Login
or
Register
Subscriber & Member Login
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Login
Register
Home
»
Model Railroader
»
Forums
»
General Discussion (Model Railroader)
»
Badly laid track as a shortline?
Edit topic
Updated your discussion topic below.
Subject
Enter a subject for your topic. Maximum 150 characters.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
I was reading the post about abandoned lines tonight and it got me thinking... what about lines that aren't abandoned, but owned by shortlines that only see occassional traffic, and don't have the money for upkeep of the lines, resulting in 'abandoned looking' lines that are still in use. <br /> <br />My local shortline (the Great Walton RR, Covington, GA) was recently doing some switching at the CSX interchange, and while I was watching from a parkinglot across the street, I heard an extremely loud metallic scraping as they crossed the 5 lane hwy that runs through downtown Covington. On further inspection, I noticed that there was a place just on the other side of the hwy where the track had been very poorly maintained, and the weight of the cars had sunken the ties and bent the rail into about a 10" depression over the span of about 6 feet. The depression caused the front plate of the locomotive to scrape against the railhead as it when down into the sunken track. It was only on one side of the rail, so watching the loco and cars sway as they crossed the depression was scary to say the least. About two days later, I noticed a track gang was out trying to repair that section of track, but all they really did was lift the ties out of the muck, reballast the area, and set the track back down. So the depression is still there, just not as bad. <br /> <br />On the interchange stretch of track, it's about a 150-200 yards long, primarily used for storing cars before CSX needs them, and occassionally used for older cars that are being shipped to the GWR's storage tracks up near Monroe. The other day the tracks were empty, and I got a good look at the 'straightness' of the track. VERY out of alignment. Looked abandoned to the untrained eye for certain. <br /> <br />I started thinking... I know the tolerances in HO would be alot less than that in full scale railroad operations, so it would be difficult to duplicate entirely with success running an occassional train, but how about some 'badly laid track' with kinks and bends, that could be used to represent a rarely used shortline, instead of abandoned lines. That way you can still operate on the trackage, gives you additional storyline on the history of your particular layout, and you can run the odd piece of old equipment that normally wouldn't be seen on your layout. <br /> <br />I think I'm going to include some of this idea on the layout I'm working on now. Whatcha think?
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
E-mail Subscribe
Check the box below if you want to receive e-mail notifications when replies are made to this thread.
Receive notifications
Update Discussion Topic
Subscriber & Member Login
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Login
Register
Users Online
There are no community member online
Search the Community
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter
See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter
and get model railroad news in your inbox!
Sign up