Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 Apollo 5/13/85; site apollo.uucp Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!wanginst!apollo!rees 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?