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From: rees@apollo.uucp (Jim Rees)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: New rails on the Boston & Lowell
Message-ID: <28f8b018.1de6@apollo.uucp>
Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 09:59:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: apollo.28f8b018.1de6
Posted: Mon Sep 16 09:59:14 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 05:36:50 EDT
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass.
Lines: 56

This is a rambling account of how track is installed today.  If you
aren't interested, skip it.

Every day I ride the Lowell branch of the Boston and Maine railroad to
work and back.  This line claims to be the oldest public railroad in the
USA, having been built in 1823, and contributed to the demise of the
Middlesex canal, which it still parallels in places.

For the last couple of weeks I've been watching the crews replace the rails
at the West Medford station.  I thought rails were put in by teams of
sweating men with big hammers taking turns swinging at the spikes.  Not
so in today's high-tech world.

The rails they are replacing were temporary ones that I also watched being
installed about a year ago.  At that time, they brought in these sections
of track already attached to ties.  Each section was about the length of a
flatbed car, which is probably how they were brought in.  The sections were
just put down on the ground and bolted together.  Easy!

The new rails are each about a mile long.  They are apparently welded together
at the factory, then loaded on a mile long train, each rail running the length
of the train, and brought to the place where they will be installed.  The
rails are flexible enough that as the train goes around a bend, the rails
just bend with the train.

The old spikes are removed by a big machine, the old rails pushed to one side,
and sold for scrap.  Some of these rails will end up at the Kennebunkport
trolley museum.  I talked the crew into giving me one of the old spikes as
a souvenir.

In this case, the ties were almost new, so they weren't replaced.  Some new
ballast (the course gravel that the ties sit on) was shoveled in where there
were low spots.

The crew put the new rail onto the ties, then they run this amazing series
of machines over the track.  One of them apparently positions the rails so
that they are parallel and the right distance apart (4' 8.5" I think).
Another one staples the tie plates onto the ties.  The staples are a foot
long and half an inch thick, and the machine bends them double and drives
them into the tie.  Just like a big staple gun.  The tie plates are those
metal plates that the rail sits on.  The rails are attached to these by
curly metal brackets (anyone know what these are called?) that take the
place of the old spikes.  You wouldn't want to get your finger caught in the
machine that bends these.

A couple of questions for you experts.  Why is the rail welded at the
factory instead of continuous casted?  I know it is welded because I can
see the welds.  My wife used to work at a steel mill, and she thinks it
would be possible to continuous cast the rail, although not a lot of mills
have the equipment to do this.

Also, the old rail had these heat sinks every three ties or so.  One of the
old-timers who rides our train (which takes B&M employees to the new HQ
at Iron Horse Park) says these were needed to keep the rail from buckling on
a hot day, although they don't look substantial enough for that.  The new
rails have no heat sinks.  Why not?