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Amazing Photos

#1,261
Richland123 said:
Sun-and-clouds.jpg
Click to expand...
Where's the gravy for those potatoes?
 
#1,271
Richland123 said:
11.jpg
Click to expand...

I've worked little problems like that before I retired. It sucks big time. If somebody didn't catch it before a train hit it there'd have been a derailment. And those are concrete ties so the problem probably was lack of a good shoulder. Could have had a surfacing gang go through and didn't have a compactor to settle it back down. What they have to do is cut both rails, maybe at each end as bad as that one is. Watch out for the rails to kick from the released pressure. Cut out the prescribed amount from the charts. Straighten it out as close as possible and bolt or weld it back together. Then have a surfacing gang come and fix it. While they're doing that it needs to be lasered to take out the dogleg too.
 
#1,272
fjadams said:
I've worked little problems like that before I retired. It sucks big time. If somebody didn't catch it before a train hit it there'd have been a derailment. And those are concrete ties so the problem probably was lack of a good shoulder. Could have had a surfacing gang go through and didn't have a compactor to settle it back down. What they have to do is cut both rails, maybe at each end as bad as that one is. Watch out for the rails to kick from the released pressure. Cut out the prescribed amount from the charts. Straighten it out as close as possible and bolt or weld it back together. Then have a surfacing gang come and fix it. While they're doing that it needs to be lasered to take out the dogleg too.
Click to expand...

I thought that was a photoshop. Does that really happen? How?
 
#1,274
Yes, it really happens. The rail expands more than the rocks (ballast) have the ability to hold it from moving. It usually comes from not having the rail neutralized enough to stop the lateral pressure. There are charts that tell you exactly how much to adjust the rails by the current temp, average temp, area where the tracks are. You look at the charts, look at the records that show if the rail has been adjusted previously. See if rail was added or subtracted and according to what the temp was then. Then you need to have the proper amount of ballast on the sides and in between the ties. Everybody looks and thinks that the amount of ballast on the sides is the most important thing, but 70% of the holding power comes from between the ties and 30% from the ends of the ties. When I first started we didn't really know anything about this stuff, but over the years we gained lots of knowledge. Now everything is done with computers to figure it out.

I mostly ran surfacing gangs when I worked. The tolerances we had for track work when I started would get you time off or fired today. Lots of guessing and figuring on surfacing gangs and the old it was close enough then. When I retired it was all done with computers and lasers in our machines. Back then 1/4" or even 1/2" for cross level wasn't enough to get worried about. Now 1/16" of an inch off cross level will get you in trouble. One of the machines can be adjusted as close as 1/1000 of an inch, but it isn't really practical to get it that close.

Oops, long winded post that most people will skip right over.
 
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#1,275
fjadams said:
Yes, it really happens. The rail expands more than the rocks (ballast) have the ability to hold it from moving. It usually comes from not having the rail neutralized enough to stop the lateral pressure. There are charts that tell you exactly how much to adjust the rails by the current temp, average temp, area where the tracks are. You look at the charts, look at the records that show if the rail has been adjusted previously. See if rail was added or subtracted and according to what the temp was then. Then you need to have the proper amount of ballast on the sides and in between the ties. Everybody looks and thinks that the amount of ballast on the sides is the most important thing, but 70% of the holding power comes from between the ties and 30% from the ends of the ties. When I first started we didn't really know anything about this stuff, but over the years we gained lots of knowledge. Now everything is done with computers to figure it out.

I mostly ran surfacing gangs when I worked. The tolerances we had for track work when I started would get you time off or fired today. Lots of guessing and figuring on surfacing gangs and the old it was close enough then. When I retired it was all done with computers and lasers in our machines. Back then 1/4" or even 1/2" for cross level wasn't enough to get worried about. Now 1/16" of an inch off cross level will get you in trouble. One of the machines can be adjusted as close as 1/1000 of an inch, but it isn't really practical to get it that close.

Oops, long winded post that most people will skip right over.
Click to expand...

So the track got hot, expanded and had nowhere to go so it got all bent out of shape?
 
#1,276
MX21 said:
So the track got hot, expanded and had nowhere to go so it got all bent out of shape?
Click to expand...

Basically, yes. When the rails expand they have to go somewhere if there's not enough lateral force to hold them in place they move to the side. Sometimes they just go one way, sometimes the make an S like the picture above.
When I started we called them Sun Kinks, that term is out of favor though and they are now call Track Buckles. I think it was because if a derailment happened or there were pictures of one in a newspaper, tv news, internet, etc, Track Buckle sounds better than a Sun Kink.
 

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