I was finishing up a bike ride along the Cardinal Greenway in Muncie this past Thursday and got to see a NS track crew come by. They were laying out tie plates in preparation for some track work through the area. I didn’t talk to the crew as they were moving right along with their work, but a couple of people stopped to watch and one of the men spoke to them. From what I could tell, and I may have misunderstood, the rail on the outside of the curve was being moved to the inside and the new rail was replacing the outside section. Does this seem possible? Or, is it more likely that the new rail is replacing only one side and the other side stays? Also, why did they put the plates upside down?
What he probably said (or intimated) is that the new rail, currently on the outside of the curve, would be moved to between the rails prior to installation on the outside of the curve. The old rail would then be put outside the rails for picking up.
Can’t tell you about the tie plates–never been fortunate enough to see a rail replacement operation.
…What I don’t understand is why this work is being done {again}, so soon…Just 2 or 3 years ago the rail thru there was replaced…Including ripping up that crossing there on Broadway…{now M L King Blvd.}, and renewing the crossing structure…Do we think the rail there wears that fast…?
It is on the curve right adjacent to the former C&O depot and now the Cardinal Greenway Trail Head. Can’t understand why that rail would be wearing so fast there…Trains travel thru there at very moderate speeds…Not excessive speeds.
Q, that is a pretty sharp curve, and the train that we saw going through there last year was moving at a good mainline speed. The outer rail will get the wear in a case like that.
The presence of all new tie plates may suggest that the new rail is going to be heavier than the old. Perhaps that’s something that could be checked by an <ahem!> casual observation.
Q, that is a pretty sharp curve, and the train that we saw going through there last year was moving at a good mainline speed. The outer rail will get the wear in a case like that.
The presence of all new tie plates may suggest that the new rail is going to be heavier than the old. Perhaps that’s something that could be checked by an <ahem!> casual observation.
…I will try to keep a bit closer tabs on what really is being done there. I’d bet if one used “search” on here they could find my talking about the replacement process the last time it was done…as I said above…maybe 3 years ago. I know time gets away from us but surely, it wasn’t longer ago than that.
I stood up there and watched the Gradall machine mounted on the back of a heavy duty truck dig up that crossing and was so impressed how the operator {from the Gradall cab}, could move the truck to reposition it…!! Steering and transmission, etc…and all necessary to simply move the truck over to continue to get to the crossing work.
Edit: CSX is about to embark on a project on their double track main thru here too…Ties are placed on each side of the double track R/W for upcoming work. Don’t know if any rail work will be done, but I’d wager they will. It’s been a decade or more since new CWR was installed thru here. Maybe it will be ground. I really don’t have any info on that project. Have seen nothing in the paper yet. The CSX route thru here is pretty much tangent track.
The inside shoulder of the high rail (outside rail) in a curve sustains more wear on it’s shoulder than does the inside rail. As a consequence, the carrier have ‘Curve Patch’ rail teams whose job is to replace selected distances of rail in the curves. This can be done in two ways. The rails can be transposed, the high rail becomes the low rail and the low rail becomes the high rail, as each of these rails will sustain their wear on different shoulders of the rail head. The other form of curve patching is for a new segment of rail to be installed, this may be ‘genuine’ new rail and in some cases may be rail that has been subjected to a hardening process to increase rail life. In other cases the ‘new’ rail may be rail that is being relaid from from another location on the railroad. The carriers endeavour to get FULL use out of every rail on the property before the used up rail ultimately goes off to the scrap yard. Rail that is no longer fit for Main Line use is downgraded and used on Branch lines and that rail gets further down graded and use in yard service.
