Thanks for the outstanding description of C&NW practice and history, Kurt.
Railway Man Thanks for the outstanding description of C&NW practice and history, Kurt.
Wow! Thanks for the compliment! High praise indeed from someone I regard as a real expert in the railroad biz.
Kurt Hayek
jockellisI have hunted for what the original track was like ever since my late grandmother told me, when I was a teenager some 40 years ago, that the original track was strap iron laid on wood. What was that, I wondered? Well, recently I was reading some history she wrote about her grandfather, William Balum Thompson, who won a contract from the Georgia Railroad to build roadbed and track from Union Point to Greensboro, that the straps were 3/4 inch thick and 3.5 inches wide. They were laid on 9 inch square sills which were then laid on ties spaced six feet apart. No mention of the type of wood was made, but I'd guess oak since it was so prevalent in Georgia. Now if I could find out what an average loaded freight car and coaches weighed that got to use that track. Maybe Atlas will come out with a vintage track for models of the original locomotives. Jock Ellis
You can find many modern examples of "strap rail". Just go to an amusement park. If they have a traditional wooden roller coaster, the track structure will almost always be strap rail. The main difference is that roller coaster rail has a "lip" (to keep the trains from flying off the track into the wild blue yonder on curves or at the tops of hills).
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