Hello all… I haven’t posted anything to the list in quite a bit, but thought some of these older scans might be fun for those who are interested in early Conrail stuff to see…
First image is of a northbound Conrail freight with a Reading GP35, Conrail SD35 and Frisco U25B. It’s backlit and hazy as hell, but this wasn’t a train I wanted to let pass by un-recorded.
Second image is of two Penn Central E8s pulling a passenger train over the Garden State Parkway… with the train made up of P70 coaches and ex Santa Fe Budd Cars (aka “EL Capitans.”)
Third image is of a Raritan River SW900 waiting to help with a derailment out of frame. This was always such a neat and well run operation. Hard to believe it’s been gone for thirty years.
They’re all neat photos, Charles - but my favorite is the 4th one of the partially-derailed tank car(s). There are lots of loco and train pictures - but how many of that ? I suspect the hammer at the bottom is from knocking the joint bars off of the rail joint at the extreme lower right - you can see the exposed end of the partially turned-over rail now - which looks too smooth to be a broken rail from the derailment. Notice also how the wheels on the far side of the distant truck have ‘fallen off’ their rail and dropped down inside the ‘gage’, but all of the near-side wheels are still on their rail - just not in the correct location, that’s all . . . [:-^] Next question: How to go about rerailing the car without causing much more track damage . . . ?
Paul, I zoomed into the rail end and it looks like there a serious chunk out of the rail near the bottom of the web, but I agree that the head looks clean cut. Of course, what I might be seeing is half of the gauge side joint bar, after the turnover.
Wouldn’t you guess that raising the wheels on the near side with air jacks might be a strategy, to at least allow the rail to be brought back up and secured enough to stand up to rerailing? An interesting problem which I am sure that our muddy feathered friend has seen solved once or twice over the years.
Oh, and yes, we do get days like that, mostly this time of the year, just without the crummy heat to go with it most of the time. Right now we are yoyoing between wet and very dry and windy. At least we have gotten a decent and recent deposit of moisture on the back country fuel so the Santa Ana winds are a little less worrisome.
Oh, and of course, I really enjoyed the scans, Charles. Thirty years. A different world indeed.
Well I enjoyed all of 'em Charles. Boy, what a crappy looking PC passenger train…
Really like the last one, very close up to see what’s happening, and it’s a nice sharp photo. Looks like the rail connecting plate {forget official name for it}, broke off allowing that end of rail to be pushed right out and over. Must have pulled all the spikes off the inside of that turned rail too.
Wonder what force it requires to put that rail back in place…Is it bent, twisted, making it difficult to spike down in place…and or is it usable at all…?
It would be interesting to have someone in the “know”, to relate the process necessary to rerail and get the turned rail back where it belongs. You certainly couldn’t put that turned rail back up while the wheels are sitting on the ties and inside the rail on the far side…
I hear ya, Chuck - but I still don’t think so, though I can’t prove it. Some clues: The rail end is very square at the head, both horizontally and vertically, as is the portion of the base and inside edge of it that’s visible to the upper right of the head, though it does seem further back/ away than the head. And it sure looks like another joint back between the wheels of the rear truck of this car, which would be about the right distance from this if it was a joint. Notice also the short section of rail - 1 to 2 ft. long - lying in the sand beyond the ends of the ties about halfway back along this car, too.
With the zoom-in, I finally figured out what the angled bar or rod that’s in front of the leading wheel is - it’s a claw bar, used to pull spikes - notice the pointed ‘chisel-end’ on it, just above and to the right of the cut lever for the coupler. From this angle, it lined up so well with the rest of the car’s tubing and rods, etc. that I thought it was just a loose piece of handrail or something that had gotten torn loose somehow.
Paul, I zoomed back into the picture…really zoomed and first, good catch on the claw bar. I didn’t see the claw part before because it’s almost hidden in the cut lever linkage. I was wondering what it was.
Also, looking at that rail end zoomed in even farther, the apparent spalling is actually below the base of the rail; I am guessing dirt or something kicked up. Although it is indistinct, I make the next joint as being about where you think it is, too, as it appears that the gauge side joint bar is visible, or at least a little bit of it.
Looking at the picture, though, I can’t help but think that the people who cleaned it up more or less saw it as “another day at the office” even though it looks pretty challenging. I bet it didn’t take a whole lot of time, either.
A few wedges under the lead far side wheel and un couple from the cars behind, then pull it towards you, it will walk right back up on the rail at the break, and the rear wheels will follow the “groove” in the rolled rail.
When that truck gets to the break, wedge the off side again and pull the whole thing right back up too.
You would be surprised how well the truck will follow the turned rail, (been there, done that)
Love the lead photo, you can almost taste the haze, and the mix of locomotives is really interesting.
Thanks, Ed. I figured there was a “tried and true” method of getting things back on track (so to speak) and that someone in the know would come through for those of us “not in the know.”[bow][bow][bow]
Thanks to everyone for all the great info and responses.
I have since gone back and checked with a railfan who was out with me that day to try and find out any more information on that turned rail. He had zero memory of it (while mine was just cloudy). In fact, he had to go through his slides and find his image before he even believed me that he was there that day.
He did let me know that the location of the mishap was Stevens Avenue, but in looking at South Amboy on Google Maps, I can’t for the life of me place it. Maybe the location of that crossing has been completely wiped away.
Once you get over the unease of this stuff thumping across ties, you realize the design of the track and the wheels will do most of the work if you can get at least one flange back where it belongs.
With help from our Mow “re-rail expert” it is rare we need to call out the side booms for getting cars back up.
Locomotive are a different story!
This guy has been with the PTRA 32 years, and I have yet to see him fail to get a car back up, he makes it look easy.
He carries a pair of re-rail frogs in his truck, but most of the time he uses wood wedges and blocks and the physics of the car to make it work.
So far, he has “saved my bacon” 5 times, so when he says “shove it this way easy”, you learn to listen!
An expert makes it look easy - as Ed also did with his explanation of how to rerail the car. I was saving up some time to write what would have been longer-winded - and he did it in just a few words and sentences. Not much left to add - only to follow-up on his post above:
Rerailing a derailment like this is often a ‘3-legged’ team effort - the MOW people, the Mech. Dept. people, and the Trans. Dept. = train crew - and this is the important part - working simultaneously, or in concert… The first attends to the track, the second to the cars, and the 3rd moves as directed. A lot of care, thoughtfulness, experience, and a deft touch with the tools of each trade can make it go a lot faster with minimal additional damage. For example here, the MOW people probably cut or unbolted that joint, to get the near rail back to normal position and gage. Next, temporarily install a ‘double-ended’ gage rod - the kind with 4 rail base clamps, 1 for each side of each rail - to reinforce and hold it all together. Now there’s a solid platform and ‘base’ to pull that car back onto, that won’t keep spreading or tunring over. Set the blocks or frog to rerail the far side wheels, and to then raise the near side wheel to just ride up and over the exposed end of the near rail - that can be done by eIther the MOW or Mech. Dept. people - and maybe chain the truck to keep it from turning/ skewing. Have the train crew pull gently - watch those hand signals closely, the SW900 would be good for that - and it should come up back onto the track. Repeat as necessary . . .
Darndest repair job I ever did - in March 1982 - also involved a turned-over rail. That one, however, was about 4,000 ft. long - a single piece of CWR that the last couple of cars of a local train derailed on while rounding the outside of a curve, and then continued along it down a long tangent, rolling that rail over to the outside as they went, until they hit the sides of a through p