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How do they do that?
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Hugh-- <br /> <br />Nice work. I was afraid to throw the math out there, but I think your explanation can be understood easily by the readers. One note, though, unfortunately in most of the US the flanges by default do wind up guiding the axles around a lot of curves, particularly the sharp ones in heavy-haul land. This is exacerbated by the fact that, as a general rule, the US does not superelevate to balanced (ideal) conditions, primarily due to large discrepancies in train speeds on a given stretch of track. What this means is that we see a huge amount of curve wear on the gauge side of the outside railhead, accompanied by matching flange wear. This is especially evident on large heavy cars, and not just on higher speed lines. Of course, truck hunting doesn't help, either. <br /> <br />Modelcar-- <br /> <br />Yeah, that 61-1/2 lb stuff was amazing. It's truly antique, and to find 120 year old rail still in service on a main track is obviously very, very unusual. I think we got a small sample when it was pulled out and replaced with some really nice 90 lb relay. You may ask, why 90 lb, when weight limits are effectively obsoleting it? And the answer, like in all other situations, was $$. Weight limit for that stretch of line was set by a couple of bridges that the client could not afford to upgrade, so the line stayed rated at 210,000. For very light traffic and no heavy grain or aggregate cars, the result was far more serviceable than what we started with. <br /> <br />Happy fourth from the only recognized independent nation to join up with the colonies![:D][C):-)][bday]
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