Pirates-
Walking along a bike trail next to the BNSF line this evening, I saw a pirate sign along the railroad tracks. It said “R 1 mile”. Shiver me timbers, what does that sign mean?
Planks- Along several miles of that BNSF line, there appears to be preparations being made for some major tie replacement. Last week, I saw a train of Herzog cars along the line. It had one of those backhoes with a claw up on top of open cars unloading new ties along the line. I notice that the ties are not evenly distibuted. It leads me to believe that the ties are placed more or less in relationship to where they are needed. I presume that an inspector went down the line and marked which ties will be replaced. How is that information relayed to a guy in a backhoe on top of the cars, so he gets the right amount of ties in the right place?
(2) The cartopper will drop 10 ties per every 10 pin flags. The tie-pecker comes through with a sponge paint applicator and puts a colored dot on every defective tie and comes up with a tie count (to replace) per mile. Roadmaster and track supervisor place the pin flags right before the gang shows up.You may see multiple colored dots for various trips of the tie pecker based on budget allowances, delays, etc.
No, that’s RRRR - Reporting Marks for Rock & Rail.[oX)]
There’s usually some flexibility = variation in distance/ location between where the new ties are dropped, and where they’re actually installed. The guy on the backhoe doesn’t have to - and really doesn’t have the time to - put the new tie exactly next to the old tie to be replaced (it’d be right in the way then anyhow).
Instead, the tie inserter usually has a small 4-wheel cart with it, which can hold 25 ties or so. It serves as a kind of ‘surge/overflow buffer’ - if there are a few too many ties set down for the number to be actually replaced, the extras are placed on the cart. Conversely, if the tie inserter is a few ties short on what’s laying next to the track, it can ‘borrow’ from the tie cart to make up for the missing ones, until it gets to a place where there some more extras, etc. In the long run, it all evens out, and saves a lot of back-and-forth to match up the tie count exactly.
During a “railroad archeology” trip, found a brand new (ie, unused) tie in a culvert, where it had apparently fallen when the line was being rehabbed almost 20 years ago.
There are usually one or two on-track tie cranes that can position ties for the TKO/TSR or whatever on-track machine they are using. Getting the ties “close” just speeds up the process. On a good day, the tie cart rarely is touched.
A little planning ahead by the roadmaster/MTM/Track supervisor usually ends the Jack & Jill bundle problem and usually has ties piled strategically in flatter parts. The older fills with the slopes steeper than 1:1 ought to be remediated anyhow to safely hold surface (if you have the room/width, air dumps and jordan spreaders anyone?)
Not sure I’ve ever seen a Cartopper or JimboCrane handle a whole bundle unloading scenario. (More the work for a Burro 40T or Locomotive Crane)
From your description, it sounds like someone is actually walking the track, inspecting each tie up close, and marking it with sponge paint? If the cartopper is placing 10 ties for every 10 pin flags, but the pin flags aren’t there yet…? Is the operator simply dropping a bunch of ties every now and then based on so many ties per mile?
The need for ties for a specific segment of track has been well counted, identified and documented - both in the field and on paper for the tie train to be loaded at the tie plant. The documentation of tie condition will be done 6 months to a year before the work is intended to be undertaken.
On my carrier, before the Tie Gang curfew goes to work it is known that they will be installing 30K, 40K or whatever between mile post 1 and mile post 15 and that the ties have been distributed and are in place for the gang.
I am told that normal production for a mechanized tie gang is 3000 ties per working day.
If they’re doing a 100% replacement, that’s about a mile… Obviously the lower the proportion of ties being replace, the further that 3000 ties will go.
Normal tie replacement is in the neighborhood of 500-1200 ties per mile with a standard tie gang consist. What Balt is hinting at is a supergang with working limits in a blitz type major window. Much over 1000 ties/day and the trailing surfacing gangs and follow-up quality operations cannot keep up resulting in huge slow orders that the operating bubbas can’t accept.
the tie peckers are out there on a fixed schedule many months in advance helping the maintenance planners with their planning and scheduling. A trackman with the pin flags/chalk paint is out there less than a week in advance of the work train arriving. As long as the density of new ties is placed close to the area of need, the tie cranes (usually 2) can set the table for the tie change machines in relatively good order, between what has been put on the ballast shoulder and what they have on the pushcarts being towed by them. The rest of the tie gang consist will be spread out accordingly to let the tie cranes and TKO’s do their thing unemcumbered.
The pin flag or chalk paint is a simple visual cue for the Cartopper/JimboCrane operator to get the right density of new ties distributed along the ballast shoulder.
Interesting webpage with overview of the process, including photos, though not a real good one of the tamper (the most important and interesting machine of the bunch, IMHO):
Murphy, if you can watch the operation at least somewhat up close, I’d encourage you to do that. There are reasons mudchicken and I (and perhaps some others here) find it more interesting than the shiny toys at the front of the trains. [swg]
What Paul said. Several years ago I became interested in MOW. There’s more to railroading than running trains. I became friends with a track foreman and learned a lot from him.
Some mark the tie plate, some mark the middle of the tie where the machine operator can better see the mark through the opening in the floor of the tie inserter.
I do find interest in the way railroad things are put together. I work in the building industry and have that kind of mindset. At a wedding, my wife will be admiring the bride’s gown. I’ll be sizing up the posts that hold the laminated beams that carry the wood plank ceiling…[:P]
What’s fascinationg is that we have a lot of 125 year old railroad infrastructure in our area that still works. You don’t see many 125 year old interstate highways or airport runways that you can say that about.
I once got to watch a tie replacement gang at work, although only for a short time. It was probably more along the line of replacing all, or nearly all the ties on a line. I just remember thinking that the operation as a whole looked as if the Rube Goldberg Circus was heading through town.
You say you work in the building industry, so why, in your professional opinion, did the highway and airport industries replace so much of what they had built 125 years ago?
Yep. Sometimes referred to - and not too derisively - as the “circus train”.
The trains and locomotives come and go in a few minutes, in many places only a couple of times a day. But the track is there 24 / 7 / 365, and provides lots of time and opportunities - while waiting for said trains - to see and study it and the details of all the parts. There are lots more rails and turnouts out there than cars and locomotives . . .
For MOW operations, the same aphorism as for miltary missions applies:
“Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics.”
Murphy: “What wedding ? There’s a wedding here ?!?” (I’ve been accused of doing the same thing - many, many times).