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Britain's Lost Viaduct Part 2

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Britain's Lost Viaduct Part 2
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, August 21, 2023 4:47 PM

Plateways - the type of rail the team found, with the flange on the rail. Unfortunately, they were cast iron and subject to breakage

Plateway - Wikipedia

Tramway (industrial) - Wikipedia

Mine railway - Wikipedia

Minecart - Wikipedia

Pit pony - Wikipedia

De re metallica - Wikipedia

Get going, model railroaders. We expect to see plateway layounts in a couple of years!

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, September 18, 2023 1:26 PM

Plateway layouts?  Are you going to design bui8ld, and  patent a scaslr-model mechanical horse for motive-power?

Or expect the specific plateway model-railroader to employ trained mice, his pet dog or cat?

Pretty sure plate-railways vanished prior to steam.

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, September 18, 2023 4:21 PM

Any road locomotive will run on a plateway, just as any road wagon can, if the vehicle track (here meaning lateral wheel spacing) is suitable.  So anything Trevithick built for the road would work; any locomotive with its flanges removed would work -- in fact the breakage problem is less because the contact patch can be wider and even a little compliance in the tread or between tire and wheel solves most of the plate breakage.

If grasshopper rodwork isn't challenging enough... build Brunton's Mechanical Traveller.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 4:35 AM

Plate railways diisapeared before steam replaced railroad animal mlotive-power and long before internal-combustion vehicles replaced road animal motive-power.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 5:53 AM

Still, this was the very-first example of rail-highway intermodal!

Wagons had to be lof the right gauge.

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Posted by daveklepper on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 6:48 AM

Why not build a plate railway as your garage entrance istead of a paved driveway?

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 10:11 AM

daveklepper

Why not build a plate railway as your garage entrance istead of a paved driveway?

 
A variation on the concept is used in car washes.
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, September 22, 2023 4:45 AM

Who will be the first railfan with a useful plate railroad?

 

Please post photos after you build and use it.

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, September 22, 2023 8:26 AM

My grandparents built a house (20 Gershom Place in Kingston, PA) in the early 1930s that had a driveway consisting of two parallel lines of long concrete slabs with a grass 'median' in the center.  (This was not uncommon in that era with grass or gravel; the idea was that any oil leaks would drop into the middle and not stain pavement.)

As a guide going into the garage at the end, he had curbs on the outside edges of the slabs, functioning exactly as outside-flange plateways...

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Posted by daveklepper on Friday, September 22, 2023 8:36 AM

Wonder who owns the house now. and  if the concrete plate-railroad is still there?

 

If I were in a position to implement the idea, I'd do it and make it look as authentic as practical.The actual materials might reflect improved technology.

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, September 22, 2023 2:41 PM

The house is owned by the same family that bought it after Agnes flooded it 8' deep -- and they say they will be passing it down the generations.  Incidentally they have now been in it nearly a quarter-century longer than my grandparents were there!

And the driveway remains impertinently grassed in the middle, with guide curbs...

I can easily make Stampcrete molds and appropriate colorant for structural-grade concrete that will duplicate either painted or unpainted cast-iron...

 

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Posted by NKP guy on Saturday, September 23, 2023 8:31 AM

Overmod
a driveway consisting of two parallel lines of long concrete slabs with a grass 'median' in the center.  (This was not uncommon in that era with grass or gravel; the idea was that any oil leaks would drop into the middle and not stain pavement.)

My 1880 house had such a driveway installed about 1933; over the years a few people remarked how they liked it.

But they never had to operate a snow thrower on it or, worse, shovel it.

Consequently, after putting up with it for 35 years, I had it torn out and a new concrete drive way installed (for $5k).  

I love my new, smooth and broad highway.  I only wish I could have put two rails into it like trolley tracks.

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, September 23, 2023 12:39 PM

NKP guy
But they never had to operate a snow thrower on it or, worse, shovel it.

My grandfather had a very large snowblower -- as I recall, it had something like a 7hp engine on it, which was large for the era, with a long axle arrangement and a tall, thin wheel on an extended axle on the 'off' side so the  wheelbase would span between the slabs.  He went down one side with the chute discharging to that side, then shifted the chute and came back the other way.

More of a problem was how you periodically had to care for the grass if you used calcium chloride on the slabs after blowing.  Probably the reason some people used bare gravel 'ballast' instead of planting.

Something that came along much later that might have improved the idea was the 'vaults' that can be planted with plugs of grass but that have ridges that take the weight of vehicular traffic, so the soil doesn't get compacted and kill the grass.  There are a couple of whole driveways in the Hamptons (and at least one tapis-vert) that were made this way, with the sprinkling below grade to encourage strong roots... you use guide wheels on the front of the snowblower to keep from 'scalping' the slightly uneven surface.

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Posted by daveklepper on Saturday, September 23, 2023 2:01 PM

If it were an authentic recreation, most of the time snow might not reach the hight of the flat portionb of the plate rails, and snow on the plate rails could bw bruhed into the center.  Not true. of course, for a  severe snowstorm, so maybe the idea is useful where snow isn't a frequent problem.

Trolley museum nfor its vuntage bus and trolleybus collection?

Overall ciost comparisons bus-only lanes (private RoW) for a transit authority?

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