it would work in 1:1 practice.
The pics I’ve seen (mostly of Latin American examples) were massive reinforced concrete structures that covered the tracks for longer than the normal fall of rocks was wide. I expect that smaller examples in steal and even timber existed… at least early on. Generally the RR tried to get as much rock down and out of the way as possible… but where a whole mountain wanted to move they built a rock shelter like a much stronger snow shed.
Where the problem wasn’t so great RR built fences of H section girders in the ground with steel hausers stretched along them to act as a net. Some of these were strong enough to catch rocks, others would snap… but when the wire snapped (or stretched too far) it caused a signal to fly to danger on both approaches.
So you did what the real RR would have done Jeffrey [^]