Full Version: It's Garys fault!
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I was just reading Garys thread and noticed how he kept complaining about how dark his ballast was. 357 (I'm just poking fun at'cha Gary!) I've always modeled black 'cause that's what I remember in Flagstaff as a kid. So as I'm panning around looking at aerial images of the Flagstaff area, the first thing I notice is that... the ballast is no longer black.
Icon_lol
The next thing I notice is some really dark discoloration of the ballast in specific places. Some of them within 1/4 mile of each other. It seems, though, that there is always a little white box right next to the tracks where the discoloration can be found.
What's the deal? Anybody got a clue?

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TrainNut, You have just spotted the railgreasers would be my guess. They use a lube made from sunflowers I think.
Charlie
Correct, those are Flange Lubricators. They lube the flange of the wheel to reduce wear and tear on the rail. There is one on the ruling grade on the RF&P, at Franconia, Va. I remember more than once being down to a crawl in run 8 and hitting those darn greasers and stalling out. I guess it was out of adjustment and grease was getting on the rail head?

Just noticed an interesting detail for modelers... the black starts abruptly and fades off in the normal direction of travel for each track.
Good modeling detail for modern layouts. Does anyone know when automatic flange oilers came into existence? Another thing they have in the Flagstaff area is turnout point defrosters powered by nearby propane tanks.
Oilers have been around for a long time. They found out the benifits of lubing the flanges early on. We used to lube our line manually, and you could instantly see the difference pulling the train, and the curves wouldn't squeal. Some steam locomotives had rail washers behind the drivers to wash the sand off the rail on grades to make it easier to pull the rest of the train.
Charlie
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. By the way, very nice aerial photos.
As for the dark areas fading out, I've seen pictures of multiple tracks on grades, and you can clearly tell which ones are the upgrade tracks as they are almost completely "white" from the sand used for traction.
nachoman Wrote:Another thing they have in the Flagstaff area is turnout point defrosters powered by nearby propane tanks.

Indeed, they are all over the place around here as well. Sometimes the local volunteer firefighters think the tracks are burning and put them out for us and cause all kinds of chaos

Sumpter250 Wrote:As for the dark areas fading out, I've seen pictures of multiple tracks on grades, and you can clearly tell which ones are the upgrade tracks as they are almost completely "white" from the sand used for traction.

Horseshoe Curve is/was a great example of this, and I want to model it on my layout. Tan/white for the upgrade side from sand, rust on the downhill side from cast iron brake shoe dust.
Yehhh, okay. That makes sense. Now that I go back and look at where they are located again, they are all placed before sharper curves.
Now that you guys helped me find out what it was and what it was called, I was able to find a lot more information.
On this guys site, ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://cprr.org/Museum/Rail_Wear_Johnson/index.html">http://cprr.org/Museum/Rail_Wear_Johnson/index.html</a><!-- m --> ) there is an article by Travis S. Johnson that elaborates and then leads into the rail greasers. He explains it quite clearly that "Unlike automobiles that use differentials to allow the right wheel to turn at a different speed then the left one, railroad wheels are connected by a rather substantial solid axel. Therefore the outside wheel must travel farther than the inside wheel. Since they are solidly connected, the inside wheel spins when rounding a curve." He then gives a link to a very nice closeup of the greaser being described.

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I looked all over Youtube but couldn't find a video of one in action. Might be kind of hard to see I guess if it takes place in between the rails as the train goes by. Big Grin
This explanation is somewhat at odds with my own understanding. While the axle and wheels are indeed a monolithic component, and rotate as one unit inside journal boxes, the rails are tilted inward by the tie plates, and the wheels are truncated cones that want to ride as if controlled by cam action imparted by their conical section tire surfaces and the canted top surfaces of the rails as forced by the tie plates. The idea is that, as a car rounds a curve, the conical sections adjust to minimized the disparity in rolling rates between the two rails with different radii. The inner tire surface is forced inward, thus making its working surface smaller, while the outer wheel is worked toward the outside of the curve where its tire surface, being now closer to the flange, is greater. In fact, it is on higher speed and tighter curves where the flange on the outer wheel may actually make contact with the flange face on the outer rail, and this is where you would want the rail flange faces to get the grease.

-Crandell
Crandell, you are right on the money. A very good explanation. I always had trouble getting my guys to understand this principal. I wish I could have explained it so well.
Charlie
Selector Wrote:This explanation is somewhat at odds with my own understanding. While the axle and wheels are indeed a monolithic component, and rotate as one unit inside journal boxes, the rails are tilted inward by the tie plates, and the wheels are truncated cones that want to ride as if controlled by cam action imparted by their conical section tire surfaces and the canted top surfaces of the rails as forced by the tie plates. The idea is that, as a car rounds a curve, the conical sections adjust to minimized the disparity in rolling rates between the two rails with different radii. The inner tire surface is forced inward, thus making its working surface smaller, while the outer wheel is worked toward the outside of the curve where its tire surface, being now closer to the flange, is greater. In fact, it is on higher speed and tighter curves where the flange on the outer wheel may actually make contact with the flange face on the outer rail, and this is where you would want the rail flange faces to get the grease.

-Crandell

Probably doesn't work on the sharpest curves, and one wheel needs to slip. And, it probably doesn't work so well when the wheels are worn. I have been told that the conical wheel profile is important for keeping the flange from touching the side of the rail. If everything is working properly, the flange should never bump up against the side of the rail. Of course as track and wheels wear - flange rubbing is inevitable.
Hmmm...So it's inertia that pushes the car to the outside rail....I would've thought that gravity would tend to pull it to the lower inside rail (on an elevated curve). Go figure.... Goldth
TrainNut, the Santa Fe uses a "pink" colored ballast at least in the Southwest. When I picked up a piece, it appears to be some sort of lava like material. Since it has a red color, slightly lighter but not unlike the red rocks found in Arizona, Southern Nevada, and New Mexico, I've always figured that the Santa Fe had some sort of quarry in the Southwest where they got their ballast. Of course the red rocks of the Southwest are mostly sand stone with iron ore, so it is a different material that they use for ballast. I don't know if iron ore occurs in lava, but suspect that it is iron that gives the ballast it's distinct color. I think it is the same sort of material that Arizona uses for aggregate in much of their asphalt that gives a lot of their roads their distinctive "red pavement."
I feel quite certain that BNSF probably mixes some of the red cinder from Mt. Humphrey; which is the largest "volcano" in AZ. After all, I think Az was the birthplace of "cinder" block, so-called because of the red cinders used in place of gravel. Gravel, as we know it, is crushed granite. Az doesn't have any granite mountains to be turned in to quarries.
You may be right , Carl. I've never heard of where they get it from, but the Santa Fe and now BNSF mainline here and clear across the desert and across Az, and NM is red or pink ballast. I've picked up pieces from along side the mainline to see if I could figure out what it was and it appeared to be lava, but I had never seen any source of red lava. All of the lava beds I've seen in Calif were black.
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