09-22-2009, 02:48 PM
Squid, possibly the worst track in the business is the diamond. I was in charge of making repairs to a diamond on a small switching service railroad. The ties have to be placed diagonally and need be extremely long to boot, nothing like the ties on an atlas diamond. Joint bars are a complete disaster and a nightmare to tighten and to keep tight, and you are right, they pump badly too, very hard to tamp with a machine so jitterbugs are best, but no room to get the stone under the ties, and almost too heavy to jack up. It is not hard to see why they are avoided when possible.
Charlie
Charlie