Ed... Sounds simple enough, but even with a tie shear and the old tie in three pieces the ends still have to be brought back into the center to be removed...then with the rail elevated or all the ballast cleared out the new ties turned sideways and turned back under the rail...then ya gotta bunch them until you get enough under the rail and then spread them to normal spacing...rework the ballast..multi platform station tracks had to be a terrific mess too with 16 or 18 inch high concrete or stone side walls....like working in a ditch with no side way movement for 3 or 4 hundred feet or more...or this would be even harder to work with..several years ago when Beaver Lake was very low..we were walking down around the Monte Ne area and came across these concrete forms that has big slots in them after seeing several it dawned on me what they had done...the Monte Ne Ry ran down a valley and with a creek beside was very prone to wash outs...so they poured concrete to stabalize the track and these forms are what remained after the rail was removed and the ties rotted out...all this would have been done between 1903 and 1918. It might have helped with a washout problem but certainly did not aid tie replacement.
gale hall ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 10:46 PM Subject: {S-Scale List} Road Crossings..... > wood crossings typically had one board outside the rails. > -Michael Eldridge I think the idea was to have wooden boards over the entire tie length in order to facilitate tie replacement when needed. That way there is no need to tear up the concrete or asphalt. Just unscrew the wood boards, remove the ties, install new ties, reattach the wood boards and let the trains roll through. Cheers...Ed L. www.sscale.org
