Dont be…
In fact, thats just what this forum is for, people asking “why is this…”
And, as you all seem to be adults, you quickly discovered each of you were reading different things into what was being discussed, and settled the matter like adults, with questions and explanations, instead of rudeness and hard feelings.
Wish we would see more of these type of questions here, it’s getting kinda “dry”.
Where’s a “yellow thingies” question when you need one?
Ed[:D]
Wasn’t trying to pick a fight, I was only trying to say what I believe to be true, unless that’s a plug, I don’t believe that piece of rail has been lying in that spot since 1940. I know that NS, CSX, and Conrail all took up mainlines and put them someplace else, signals too, for that matter. And for all I know, all that rail was used for passing tracks somewhere and yard tracks but I’ve read otherwise, wish I could cite that for verification. And I know that the welded rail on the mainlines wasn’t all welded together in place.
This is a heavily trafficked mainline, was a mainline on the Wabash, a mainline on the N&W, and probably has seen more trains in the last five years since the Conrail acquisition than ever before. It was never a secondary main.
I’ve learned more about rail and its pedigree today than I’ve ever known, I was working from memory and years of riding across the stuff, some of the very rail under discussion.
Glad to hear it, neither was I…[;)]
It was just kinda freeky with others coming in saying “no need to fight” or talking about how agreeable I am or aren’t, so in that context, looking back at your reply starting “goodness”,…I was afraid I had somehow offended you totally unintentionally. Glad to hear I didn’t, THAT is the important thing.[:)]
Interesting discussion. In the southern LA county area the UP has replaced a lot of old SP/PE jointed rail with welded rail. This included some rarely-used branches! I’ll check it out in the near future and see if someone can help me figure out the welded rails’ “ancestry”
MP
The good side of posting to these boards is where it leads to, one can learn from them or one can sort through the flam looking for a morsel of valuable information. We get to have plenty of discussions with people that we would otherwise never share with and most likely, will never meet face to face.
The bad side is that we can sit and read these and tend to read into them more than was meant by the poster or less than was meant by the poster. We each have our own way of looking at things and interpeting things. Goodness was meant as an exclamation but not in an insulting sort of way. Guess I’ll have to be more careful but I don’t really buy into political correctness very well, don’t think one should go about purposely insulting others but it’s gone overboard. Howeve, I also know it’s a requirement of present-day life if one carries on relationships with others in any form, also required for employment at most places, one must hold ones’ tongue.
Enough of that, back to railroading.
Well, I walked considerably further today, with rail ID in mind , and by far the vast majority matched the earlier referance.
In short sections I spotted more Carnagie open hearth vintage 1943 and 1939, one length marked “CC” Tennessee 1948 (controlled cooling I guess) as well as a section 3 lengths long marked “CC” USS Illinois 1979, and another separate rail section 2 lengths long marked “CC” Beth Steelton 1979, that must be Bethlehem Steel… but easily 95% of all of it was the earlier mentioned 1940 vintage.
The 1943 surprised me most, being war/steel rationing years
if you wasnt looking in the mirror you would have seen a yellow thingy…lol
Well, I tell you what…
You use the one on the right side, I’ll use the one on the left.
If Mookie keeps looking over your shoulder, she can borrow yours!
Might find a yellow thingy after all!
Ed[:D]
I can just hear those loght rails saying to each other…Damn these trains are heavy.
BNSFrailfan.