AAAAARGH! Ballast

[Anonymous]

Just thought you'd like to know...

I was out on the track last night and, while letting a tamper out of a possession at Crewe to Salop Goods, I noticed that the new ballast was a complete mix of dull pink (probably granite) with white/grey (almost certainly limestone). the other end of the tunnel some of the track is yeuk brown all over and still chair supported Bullhead rail in 60' lengths.

Something else I fell over... expansion joints are loctaed a few yards short of switches when the adjacent line is ribbon rail... this shows up particularly as two lengths of steel in the 4' binding the ties together/in place lengthways. I imagine that Railroads do this as well?

Later a materials train was delayed ages waiting for someone to find a chainsaw and take a few inches off one end of 6 ties that were outside the loading gauge as loaded on the flat cars. As someone certified... to use a chainsaw... I was quite impressed by the rotten cutting/splitting job that had been achieved.

(I commented in the thread on shinhara switch repair that damaged track can be recycled as MoW loads... sometimes ripped out track is cut out by oxy cutters and the ties chain sawed... Similarly I've seen large bridges lifted out in one lump (by huge road cranes) and cut into chunks to fit on all sorts of large load flat cars... within gauge bits stick out all over the place). So here is a use for any bridge from the old layout that doesn't fit in the new one...