By all means please keep posting this kind of information. I find it very interesting to learn the finer details of track engineering and MOW.
I’ve rail-fanned for a long time, but in the last few years I’ve concentrated on photographing (and learning from) the people who break their backs to keep things running. By pure chance I got to know a track foreman from one railroad and a signalman from another. Things snowballed and I began to get tips from them about MOW projects. I’ve been given permission to take pictures as long as I’m on the edge of the ROW. I make sure the foremen I’ve come to know get a CD of the pictures. There were lots of pictures of the Gandy Dancers of yore, but with security being a concern, not so many these days. I’m hoping mine can be preserved for history of the late 20th and early 21st century of railroading.
You have intimate knowledge of the technical details of trackage and their workings, and are good at explaining them at a level most of can understand. Keep 'em coming.
“RE” is the abbreviation for AREA = American Railway Engineering Association, now AREMA = American Railway Engineering & Maintenance-of-Way Association, which is the organization that established the dimensional and quality standards for that - and most other current - rail sections. That identification is needed because there were many other 130 lb. sections developed and installed, and many of them are still around.
“Head-free” is a type of rail where the underside corners and bottom surface of the head is chamfered or beveled upward on a much steeper angle than normal. Around here in eastern Pennsylvania, the Reading RR and related lines had 2 HF types, too - the HF-A and the HF-B sections, but I can’t remember the difference without looking at a rail section dimensional chart. The theory of that - as I understand it - was to eliminate most of the flat contact surface between the top of the joint bar and the bottom of the head, so that it wouldn’t wear there and cause the joint bar to become loose. Instead, the idea was that the joint bar could be tightened up over and over again without running out of usable bearing surface. i don;t think it worked out in actual service in the field quite as well as was expected, for many reasons. One was that those rails tended to suffer from gage wear faster than normal T-rails. One member here - Railway Man - posted that they were known as ‘gage-free’ rails in his experience, which I thought was pretty funny. I’ll see if I can find a rail chart or end photo someplace on-line.
Photos of a Spring Frog - I’ll explain its purpose and operation later. this rail is 136 lb. RE:
In the next day or two I pull together what I remember about laying out a turnout in an existing curve and post it in this topic. I had no idea how to what to do until I asked one of the other fellows in the office; he had been around a while and got me on the right track (sorry).
Model railroaders usually botch up turnouts; I’ve seen some really bizarre articles published in the magazines. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen statements to the effect of “I built the turnout to fit the space and have no idea what frog number I ended up with.” Totally backwards, the real railroads have standard turnout and frog sizes (No. 10, 8, 7, etc.); each frog size has an associated lead (distance from point of switch to point of frog). Using a given size TO (No. 8 for example) we build it into the existing curve but it has the same lead and frog as a turnout installed in straight track.
Thanks, Paul. Yes, I have known about guard rails for more years than I can remember. I simply did not connect the concept of “self-guarding” frogs with guard rails. Of course, this frog is more sophisticated, but it looks as though the installation of it is much simpler and faster than it would be when guard rails have to be added.
And, as you mention spring frogs, back in the early fifties I noticed one at a switch in my home town of Southern SB66. One train a day each way, except on Sundays, and, from time to time, pulpwood cars were be switched.
As diningcar will attest, the expertise and “art” of managing turnout design is highly specialized and rare. Santa Fe’s (and before that, IC’s) expert , intellectual property, institutional memory and great teacher was the late Leo Rekush. His brown book Turnout Manual for Santa Fe engineering staff has followed me around my whole career. I imagine most of us Chico’s Orphans still have a copy around somewhere.
Those of us who have had the opportunity to work both the track maintenance and engineering/surveying design side of the railroad profession learned early on to appreciate Leo’s efforts and the wisdom of the Chief Engineers (Herb Webb in this case) who had people like Leo spread the word in-house. Sadly, an awful lot of that institutional wisdom has fallen victim to the dumbsizing purges of the last 25 years created by Wall Street et. al. driven management watching a spread sheet and not managing or understanding the industry.
Further regarding the above - Johnny, I expect you and jeffhergert will recall a certain ‘folklore’ story about a new ‘tenderfoot’ high official of the early Union Pacific on an inspection trip over the lines. He noticed that there were these many short lengths of rail - with both ends bent inwards a little - spiked down in the turnouts opposite the frogs, but none of the engines ever ran over or used them that he could see. He ordered that those rails be taken up, straightened out, and installed in the track someplace where they could be put to a better use, in his opinion. Upon hearing about that order, a much wiser subordinate called upon him and gently explained that they were guardrails, and kept the engines and cars from derailing. If I’m not mistaken, the same underling then told the newbie official something like: "You must learn to not talk that way before the men - they’ll take you and tie you under the cars until you come to your senses !<
Deggesty:
Thanks, Paul. Yes, I have known about guard rails for more years than I can remember. I simply did not connect the concept of “self-guarding” frogs with guard rails. Of course, this frog is more sophisticated, but it looks as though the installation of it is much simpler and faster than it would be when guard rails have to be added. [snip]
Further regarding the above - Johnny, I expect you and jeffhergert will recall a certain ‘folklore’ story about a new ‘tenderfoot’ high official of the early Union Pacific on an inspection trip over the lines. He noticed that there were these many short lengths of rail - with both ends bent inwards a little - spiked down in the turnouts opposite the frogs, but none of the engines ever ran over or used them that he could see. He ordered that those rails be taken up, straightened out, and installed in the track someplace where they could be put to a better use, in his opinion. Upon hearing about that order, a much wiser subordinate called upon him and gently explained that they were guardrails, and kept the engines and cars from derailing. If I’m not mistaken, the same underling then told the newbie official something like: "You must learn to not talk that way before the men - they’ll take you and tie you under the cars until you come to your senses
Whilst looking for a photo of something else (tunnel daylighting), I ran across this photo, which I took to illustrate the overhead transmission lines that are often co-located with the electrified catenary poles/ towers, frames, etc. Right under my nose, and I didn’t notice it then . . .
This view looks southwest, and this turnout is in the single main track of the Doylestown Branch of SEPTA’s (former Reading Railroad) R-5 commuter line from Philadelphia to Lansdale. As such, it sees many movements of electric multiple-unit commuter cars each way - i.e., both ‘facing’ and ‘trailing’ - each day. Additionally, the right-diverging route is also used frequently, as trains that are changing direction from outbound to inbound will often approach on the left route, then reverse and head through the right route to the “Layover Track” and inbound loading track on the western side of the Lansdale station, which is about 2 blocks south of here. (The grade crossing in the foreground is W. 5th St., and this turnout is at the following Lat./ Long. coordinates, per the “ACME Mapper 2.0” application: N 40.24621, W 75.28367.)
As mudchicken astutely pointed out regarding my originally posted photos, this one shows the proper “stock bend” in the right-most rail - which is technically called the “stock rail” - just about where the light spot is in the shadow from that rail. That bend is made to provide the proper offset and space to ‘house’ the switchpoint to protect it from direct impact by the passing wheel flanges. However, I’m having a hard time picking out the similar bend that should be in the left stock rail. Next time I’m down that way, I’ll try to get a ‘legal’ closer-up and better photo of this one.
There’s also an interesting discussion about the merits of eq
