Murphy Siding tree68 I'm guessing two things might have figured into the length of a tie. First and foremost would be long enough that the spikes wouldn't split out the tie. Second would be to give some stability to the structure, side-to-side. I kind of visualize that the ties need to be a certain length in order to spread the weight of the train out onto a bigger cross section of the road bed. I wonder if the standard length had anything to do with the size of the common rail cars used to carry them? For example, I understand the early stick rails were 39' long in order to fit into a 40' boxcar.
tree68 I'm guessing two things might have figured into the length of a tie. First and foremost would be long enough that the spikes wouldn't split out the tie. Second would be to give some stability to the structure, side-to-side.
I'm guessing two things might have figured into the length of a tie.
First and foremost would be long enough that the spikes wouldn't split out the tie.
Second would be to give some stability to the structure, side-to-side.
I kind of visualize that the ties need to be a certain length in order to spread the weight of the train out onto a bigger cross section of the road bed. I wonder if the standard length had anything to do with the size of the common rail cars used to carry them? For example, I understand the early stick rails were 39' long in order to fit into a 40' boxcar.
Earlier stick rail was 33' and going back to the 19th Century they may have been shorter still. Ties in the 19th Century construction would have been cut from the timber available in the area the track was being constructed. Remember railroads were being constructed at the lowest possible cost - there wasn't much if any science to demonstrate the real costs of building on the cheap.
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I understand that an early method of cutting rails was to score them with hammer and chissel and then break them.
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...
Murphy Siding Also, one of the articles mentions cutting of rails to make a curve. How did they cut rails in the field in 1869? Big, honkin' hacksaw?
Probably. Everything was done with manual labour back then. Well, that and horses, some of the grading equipment was drawn by large teams:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fresno_scrapers_Miocene_ditch.jpg
At our Museum we have a hand-cranked drill that was used for making bolt holes in rails...
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This month's May issue of Trains Magazine is mostly devoted to the 150th anniversay of the finishing of the first transcontinental railroad. In it, there is a photo of a section of track laid by the Central Pacific Railroad. It shows a section of track where a string line was used to align one end of the ties in a straight line, with the other side running 'wild' as the tie length varied a bit. In the past, we've had some good discussions about why standard railroad gauge is 4'-8-1/2". (The standard conclusion is basically, 'because it's always been that way'.) What is the common length of a railroad tie, and why? I'm guessing it's a nominal 8' length? Also, one of the articles mentions cutting of rails to make a curve. How did they cut rails in the field in 1869? Big, honkin' hacksaw?
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