Old track closeups

[jbvb]

Seashore Trolley Museum's Main Line uses a lot of 85 lb. rail because it was a B&M standard and we could often get it free.  Today that's really light, even for light-rail transit.  Modern heavy duty track is almost all welded with rail between 115 lb/yard and 136 lb.  So I'll post pictures of items of potential modeling interest as they catch my eye. Others welcome.



Side view of a sharp angle (maybe #4) bolted frog in (I think) 80 lb.



Same frog disassembled for cleanout and 1 1/8 inch bolts instead of the 7/8" our predecessors used.

The flat bars with punched hooks are called Hook Plates. They're often seen in older turnouts.

[Jerry]

Very interesting James.  Thanks for the pictures and how they work.

Jerry

[Rick]

James, thanks for the pictures.
I've been wondering what kind of track work you've been doing.

[KentuckySouthern]

Old track can be facinating.  Any year markings on them? 

[jbvb]

Old track can be facinating.  Any year markings on them? 

The rails are bent and drilled but otherwise I don't see marks.  The 5 blocks that space the points and wing rails have RACOR cast into them.  Ramapo Foundry was bought by American Brake Shoe in 1922. The closest I can come to a date is they were using the RACOR trade name by 1930 and we installed the frog in the 1980s.  These days RACOR is owned by voestalpine Railway Systems.  

[ACL1504]

James,

Very nice photos of the old track work. I found myself daydreaming about all the steam locos that passed over those rails.

Thanks for sharing them with us.

Tom.

[jbvb]

Very nice photos of the old track work. I found myself daydreaming about all the steam locos that passed over those rails.

Thank you, Tom. That frog has a sharp enough angle (#4 or maybe a little sharper) that I'm pretty sure it only carried trolley cars, but some people daydream about them too...

[jbvb]

Here's a view of the trolley #4 angle point/mate double slip switch earlier in the project.



We're using a small excavator with a bucket narrow enough to work between timbers. Here we and it have removed the really bad switch timbers and a couple of new ones have been placed. The little Track Jack lower left has raised the castings enough that ties can go in and out with a minimum of excavation.

If you look closely, you may spot a couple of Gauge Rods near the righthand edge.  These steel items attach to the base of the rail. They're used when the gauge needs to be held (in or out) when the ties or timbers can't. They're supposed to be temporary but some in our yards have been there longer than I've lived in my present house.

[deemery]

Here's a view of the trolley #4 angle point/mate double slip switch earlier in the project.



We're using a small excavator with a bucket narrow enough to work between timbers. Here we and it have removed the really bad switch timbers and a couple of new ones have been placed. The little Track Jack lower left has raised the castings enough that ties can go in and out with a minimum of excavation.

If you look closely, you may spot a couple of Gauge Rods near the righthand edge.  These steel items attach to the base of the rail. They're used when the gauge needs to be held (in or out) when the ties or timbers can't. They're supposed to be temporary but some in our yards have been there longer than I've lived in my present house.

For the record, James is not the original occupant of his 200+ year old historic house.  :-) 

dave

[jbvb]

For the record, James is not the original occupant of his 200+ year old historic house.  :-) 

But I did move to this house during the S&L Crisis.

Here's our Track Dept. building a #4 switch out-of-place.  We made a crib of old rail on timbers so we didn't have to work on our knees. We laid out the switch timbers, placed the two stock rails (outside edges) and bent the left stock rail. Then we placed the two closure rails, bending the left one. Then we assembled the frog (ex-B&M, looks like another RACOR bolted model) to the closure rails.



The volunteer on the left is making bolt holes for the RH guardrail with our modern gasoline rail drill. Middle volunteer is testing the fit of a track bolt in one of the cast blocks that space the guardrail away from the running rail. One side of the guardrail's base was planed off at the factory so it could go close enough to the running rail.

You can see the tie plates that protect the ties from wear by a moving rail base.  Also rail anchors clipped around the base of the running rail to keep it from sliding fore & aft under traffic. We started spiking with the straight stock rail. Everything else will be gauged from it.

[deemery]

And then you'll use a crane to move the pre-assembled switch into location?

dave

[jbvb]

Yes. Here's our little Pettibone MK-36 rough terrain crane all set up at twilight.  It's ready to lift the next morning.  We'd done our best to estimate the weight of the partial turnouts, and the lifts went smoothly.  Good thing, because our Shop wasn't connected to the railroad for a week before this point, and for three weeks afterward.



Here's a closeup of the frog we used for this turnout:



It's newer and intended for much heavier traffic than the frog in the Double Slip shown above.  The diamond shape is rail bent around a cast manganese steel insert. Manganese steel is very tough, so here it handles all the major wearing surfaces.

Last but not least, our Western-Cullen-Hayes manual rail bender:



Freight railroad workers rarely see rail bent, if ever.  On normal RR track, the "vertex bend", in the curved closure rail just before the point connected to the straight closure rail, is the only place where rail is bent.  Normal RR minimum radius was 220-250 feet in the last century. All but 4 of our curves are tighter than that, and our tighter radii need a bend every foot or so.  Big transit agencies often own a garage-sized roller bender that does a whole rail in a few minutes, once it's set up properly.

[jbvb]

Here's a small, European tie inserter that's maybe 20 years old parked atop a 1904 granite box culvert at the far North end of Seashore's track:



In most of New England, granite is plentiful and it's relatively easy to quarry blocks that split cleanly. These may have come from a rock cut about 1/4 mile north on the old Atlantic Shore Line RoW, or from an outcrop about 1/4 mile south.  Because HISTORY, our rail has no ties where it crosses this culvert today. We plan to insert ties and place ballast around and under them before anything heavy uses the track.

A history of the Atlantic Shore Line Railway by O.R. Cummings is on-line here:

 https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=books_pubs

[deemery]

Is there an interurban line O.R. Cummings didn't document for our benefit?

dave

[jbvb]

O.R. Cummings did a pretty thorough job on Northern New England trolley lines, plus a number of others in the Northeastern US that I'm aware of. Wikipedia has a page for him, but I don't find a bibliography online.  At Seashore we probably have the materials to compile one, I'll see if I can make that happen one of these winters.

Short-span granite bridges were common in my corner of New England. Here are some from Newbury, MA:



Pre-WWI (from the pole lines) photo of Boston Road's bridge over the Little River. Four Rock crossing is at the left edge.



2013 photo of what are almost certainly the same granite load-bearing members, redecorated with a recent W-section guardrail.



The B&M (or maybe Eastern RR) crossing of the Little River a few yards downstream  Replaced circa 1996 during rebuilding of this segment prior to reopening MBTA commuter service.

Another RR marsh culvert at MP 34.23 survived, possibly because the track is descending from its cut through Kent's Island leaving a lot of fill between the ties and the stone load-bearing members.