I believe what Father Ed has brought up is generally correct. Although the concrete tie thing is somewhat debate able. I was on assignment in the Port Arthur area of Texas that is served by the KCS (think miles of petrochemical plants and refineries) where I observed a Holland crew welding continuous rail on the spot. They were taking up the jointed rail, cutting off a few feet on each end, and welding the joints. They used an old Budd passenger car with the end opened up. The front truck was powered making it self propelled. An overhead I beam held an electronic welding (think resistance soldering) device.
In the process they were taking up concrete ties that were crumbling and replacing them with wooden ties. This is unusual because the KCS has been a proponent of concrete ties. Additionally the use of CWR has predated the wide use of concrete ties by 20 years, although maybe it just took that long to decide if it might work. Although we certainly are going far off track (!!) a few months ago we rode the tourist/freight line out of Austin, Texas. The local transit authority is building a parallel commuter rail system. They were using metal ties that came pretty close to typical 0 tinplate rail. Lionel and similar used a tie that was sort of flat or shallow where AF used a thicker tie. It looked like the rail is held in place with some kind of clip or anchor bolt. Now which is actually the real protyotype?--maybe Lionel. Bob Werre BobWphoto.com Edward Loizeaux wrote: > Gents...If you are interested, read down to the fourth paragraph for > commentary about stressing rail with hydraulic equipment. I'm not sure > that > Wikipedia is the authoritative source for this kind of information, but it > is interesting at the least. Cheers...Ed L. > > Most modern railways use continuous welded rail (CWR), sometimes referred > to as ribbon rails. In this form of track, the rails are welded > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welding > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welding>> together by utilising flash > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_welding > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_welding>> butt welding to form one > continuous rail that may be several kilometres long, or thermite welding > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite_welding > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermite_welding>> to repair or splice > together existing CWR segments. Because there are few joints, this form of > track is very strong, gives a smooth ride, and needs less maintenance; > trains can travel on it at higher speeds and with less friction. Welded > rails are more expensive to lay than jointed tracks, but have much lower > maintenance costs. The first welded track was used in Germany in 1924 and > the US in 1930[7] > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_tracks#cite_note-6 > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_tracks#cite_note-6>> > and has become common on main lines since the 1950s. > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
