I keep forgetting to take a camera.....
I live on the UP Mainline... double track... USA CA 94585.
I walk my dog along the tracks a few times each month, and I wonder how typical it is to see:
1. Wooden ties that are old and rotten(ing) Not all of them of course, but quite a few.
2. Spikes that are sticking up on almost every tie, some are missing completely.
There was equipment on these tracks about 6-12 months ago. Looks like they cleaned up/added ballist, but they did not do any work to the ties and spikes.
Thank You
But what class track are you looking at? What is traffic frequency and speed? What size cars? I remember when a local paper ran a story about somebody claiming tear of high speed derailment on a weed laden track with rotten ties, loose tie plates and broken bolts, and that took on maybe one car a year for loading, unloading, or being parked out of the way. The service of the track signifies the class it is and the maintenance it gets. Unless there is frequent use and speeds over 20 mph. there is probably no cause for concern.
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This is the UP Mainline between San Jose CA and Reno NV.
I live in Suisun City.....on the way to Davis ...Sacramento...Donner Pass...Reno.. I thought that just about any train UP runs (in this area of course), would be on these tracks.?
Thanks
Do 100+ car stack trains, intermodal trains, unit coal trains, etc. operate at 80 mph and more than twice an hour? If not, it is not a UP main line.
henry6 Do 100+ car stack trains, intermodal trains, unit coal trains, etc. operate at 80 mph and more than twice an hour? If not, it is not a UP main line.
Based on the satellite photos, Amtrak, at the very least, runs on the line. There's an Amtrak station there, and it looks like the satellite caught a passenger train in town.
There's a lot of ancillary track there, though - which won't need to be kept up to Class 4 standards.
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...
They (freight trains) don't operate 80 mph anywhere on the UP. 70 mph is about tops. For awhile there was some 75 mph allowed for the "bullet trains" but I think all that is over with. Even the business trains are held to 70 mph now.
Actually, what he describes doesn't sound out of the ordinary, even for 70 mph track. You are always going to find some bad ties or spikes popping up, even on the heavily used main lines. Of course, when there get to be too many bad ties, etc, they start slapping slow orders on the track.
Jeff
Suisun-Fairfield Double Main Track (Overland Route MP 49 Martinez Sub - Roseville Service Unit and junction with the California Northern Mococo Line that splits off to the North and West) 60-70 and 60-79 MPH 136CWR Class 4 track ... with a bunch of 60 and 30mph slow orders on it right now (demoted to cls 3 & 2). Right at the Amtrak depot is a long compound curve (Avg degree of curve = 1 degree...long, light curve) 40-60 trains a day
It takes a lot to kill a tie and "rotten" isn't a parameter to dictate defective. Some of the raised spikes are simple mechanical crabbing (ratcheting), easily fixed.
A tie is defective only if it is broken, has ballast working up through it or won't hold a spike/gage. In a rail length, you have 24 ties. you only need 8-12 of those ties, distributed evenly, to be good for district speed. 8 ties for cls 2 or 3; 12 for class 4. Just because a tie looks chewed-up, does not mean it's bad and most of what counts is under the tie plate.
BTW - Who's that funny lookin' guy and his weird lookin' dawg trespassing out there? (Perception, just sayin...)
Jeff...Mud...Thank You. Sounds like what I am seeing is "normal" and within safe operating specs for the traffic.
It is funny, even when guys know what you are asking/trying to ask...they have to make a mountain out of a semantic mole hill.
I appreciate you knowledge.
I'm Done.......Thanks Again
I have seen the same on the Pan Am Railway right of way in Northampton, Ma. Speed limit has been 20 mph for some time. For a couple years or so, coal trains were not allowed to a coal fired power plant. New, 156 lb rail going in soon for Amtrak trains.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
New 156? (maybe 136??? - and yes, PRR & Lackawana had 152/155 for a while, I know... and there is bigger crane/girder rail)
Woe is my railroad if it's that decrepit.
Suisun, the station was named Suisun-Fairfield, and the dash was allowed in train orders: punctuation, except decimal points, repeated back as "dot" by train order operaters,....punctuation was not allowed,....where the California Pacific veered north to acquire a ferry landing for San Francisco bound boats in Vallejo at the Napa River's confluence with the Sacramento River.
That veer point was Suisun. a siding, designated as the North siding, connected with a Sacramento Northern rail' that stubbed in front of the depot.,,,'came in from Sacramento and the Bay Area.
Track repair threre and in the little engine house, yard among the wye' legs, I earnestly hope was what he criticized? It wasn't top level attention track.
Otherwise....pray for us all....ardently?
The main tracks? The main tracks at Suisun?
Really good track....last time i worked...and ran a 70 mph train into it,
no problems. feels good,, no problem....
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