Where, typically, would rail transition from mainline size to the siding size? Would it be right off the turnout or futher down the siding?
Thanks
Ricky Keil
Ricky,That all depends on the industry.You see the industry owns the track from the derail to the unloading area.
Now,some industries had to relay track using heavier rail due to the heavier 90-100 ton cars.
As far as main line passing sidings those are usually the same size rail due to locomotive and freight car weight issues…
In fact light rail issues is becoming a problem for short lines since some types of freight cars are getting heavier…
Now even in the by gone era the railroads usually kept the same size rail for sidings after steam locomotives started getting heavier.
Another thing to remember light rail under a heavy engine or car will snap,crackle and pop and could turn on its side causing a derailment.
Brakie gave an excellent answer. Your question assumes rails of different size, which isn’t always the case. From what I have seen, as a rule of thumb, the siding starts right off the turnout, with little or no “transition” area to speak of. This all depends of course on the industry, the volume of traffic, the profits gained translated into maintenance money, and the geography of the area in question. Remember first and foremost, real railroads build cheap as possible- so if it doesn’t need to be there it won’t be, if it can be used again or recycled it will.
Sidings are low speed, less than 10 mph in most cases, so rough track work is OK, in fact sidings are where most used rail ends up and it’s not uncommon to see several sizes in one place. RR don’t care about mix or match rail size (so long as it can support the weight requirements as Brakie pointed out) or crappy tie spacings and things like that, neatness does not count here, functionality does. But again, it depends on the unique situation, so on your layout you can do pretty much whatever you want and be assured there is a real world example of it somewhere.
As far as “snap crackle and pop” this is a link to just that. Moder fully loaded freight cars being unloaded on rails dating back to the age of steam. The sounds are the rails, not background noises. http://s423.photobucket.com/albums/pp312/tangerine-jack/?action=view¤t=heavyloadrailflex.flv
Sidings are low speed, less than 10 mph in most cases, so rough track work is OK, in fact sidings are where most used rail ends up and it’s not uncommon to see several sizes in one place.
As a side note…If the rails becomes unsafe the industry track will be embargoed(this will be found in the daily operations bulletin) until the industry hires a rail siding contractor replace or repair the track.
Again,the industry owns the track from the derail to the loading/unloading area and its their responsibility to maintain a safe track.
If there’s going to be a compromise joint, it will be beyond the last long tie of the turnout. Not before. Sometimes quite a bit after the last long tie, but more often, as soon as the stock rail of the turnout ends because there’s no reason to lay heavy rail any further than the last long tie.
If there’s a split-point or dual split-point derail involved, then the compromise joint is sometimes ahead of and sometimes beyond the derail. No pattern there.
This applies whether it is a siding or an industrial spur.
RWM
Thanks to all. and I should have clarified that it is for industrial siding/spur versus a mainline passing track. Era is the 60’s but based on the asnwers, if I do use smaller rail, it will be after the foul point/derail.
Ricky
Sounds like a reasonable plan to me, but more often the compromise joint will be right after the last long tie, and in that era the split-point derail wasn’t so common. Usually just the flopover or crowder type. For '60s era the industrial spur would typically be laid with 85 to 100 lb. second-hand rail. Lighter or heavier isn’t out of the question, though.
RWM
For '60s era the industrial spur would typically be laid with 85 to 100 lb. second-hand rail. Lighter or heavier isn’t out of the question, though.
Actually that’s when freight cars started getting heavier…Lighter for the most part was on the way out for industries requiring the larger freight cars…
I have seen the compromise joint a bit far from the switch itself, in situations where the track was angled down and curved and the compromise joint was where it was level and straight. I sus[ect this was in cases where the mainline and siding were beefed up in rail size while the siding itself was left alone, meaning the siding rail was smaller not only than this generation of main line rail, but the previous rail as well. This can result in size differences that are quite considerable and on some sidings I have even seen successive compromise joints.
As a rule the ties on a siding are more sunken into the ground, often with minimal ballast or ballast of chips rather than rocks, and in many instances the rail heads are decidedly less shiny than the main, and may be entirely rusted So with care, applying chemical blackeners or patinas to the rail heads (for electrical conductivity) and sinking the ties deeper into a mud/gravel/cinder mix could give the appearance of smaller rail while actually using the same size rail – probably an easier effect to bring off with Code 83 and small than with Code 100 (in HO).
Dave Nelson