After I dropped my boys off at school this morning, I was heading back home and came up behind these three...



Hmmm, The Indiana RR must be replacing some ties.

A LOT of ties... these guys had evidently been parked there since 6.a.m. on a state highway. The crane showed up to unload at 9.





Where should we put 'em all?



It''s quite the commotion in this little town and the ol' timers came out to watch.

Would be much better reporting if we knew the town and railroad up front...

railohio Wrote:Would be much better reporting if we knew the town and railroad up front...

Well, we do know the railroad:

TrainNut Wrote:....Hmmm, The Indiana RR must be replacing some ties.....

railohio Wrote:Would be much better reporting if we knew the town and railroad up front...

We know that's not Bucyrus because those old fellas would be at Hardees or McDonalds having coffee and talking about seeing several trucks loaded with railroad ties. :o

I see what looks to be a "liar's bench" so, I wonder if that is a general store or a restaurant?

TrainNut Wrote:It''s quite the commotion in this little town and the ol' timers came out to watch.

Any town, anywhere when something different is happening

I'm kind of surprised that those new ties are not the concrete ones used here in my area.

railohio Wrote:Would be much better reporting if we knew the town and railroad up front...

Yeah, you're right... I did neglect to put a location. However, since I did say "After I dropped my boys off at school this morning, I was heading back home" and my location is clearly shown under my avatar, it shouldn't have been too difficult for you to figure out.

Solsberry is really only a one intersection town and the general store at that intersection (right next to the RR crossing) is the Yoho general store. Great place with fantastic people, food and ice cream!

Brakie Wrote:I see what looks to be a "liar's bench" so, I wonder if that is a general store or a restaurant?

Good eyes to pick out the "liar's bench" in the shadows behind the guys. That's exactly what they call it too because most of 'em recall the days of when they were kids and used to sit on that bench eating ice cream and telling lies. One of 'em was even telling me how he got all scratched and banged up when he crashed doing his bicycle daredevil show in the road out front (he says there wasn't much traffic back then).

There were 18 wheelers rolling through here for three days! Each truck brought in 200 ties. I counted a rough estimation of about 6,400 ties stacked up. If they lay about 3,000 ties per mile, they have enough to replace about 2 1/4 miles. I bet if I drove down the road 3-4 miles, I'd find another stack of 'em further down and on and on.

Well, I think I know what they're doing with the used ones, they're dumping them along the BNSF mainline not far from our house. There's a pile of them there. I would take a photo but it's along Grand Ave near Bell Rd. where there's lots of construction and I don't dare stop or even slow down.

Smart of them to stack them on top of the track needing the new ties to replace the old ones.

TrainNut Wrote:There were 18 wheelers rolling through here for three days! Each truck brought in 200 ties. I counted a rough estimation of about 6,400 ties stacked up. If they lay about 3,000 ties per mile, they have enough to replace about 2 1/4 miles. I bet if I drove down the road 3-4 miles, I'd find another stack of 'em further down and on and on.

I doubt they will replace every tie, every other tie will probably enable them to have class 3 track which is the highest allowed without having it inspected for defects annually with a service like Sperry offers (I can't remember the proper term for this and that bothers me) I think class 3 allows 45 MPH freight.
I have seen some operators replace them all, but that is not a wise choice. If a tie is not split and will hold the spike and gauge it is a good tie. They will get at least 5.5 miles out of that pile of ties and they should be good for 20 years. The FRA track requirements are on line and downloadable in a PDF file <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=15770">www.hsdl.org/?view&did=15770</a><!-- w -->
Charlie

Charlie,
I was talking to my other RR buddy in town here (AKA The Mayor) and he was telling me that they plan on replacing every third tie, doubling the amount of rail traffic and increasing the speed limit to 50m.p.h. It will still be limited to 20 across the Tulip viaduct though.

TrainNut Wrote:Charlie,
I was talking to my other RR buddy in town here (AKA The Mayor) and he was telling me that they plan on replacing every third tie, doubling the amount of rail traffic and increasing the speed limit to 50m.p.h. It will still be limited to 20 across the Tulip viaduct though.

That is good news, always glad to hear of upgrades like this.
Charlie

If the Indiana RR had the traffic they might use concrete ties. I don't know the cost difference of the ties. I do not work for them so don't. So don't know the reason for wood ties. Somebody might be able to tell us.
Dan