Shoofly -- pie ?

[michaelstevens]

What on earth is a "shoofly" -- in rail-roading terms ?

[Anonymous]

After a bad wreck, when the cars "swap ends", the railroad would often build a "shoo-fly" track, which is simply a temporary track around the mess. Trains pass around the wreck at a restricted speed, like 10 mph, because the shoo-fly is a bit sharper in alignment , and also because there are men working all around the wreckage. Shoo-flies have been photographed in use, and have been shown in books or magazines. They aren't used much anymore, as the bulldozers or "sidewinders" have replaced them. The RR wants to get the road opened as soon as possible, and dozers just pu***he wreckage aside. The new replacement track is treated as a shoo-fly, because of the unsettled nature of it, often with little or no ballast at first, with speed restrictions, etc. I've seen track panels [just full-size Atlas Snap-Track] used for this. Then the damaged cars are removed at the RR's leisure while the big freights are rolling again. Later, the rough, quick track is built up and made first rate. Eventually, the speed restrictions are removed as the new track settles and the activity at that spot drops off.

[Anonymous]

As I think about it, one of the most famous shoo-flies was on Nevada's Virginia & Truckee RR. A timber-lined tunnel on their main track burned and collapsed. A shoo-fly was built around the steep hillside to bypass the tunnel. It was to be "temporary", but wound up being used as the main line to the end of V&T operations.

[dknelson]

another common use of a shoofly is when a bridge is being replaced.
Dave Nelson

[Modelcar]

.....And one recent example of the bridge replacement and shoofly is re: photo yesterday of the railroad tressle that burned and required a shoofly to detour around it as it is being replaced. Locally in our area here...back in the 70's when I-69 was being constructed it envolved building an overpass bridge so the interstate could pass under the main line of the NYC east-west line here so before that was started a shoofly was constructed around the location and rail traffic was diverted to the shoofly and the ground excavated at the location the bridge was to be constructed and then the bridge was put in place and of course the R R was then moved back to the original ROW and over the new bridge and then excavation was continued where the shoofly was located and continued on for the interstate....

[mudchicken]

It's not uncommon at all for shoofly's to be built around new grade separation structures, major bridge constructions, derailments and natural disasters (anybody remember Thistle, UTAH?)

Rock Island, Penn Central and a few others even had chief engineer's instructions printed to help non-engineers and surveyors lay out a workable shoo-fly in emergency situations...Most people forget that railroads usually have to build and replace track and structures under traffic while highway people close a road and move traffic somewhere else. It's something of an art to manage this type of work.

A permanent shoo-fly is a "linechange" as Thistle became

Mudchicken

[tree68]

I recall a double-tracked shoofly in Rantoul, Ill (70's)as a result of a bridge replacement (RR over highway). While it was solidly built, the curvature sure slowed traffic down! I seem to recall that they would only allow one train on it at at time as well.

[Modelcar]

...The shoofly I mentioned with the bridge building at I-69 construction was double track too. And yes to remembering Thistle relocation. I believe it required a tunnel to be constructed and further remember it was constructed in a very fast time frame. I wonder if the lake that was created at Thistle is still there....Anyone know.

[JoeKoh]

there was one created when Ohio dept of transportation archbold ohio and ns put a viaduct on county rd 22.
stay safe
Joe

[BR60103]

CN will be putting a shoofly in between Brampton and Georgetown, Ontario next year in connection with installing two pedestrian tunnels at a new GO station. (Planning is still in progress, but the opening date is next November!) There should be a second one for a grade separation a few miles east.
In my 25 years of rail commuting, I've been over 3 or 4 shooflies for grade separations. I'm sure that one of them involved two railroads and a temporary river bridge.

[Puckdropper]

There were a few of these during bridge replacement on a highway a few years ago. They were the highway version, not the rail version.

Everything borrows from everything... Just like the big trains (like we discuss here) started using sectional track like model railroaders.

[Anonymous]

I heard CN are to build one of these bridges where the Grimsby sub crosses the QEW between St. Catharines and Niagara Falls., since the highway is being widened. The "temporary" railway bridge is then supposed to be kept as a pedestrian bridge to be used for the Bruce Hiking Trail.

[Anonymous]

The temporary bridge will be removed and used on the permanet alighnment. The temporary abutments will be used to build a pedestrian bridge to allow the Niagara Bruce Trail club to cross the QEW on the original route of the trail

[BodieBailey]

I think they call the sectioned track snap track. They will also use it for movie work.
Bodie Bailey

[Anonymous]

Oh man Skeets you beat me to mentioning the Virgina and Truckee RR.
The original RR was long gone before I was born but it's my favorite short line for several reasons 1) Hauling silver form the mines as I'm intrested in history; 2) It remained basically unchanged as far as equipment goes so much of it's original equipment survives in museums all across the country and 3) The current tourist operation runs restored Feather River Short Line number 8, on which I pretended to be Casey Jones when it was on display in Quincy CA when I was little.

[Anonymous]

Right now NS has a shoofly trestle set up for the traffic on the CNOTP over a road construction site. They are widening the road to four lanes and that also requires them to widen the RR underpass to meet the standards of the four lane road. RJ Corman RR Construction constructed the shoofly around the original location to accomindate the double track traffic that travels thru this area. This time RJ Corman double-steeled the shoofly so it would not wabble. Trains are running at or near track speed.

I remember a similar construction site two years ago where the company built a shoofly around a road construction site and the shoofly was wabbling like a rubber band whenever a train went over it. The structure was not double steeled and they put speed restrictions on the trestle to 10 mph. They learned their lesson the hard way.

[ebediant]

Back in April 1999, the FEC had a derailment in Pompano Beach, FL; to maintain service, they laid a 'shoofly' around the accident scene. 6+ diesels and ~8 auto racks went on the ground. This was in the TV news in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area for about a week.

[Anonymous]

Does Shoo-fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy have anything in common?