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From: cb@hlwpc.UUCP (Carl Blesch)
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: New rails on the Boston & Lowell
Message-ID: <608@hlwpc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Sep-85 14:12:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: hlwpc.608
Posted: Wed Sep 18 14:12:42 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Sep-85 06:35:40 EDT
References: <28f8b018.1de6@apollo.uucp>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Short Hills, NJ
Lines: 28

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

No, I'm very interested.  That's one of those things I've always taken
for granted in the past -- that the track was/is/will always be there.

> 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.

I've always wondered how thermal expansion is allowed for in welded rail.
If expansion is a linear property, the gap at the end of each mile would
have to be quite a bit bigger than the gap at each end of a short piece
of traditional bolted rail to accommodate the expansion of a mile-long
piece of rail on a hot summer day, right?  In freezing cold weather,
then, I'd think the gap would be so wide as to invite damage to the railheads,
if not to the train itself.  Can anyone explain this to me?

> The rails are attached to these by
> curly metal brackets (anyone know what these are called?) that take the
> place of the old spikes.

I've seen these on rail attached to concrete ties, but not on rail
attached to wooden ties.  I've seen extensive use of concrete ties
and these curly metal brackets in two places -- the Canadian National's
main route through British Columbia and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.

Carl Blesch


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