schlimm Buslist The FRA. administrator (I'll let you get out the calendar to figure out who it was). So sometime between Oct. 1994 and March 1996? Who?
Buslist The FRA. administrator (I'll let you get out the calendar to figure out who it was).
So sometime between Oct. 1994 and March 1996? Who?
the Acelas were being commissioned so it would be late 90s, the administrator's initials were JM.
[quote user="wanswheel"]
Excerpt from “Cross-Tie Forms and Rail Fastenings, with Special Reference to Treated Timbers” by Hermann Von Schrenk (1904)
Of several devices advocated as a track fastening, the most promising one is the screw-spike. The chief advantage which the screw-spike has over the ordinary spike is that, to a large extent, it is put in under circumstances which prevent the mechanical injury to the tie at the time, and when it is once put in it holds the rail to the tie so firmly that a large part of the wear is done away with. It is hardly necessary to explain in detail at this point why a screw is so much better able to withstand a vertical pull than a spike. When in position a screw firmly clamps the base of the rail against the wood, and thereby causes the rail and the tie to act as one body when a load is passing over the rail. While it is not possible to absolutely prevent the sawing action of the rail even when held with a screw-spike, nevertheless the sawing action is reduced to a minimum by the use of other devices, such as the tie-plates shown below. The necessity for a fastening such as the screw-spike gives has been realized for some years, and the sentiment is well expressed by Doctor Dudley in the following words:
We need better rail fastenings to screw the rails to the cross-ties than our ordinary spikes. This is for the purpose of reducing the looseness of the rail on the cross-tie. This will lessen the strain in the rails and also the injury to the permanent way. With the broad-top rails which are used in our tracks we make the wheel treads, as they pass over the rails, hold them in a vertical position, and do not depend as much upon the spike for the lateral stability as upon the proper distribution of the weights under the moving wheel loads. With the round-topped rails this statement does not apply, as in that case the lateral stability must be secured by the spike or chair. While the spike forms what may be termed a secure fastening, with our broad-topped rails it is not rigid. The American theory and practice of securing the combined stability for the instant of the passage of the train is more by the construction of our locomotives and rolling stock than pertains elsewhere in the world. With a more efficient rail fastening and treated cross-ties the combined stability between the locomotive and the permanent way could be increased.
It is here asserted that a more secure attachment of the rail to the tie would not only prevent wear of the tie and of the wood around the spike, but would also increase the general stability of the track. The passage of the load over rails securely fastened to the tie would cause the whole body of the track to move in unison, and the up-and-down motion of the rails would be reduced to a minimum.
In view of the general interest in fastenings, and in view of the tests now in progress with screw-spikes, it may be of interest to discuss at some length the past and present use of the screw-spike in other countries.
The question of the fixation of rails to wooden ties has occupied the attention of European engineers for many years. At the meeting of the International Railway Congress at St. Petersburg in 1885, and again at the meeting of the same congress at Paris in 1895, various forms of rail fastenings were discussed with a good deal of interest. The first use of the screw in its simplest form was probably in Germany, where an extremely simple nail modified so as to approach a screw form was used on the railways of the Grand Duchy of Baden before 1860 (fig. 24). This simple screw was driven into the tie with a sledge hammer, much as a nail-spike is driven into the wood. It is interesting to note in this connection that a similar form (fig. 25) has recently been contrived and patented in this country. It will be seen that it is based on almost the same idea as the old screw-nail used in Baden. A modified lag screw used on the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1870 is shown in fig. 26.
https://archive.org/stream/crosstieformsrai50vons#page/n3/mode/2up[/quote]
Regarding this video posted on the previous page by BaltACD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjraY7L9Jig
That is amazingly complex work. It appears that they press some type of bushing into the lag screw bores of the cast iron chairs before installing the screws and attaching them to ties. At 1:32-1:39, a guy manually places the bushings over the bores, and then a big press pushes them down into the bores. I wonder what those bushings are made out of.
Interestingly at 9:58, a supervisor has to tell that worker to not drive the lag screws in all the way as if they were cut spikes. Perhaps this erroring workman is mistaking these lag screws as threaded drive screws that he may have prior experience with.
Drive screws are shown as a rail/tie fastener in the information quoted above from wanswheel on the previous page.
drive screw
noun
1. a fastener with a helical thread of coarse pitch that can be driven into wood with a hammer and removed with a screwdriver.
Norm
Norm48327
Looks like a few have been hooked!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Whats the power plant behind you?
Once again we have the confused claim of stopping distance with ECP brakes. The railroad industry and the FRA are diametrically opposed on the need for ECP brakes, and the central issue in this debate is stopping distance. The confused claim benefits the FRA and works against the railroads. So, considering what the railroad industry has at stake, I would think they would publish a clear statement that would once and for all clarify this stopping distance claim.
http://www.omaha.com/money/railroads/union-pacific-s-train-derailment-in-oregon-mars-railroad-industry/article_dfcabfb0-250e-5390-a7f1-d2ab7bfbe0b7.html
From the article:
The governor of Oregon and one of its U.S. senators last month asked for a moratorium on oil trains through the state (no such action has been taken), and Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg said advanced electric brakes would have helped.
The current system using compressed air to apply brakes to train wheels dates to the 19th century, Feinberg said. Electronic braking systems were tested in the 1990s but haven’t been adopted, said John Risch, national legislative director for the United Transportation Union who spent 30 years with BNSF, including as an engineer. That is despite working faster than air brakes, which suffer from a reaction time lag as compressed air is distributed throughout a long string of cars, a lag of up to two minutes.
“They are the greatest safety advancement I have seen in my years in the industry,” said Risch, who had a chance to test them in the 1990s. “They apply braking power twice as fast, at least.”
Trollin',Trollin', Trollin' on the river.
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