Tracks that are in streets, how are the rails kept in gage? Are the tracks fixed to wood ties just like when above grade then brick in the old days or today cement poured around them? How does that work?
Larry Zetterlind
That’s about it, most places and most of the time. Liberal use of steel gage rods between the rails also helps. Sometimes steel ties are used instead - esp. if in concrete - because they won’t deteriorate, and are quite a bit thinner than wood ties, so less concrete is needed. Sometimes instead the rails are directly fastened to a concrete slab to keep them in gage, but that’s rare.
Sometimes we joke that the street paving may be the only thing keeping the rails in gage - other times, it’s the cause of them going out of gage (almost always to the wide side). That’s because of all the stormwater runoff going to that drain in the street that we call a track, and then going to the lowest place, the ties, where the water can sit and rot the tie away because there’s no sun or air to evaporate it, or another low point for the water to drain to instead.
Recently some of the light rail/ trolley systems are using a track where each rail is separately installed into a slot in a concrete slab, which holds them to gage - there are no ties as we would recognize them - the gage restraint is provided by the steel rebar in the concrete, and the concrete or other paving material that then surrounds each rail. I haven’t had any experience with that system to evaluate it.
- Paul North.
I remember in New Orleans back in the 50’s, the streetcar tracks were embedded in concrete, and the noise was deafening. When they re-installed the tracks in recent years they used rubber strips to isolate the tracks from the concrete, and they are considerably quieter. (Or maybe my hearing is failing in my old age?) I think they used steel ties under the pavement.
I remember how suprised I was to be in the middle of the street in Springfield, IL on my way to St Louis. Are there a lot of street tracks? Does anyone have any pictures?
Bruce
How about the inverse. A heavily used city street down the middle of an ACTIVE rail yard!
When I was young we lived in Indianapolis, IN and often visited my Mom’s parents in Salem, IN. To get there we drove through Seymour, IN. There were two routes that Dad could take near Seymour, IN; one came in from the East and one from the North. I was too young to know what was going on or why Dad chose one over the other on any particular trip.
I researched this quite a bit a few years ago because one of the routes took us THROUGH a railyard and I wanted to know more about it.
If Dad took the North route, we came in on N. Ewing St. and at one point we crossed 2 or 3 RR tracks and then had to make a sharp Right turn before crossing at least 2 more tracks, because beyond them was a chainlink fence with vines all over it and a brick wall (also vine covered).
The street we turned on would be the East end of St. Louis Ave. (but now is a parking lot for Hoosier Parts Warehouse). It traversed about 1 block East where we would make a sharp Left turn onto S. Broadway St. to cross another 2 or 3 tracks, to continue South.
The “street” between the tracks had no curbs and was not very wide. There was 2-way traffic on it and it was quite busy at the times we went through. There were no barricades or guard rails between the street and the tracks… Only a very few posts with “No Parking” signs on them and sparse weeds here and there. The street and the tracks were all at pretty much the same level.
There was a Passenger station on the Right (South) on the other side of the tracks from the street and some sidings ahead to a huge brick building with a large round window near the peak of the gable end (I now know this was the Ice House in town).
There were always 2 to 6 engines (I remember mostly Steam, but a few Diesels) working both freight and Passenger trains in the area and often dozen men
Prior to the building of Harborplace in Baltimore the B&O had two lines that did street running to service the customers that were on the streets.
One line came out of Mt. Clare Station (B&O Museum) and ran directly down Pratt Street to President Street where there was a Interchange connection with a PRR street running line that ran from the PRR Orangeville area to President Street. B&O customers on the Pratt Street line included a number of produce distributors as well as the Baltimore News American which received rolled newsprint for it’s presses. The crew’s operated a GE 44 tonner and if they had more than 9 cars to move from President Street back to Mount Clare…they had to double the hill away from the harbor.
The other line came out of Locust Point yard and operated down the middle of Key Highway to the intersection of Light Street, continued North on Light Street to Pratt Street and then continued down Pratt Street to President Street. This route circled the Baltimore Inner Harbor and serving the various piers and marine business were the hallmark of this job which normally used a EMD SW-1. Among the customers served were Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding dry docks and McCormick Spices along with a number of ship candlers.
It was not unusual to be down on Pratt Street at 2/3 AM during a week night and see two B&O engines and crews going about their business.
With the re-development of the Baltimore Inner Harbor as a tourist attraction beginning in the 70’s, all the trackage has been removed.
Just Curious, but we have touched on them befor, and the following link is to an interesting website referencing/with photos of the Buckwalter Street locomotives:
http://prr.railfan.net/RubberTiredSwitchers.html
[ The Rubber- tired Street locomotives; designed in part by T.V. Buckwalter of Altoona,Pa (PRR). Used by Pennsy, and B&O railrads in New Jersey/New York, and Baltimore]
The represent the ultimate in 'Street level, with the attendant traffic issues while moving one or more rail cars in City Traffic.
Are any of these old Rubber tired units around? Maybe in a Museum or Preservation site?
Some of the locations I remember : RJ Corman does some in the Kentucky area ( Frankfort/Lexington areas (?)
Lafayette,Indiana used to have a problematic street running situation, I think it was resolved when NS Moved their tracks from the downtown area(?)
Haven’t seen it myseif, but have been told the tractor the B&O used in the Fells Point area of Baltimore is in the B&O Museum.
Neat website - thanks for providing that link !
I’ve spent some time working on the tracks along Delaware Ave. (and others) in Philly, and small bits of “street running” in various other places - never saw anything more exotic than an end-cab switcher or Geep, though.
About 15 years ago we stayed for a weekend at a hotel in Fells Point, Baltimore that used to be a B&O warehouse if memory serves. I picked up a copy of a B&O historical magazine - The Sentinel (?) - that had a lengthy article on street running and the operations in that area. It’s upstairs someplace . . . I’m recalling that it showed early boxcab switchers working those areas, too. Evidently the B&O had the 0-4-0 C-16 class “Little Joe” or “Docksider” tank-type locomotives for there, as well as up in Philly - for a good photo, see: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/bo99s.jpg
and for some info, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Joe_(Baltimore_and_Ohio_locomotive)
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania’s “Motive Power Roster” as of June 2009 (3 pages, approx. 22 KB in size) does not list anything that looks like one of those PRR tractors - see:
http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/about/roster/locomotiveroster.pdf
- Paul North.
Kinda like a TrackMobile or Pettibone SpeedSwing to me.
The northeastrailfan website also has a photo of B&O 25, a Plymouth gasoline-mechanical shifter that was used in Philadelphia.
The Fallen Flags website www.rr-fallenflags.org has a photo of B&O DT-1, a diesel street tractor used in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. By the 1970s the B&O tractor would pick up cars left by PC or later Conrail in the 900 block of Fell St. to deliver them to the consignees. It is my understanding that in earlier times the B&O ran a carfloat to Fells Point and the cars were handled by the 4-wheel electric locomotive now in the B&O Museum. Supposedly they purchased 600 Volt power from the local streetcar company.
Though you were probably asking about RR tracks, I thought you might be interested in these pictures of the way streetcar tracks were and are laid in streets. This one is from the book “The Streetcars Of New Orleans” by Louis C. Hennick and E. Harper Charlton, and shows the methods used in 1890 and 1930
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulofcov/5598706196/
The next one is from a proposal by New Orleans RTA to expand the Canal St. streetcar route to a new terminal
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulofcov/5598705640/
This is just part of the previous one to show more detail at the rail
Link to the above-referenced “photo of B&O DT-1, a diesel street tractor used in the Fells Point area of Baltimore”: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo-dt-1.jpg
