Over the years I have observed activity at Rochelle. What is it that requires the near-constant presence of track work at the Diamonds? Are they failing? Wearing out, or what?
That seemingly tiny gap that is the flangeways takes a terrible beating. A 100 car train will cause over 400 impacts.
Stop in at the thread about the diamond: http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/231186.aspx, there are folks there who have a better handle on it than I do.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68That seemingly tiny gap that is the flangeways takes a terrible beating. A 100 car train will cause over 400 impacts. Stop in at the thread about the diamond: http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/231186.aspx, there are folks there who have a better handle on it than I do.
The allowable 286K pound loads have a nominal axle weight of 37.5 Tons - quite a hammer to repetitively strike the crossing frogs with at up to about 40 MPH.
A whole lot of hammering with a 100 or 200 car train.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Metalurgists will tell you that there is no material out there that will survive the abuse that those crossing frogs take. All you can do is slow down the inevitable failure. The explosive hardened, cast metal manganese frog inserts chip and break out regularly and the welders have a full time job holding them together. The frog inserts you are looking at only have a service life of 5-7 years, if that long.
Roadmasters keep plenty of spare pieces and parts around for the next crisis. god forbid you derail and destroy a crossing frog. (Custom built and take months to produce, normal lead time for scheduled replacement is 6-8 months or longer if there is a long waiting list at the foundry/rail mill)
If the casting around the flangeway gap gets too beat up, out comes a mandated FRA slow order based on wear conditions and out comes the howls of frustration from the dispatcher and half the operating department. You want to avoid crossing frogs like the plague and once stuck with diamond$, you are committed to throwing time and money at the brittle/expensive/maintenance heavy things.
Because of all that pounding, the subgrade and ties get beat to death and the support of the track structure becomes a mudhole that speeds up the decay of the whole crossing frog assembly. Roadmasters will throw all kinds of effort into drainage and asphalt underlays, anything to gain a few extra months/years of life into the track structure.
That seems to explain the ongoing speed restriction for Metra trains at Forest Hill where Metra/NS and BRC cross the CSX Blue Island Sub.
The diamond at Deshler is slated to be replaced soon. The replacement has been assembled in place and other materials are on-site.
There is a YouTube live camera there.
tree68 The diamond at Deshler is slated to be replaced soon. The replacement has been assembled in place and other materials are on-site. There is a YouTube live camera there.
The latest Google Earth image of the Rochelle diamonds is from (if you believe the date) early April of 2017. In the image, the replacement diamonds assembly is on the pad of the building that was taken down west of the diamonds. Watching the replacement on the webcam was awesome, especially when the assembly was brought in and dropped in place. What an example of choreography that was. At that time, there were remnants of the diamonds replaced previously in the weeds east of the crossings, as MC notes, available for an emergency standby.
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but they are definitely an excedrin headache for roadmasters and a boon to specialized welding rod sales.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.