Railroad

gtractorfan · Mar 15, 2012

Thought this is interesting. I've noticed several times lately that trains have passed with loads of rails. Today this one stopped so I hopped on the atv with camera in hand. I wonder where a new set of tracks is being laid. I also wonder how this train goes around a pretty short curve not far ahead, seems like the rails wouldn't bend enough.

k6zrx · Mar 15, 2012

New rail will bend quite a bit. Used rail has been worked hardened, and is much less flexable.

I have seen rail unloaded with a fork lift and the ends will droop quite a bit. Used rail remains stiff and does not droop.

JH

rustred · Mar 15, 2012

they bend, otherwise they would break like glass.
here at work were drilling horizontal holes in the ground for oil starting at true verticle. the 4" drill pipe bends. going out to 4000 meters. about last 1500 m. of that is flat in the oil zone. sure beats the old days when you could only drill staight down. why horizontal? to get more oil.

WarrenBult · Mar 15, 2012

Up here in South Dakota they are rehabing some old lines, but sure there are others be redone elsewhere.

tomtirediron · Mar 15, 2012

As a young conductor around 15 years ago I had one of these ribben rail trains out of Minneapolis. I think 20MPH was/maybe still is top permissable speed. I would think speed is held low just to accomodate rail flexing in corners. 20MPH makes for a longggg trip!

Bob M · Mar 15, 2012

Those CWR (continuous welded rail ) trains negotiate curves - even short radius curves into yards, etc - with no problem whatsoever. Keep in mind RR rail is much more flexible in a horizontal than a vertical plane. Thus bending horizontally while rounding curves is not an issue.

Poke on the link for a photo series of a CWR train loading up 1/4 mile lengths of used rail.
CWR train loading rail

gtractorfan · Mar 15, 2012

Thanks for the link. About thirty years ago the railroad where I took these pictures pulled up one set of the double tracks. They had about a quarter mile long train of cars with racks. They were on the set of tracks they were removing. The train proceeded about a quarter mile, stopped and they had some way of winching on long sections- though those were the old bolted together rails.

andrew hegeman · Mar 15, 2012

we just unloaded a railtrain yesterday in duplainville. they have some curves to relay in the area. but they are going to tie through the curves first. its alot easier without the new rail in the way.

teddy52food · Mar 15, 2012

So how much of a gap do they have to leave for expantion when the weather gets hot?

rpirkle1 · Mar 15, 2012

That's one of the challenges of CWR ... it's continuous... welded ... rail.. there isn't a gap. Track inspectors spend a LOT of time riding it in the summer when it gets hot to check for kinks...

Anonymous-0 · Mar 15, 2012

Ever seen pictures of large diameter pipelines being put in the ground? It's amazing how much it will bend without permanently deforming too.

MarkB_MI · Mar 16, 2012

A while back I went for a walk along a railroad track and noticed the dates on the track. Although the long stuff dated from the sixties, I was surprised to find much of the track on sidings was nearly a hundred years old.

Railroad

gtractorfan

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k6zrx

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rustred

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WarrenBult

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tomtirediron

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Bob M

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gtractorfan

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