About the Author J. D. Santucci (a.k.a. "Tuch") began his railroading career in 1978 as a trainman on the Missouri Pacific. After a round of lay-offs in 1985, Tuch embarked on a railroad odyssey, working in many different situations for different roads. This column tries to explain some of the nuts and bolts of the job and also demonstrates what we have to deal with on a regular basis within and without the industry. Tuch currently works through freights out of Chicago for Canadian National/Illinois Central. ©1999, 2003-2007 JD Santucci. Logo ©2002 The Railroad Network. By J.D. Santucci

March 7, 2005
I fully realize that sometimes the nature of the beast of railroading can drive those of us whom are the players of this game into all sorts of states of mind, most of which are less than desirable. And although there have been a few railroaders that have fallen over edge at one time or another, this little lesson will not be dealing with either railroaders going postal or having their little train go chugging down the track. Although it would certainly make for some interesting reading, we’ll save that topic for another time. Instead today we will discuss broken rail.

As I’ve mentioned in previous lessons, there are times when rail breaks. To the average person outside of the industry, they might find this to be a rather unusual occurrence. The metallurgy of the rail is far more advanced than it was when I began railroading in 1978, even further advanced from say World War II and by leaps and bounds from when the industry embraced the wholesale change to the use of steel instead of iron. With such improvement to the product one doesn’t think the rail will break as easily as it will. There has been a continuing program of research and development of rail over the years; it is no longer just steel rolled into rail. While the rail with withstand far more abuse than it did thirty or forty years ago it will still break when the conditions are right.

On their high annual gross tonnage lines most of the major railroads use a very heavy weight of rail, usually anywhere from 130 to 140 pounds. This weight designation means is that one yard of rail will tip the scales at 130 to 140 lbs. Unlike in years past, a significant amount of the rail today is rolled into seventy-eight foot lengths instead of the normal thirty-nine foot lengths. There are advantages of the longer size. When applied as use for jointed rail (connected by angle bars and bolts), about half the joints can be eliminated. When used as continuous welded rail, there are half as many welds. This in itself is a two fold advantage; fewer welds mean less expense to weld the rail as most contractors charge per weld. And fewer welds also mean less likelihood of failed welds as well.

A seventy-eight foot length of 140 lb rail will weigh in at about 3640 lbs. This is a considerable amount of weight. Even more so when you consider that this rail will also move. As the ambient temperature of the air around the rail changes, the rail will expand and contract. Sudden and drastic changes in temperature will affect the rail although again, the improved metallurgy has helped overcome some of the problems.

There are outside or external forces at work that also affect the condition and life of the rail. The roadbed under the rail head is also important. Mother Nature wages a constant battle as she continues in the attempt to try to reclaim the property upon which the railroad has been built. Mud will pump through the ballast fouling it and causing the ballast which helps hold everything secure to loosen up. This may allow for lateral motion of the track structure which can affect the gauge or allow for kinks to occur.

Other times the mud will allow water to pool and stand in spots under the rail. This standing water will also create problems which can, over time, help undermine the roadbed. Sometimes this will create low spots that can result in dips in the rail. As trains hit these low spots it will force the track structure downward violently. This up and down motion will impact the rail itself. Stress on the rail is created at the low spot itself and in the areas immediately preceding this location. While the rail is quite flexible, too much motion over a period of time often leads to problems.

Poorly maintained track and structure will also impact rail condition. If you are old enough to recall the era of the latter 60’s and early 70’s, you will recall a significant number of major derailments on America’s railroads. As financial situations deteriorate on a railroad, one of the first ways to try to save money is reduce or even eliminate track maintenance. Over a period of time, this philosophy usually costs the company involved more money than they save, but the bean counters routinely failed to acknowledge this fact. They only saw short term savings. They failed to measure the long term effects clearly demonstrating their shortsightedness.

Penn Central’s financial condition was terrible and that was before things really began to deteriorate there. To save money track maintenance was reduced considerably across much of the system. First lower density lines were left to decay. Over time their financial condition worsened to the point that higher density lines also had maintenance deferred. As the condition of the track began to deteriorate, the track speed had to be reduced in order to allow the trains to operate safely which in turn, added time to train schedules. Increased running times resulted in dissatisfied customers. The transit times of their commodities increased which impacted their operations. Oftentimes some of these customers, when possible, switched to other railroads for the long haul or even to another mode of transportation, most often trucks. Lost business resulted in a reduction of earnings which meant less money going to the bottom line.

The deferred maintenance eventually resulted in derailments. Penn Central experienced a large number of derailments as the condition of their track deteriorated even more. Clearly an obvious result was an increase in costs associated with derailment clean up which also increased the amount of money the loss and damage department had to cough up. Such costs also drew heavily against the bottom line.

Penn Central has a dubious distinction of having a standing train derail. The track structure underneath the train had deteriorated to the point that it collapsed under the weight of the stopped train. Although you may laugh Penn Central is not the only road that has experienced such an episode. But considering their precarious financial condition, they received a great amount of notoriety from the episode; unfortunately, it was not the type of publicity they desired.

Other roads experienced financial difficulties and responded by reducing track maintenance. Derailments followed. The Rock Island eventually went insolvent, ceased operations and had to liquidate. While the Rock didn‘t experience the mammoth proportion derailments that resulted in huge fiery wrecks with enormous hazardous material spills, they had numerous small to medium sized ones, all of which drew even more capital away from the financially starved company.

Today the industry seems to have a much better grasp of the concept of track maintenance. While maintenance might be a little thin in spots, the out and out neglect of track seems to be past history. I believe this is one situation in which those that run the industry have actually studied and learned from history.

Remember, those that fail to study history are destined to repeat it.

There are other external forces that will impact track conditions. We had a situation on the Wisconsin Central in which some construction work was performed near, but not on our right of way. This resulted in a change in the flow of the water table under the roadbed. The change caused an undermining to and weakening of the roadbed well beneath the track structure. All of a sudden it felt like we were operating on a sponge. A 10 MPH slow order had to be imposed on a stretch of about a quarter mile of railroad to prevent a derailment.

The contractor involved eventually had to pay for the work to correct the problem. Pilings had to be driven into the ground along with some other work to shore up the roadbed. This took time and cost a fair amount of money. Once this work was completed, the track structure then had to be repaired to allow for normal operating speeds again. A significant amount of ballast had to be dumped onto the location and then tamped into the roadbed and the track leveled and realigned. Surfacing was then completed and the track speed was then raised over this portion of railroad in two increments; first to 25 MPH for a time and then finally back to the normal 50 MPH.

And there are yet other forces that can result in failed rail. Flat spots on wheels can be detrimental. How many times have you sat at a crossing as a train passes and heard what has become the all too familiar thunk-thunk-thunk emanating from underneath the passing cars? Those are flat spots on the wheels hammering the rail. There has been a proliferation of flat spots for many reasons. Not wishing to create a huge debate about the issue, we won’t delve into those reasons at this time.

A three inch flat spot hitting the rail at 50 MPH is equivalent of something like 450,000 pounds of pressure hammering that rail. Flat spots of such size are not supposed to be operated above 10 MPH. Routine car inspections are supposed to find such flat spots. Many railroads have installed wheel impact detectors at various locations along their systems. These detectors measure the impact of flat spots hitting the rail. If high impact is detected, a message will be generated to alert the necessary parties to the problem. If the problem is determined to warrant, the train may be called and instructed to stop and inspect the car and likely set it out of the train. In other cases the speed of the train will be reduced in the effort to minimize the impact on the rail. The car will then be inspected by mechanical department employees at the next terminal.

Now think about the flat spot hitting the rail in bitter cold weather. The rail has contracted significantly already putting a strain on it. Along comes some car with big flat spots just hammering away at the rail. Under the right conditions something will give. Oftentimes it is the rail.

I’ve also mentioned that welds can and do fail. The thermite type of weld tends to fail more often than electric flash butt welds. In some cases it isn’t the rail itself breaking; rather it is the weld breaking. Nonetheless, the end result is a separation of the rail. And such separations can and do lead to derailments.

In some cases, the rail doesn’t break through vertically, but instead will separate horizontally. In this case, the top portion of the rail, know as the ball breaks and separates from the upright middle portion of the rail known as the web. Under these circumstances, this type of break will not cause a signal protecting that portion of track to indicate a stop, stop and proceed or restricted proceed indication. The entire rail is not broken therefore, the circuit is not interrupted.

In many instances the ball of the rail that has separated remains in place but is just sitting on the web. When a train hits this spot, especially at higher speeds, this broken piece of the ball of the rail will then pop out of place exposing the web of the rail. The wheels of the cars will then hit the web which is not designed for this purpose. Derailments can and often do result from such conditions. And being that trains are generally operating at normal speed under such conditions the derailments tend to be spectacular.

I have probably discovered hundreds of broken rails throughout my career. In one of my very early days at the IC in 1996 I spotted one on the southbound main track of the Joliet District. We had received a restricted proceed signal indication which required me to operate at restricted speed. And as you’ll recall one of the aspects of the definition of restricted speed is to look out for broken rail. I was only moving at about 10 MPH and saw the outside rail jump and move in an unusual manner. I quickly began to bring the train to a safe stop. We hit the break both feeling and hearing it. Upon further revue it was determined that it was indeed a broken rail. While separated the rails were still close enough together that with a member of the crew at the break observing the movement, we were able to walk the train across this spot at a crawl.

Back in my days at the IHB I was bringing an intermodal train to the Soo Line at Bensenville. They had us pulling into a track that was in deplorable condition. When the Yardmaster instructed me to use this track to yard the train, I questioned him about using this track. For months, perhaps years, there was old junk cars and track equipment stored on this track. I was told that today it was in service and okay to use. No problem, it’s your railroad. So we proceeded through this track. I was moving a little slower than normal as the quality of the track seemed to be terrible at best.

As we rolled through both the Conductor and I kept commenting about how we could not believe this track was even in service. All of a sudden I observed a length of rail right in front of the engine jump about two or three feet up into the air and then drop back. I didn’t think twice but just put the train into emergency. We stopped quickly. Both the Conductor and I got out taking a look at what we had here. There was a separation of about six inches where the rail had broken. A small piece of the ball of the rail was also missing from just in advance of the break. There were no ties within two feet of either side of the break either. And ballast was almost non-existent. The train had stopped with the break directly under the fuel tank of my lead unit, a CP Rail SD40-2 locomotive. We weren’t going to be walking the train over this one.

We reported our find to the yard and awaited further instruction. A Trainmaster came out to have a look at our discovery. He arrived with a 55 gallon drum of attitude as his first words were “What are you doing in this track?” Well exactly what in the hell did he think I was doing there? Did he honestly believe we just chose this track on our own volition? I had to explain that even when we questioned the Yardmaster we were informed that this track was in service and okay to use. He told us he thought this track was out of service and that we should not even be here in the first place. Hmm, we had that same thought but who listens to the help?

Upon his examination of the broken rail, the Trainmaster asked if we thought we would want to attempt to limp the train over this spot. My exact response was “My genitalia are not big enough to attempt something that foolish.” While he appeared to be surprised by my candor, he did not second guess my judgment. He found some pieces of tie butts and jammed them into the break. We cut the engines away from the train and walked the second half of the lead unit and then the two trailing units over this break. It was a real crawl and I could feel the wheels of my lead unit hitting the break and feel the locomotive drop as it rolled over the spot. I could also clearly see my second and third units drop and rise as they rolled over this spot as well. Locomotive wheels are bigger than those on freight cars, so I don’t believe for a moment that any of the cars would have made it over this spot without derailing.

Aside from observing the track I am operating over, particularly in yards, I am also observing the rail of the tracks around me. I have discovered numerous broken rails as well as other separations as well. In some cases the separation has been at a joint. The nuts have either backed off from the bolts and the bolts fell out allowing the rails within the angle bars to pull apart. In other cases, from the motion of the rail expanding and contracting, poor maintenance or other factors, the bolts in the joint are sheared off which will allow the rails in the angle bars to separate as well. All of these are referred to as pull aparts or stripped joints. In the event of any of such conditions, I immediately report all of them to the proper authority. I don’t want to see something terrible happen, particularly the possibility of somebody getting hurt or killed.

Several weeks ago while working the Oil Job I spotted a broken rail. We were switching the Citgo Refinery in Lemont and I looked down at the track along side the one we were switching at the time. There it was big as life; a broken rail. My observation might very well have prevented a derailment. It might have also prevented a personal injury as well. In the event of a car derailing over the broken rail, it is entirely possible that an employee that might be riding the car could conceivably be injured as a result. While we are not moving all that fast within this facility the potential for derailing at the point of a broken rail is still quite real and a distinct possibility.

Now here’s a consideration for the present philosophy of management throughout this entire industry with regards to such problems; I can and do spot problems like broken rails and pull aparts. So do many other Engineers. And we take steps to prevent potential problems by reporting such finds immediately. Remote control locomotives do not. In fact, remote control locomotives don’t see any problems with track conditions especially ones that cause these engines and cuts of cars to derail. And what they cannot see doesn’t get reported to anybody. It will then likely be discovered either immediately prior to, or right after a derailment has occurred; in either case, a moment too late. And with such an episode will come the costs of clean up along with damage to rolling stock and possibly the lading as well. And then there is that persona injury potential as well. None of this comes cheap. But they keep insisting that this technology is safer. I guess we all know what it will take to change this attitude.

But not to worry, we keep hearing about how much safer remote control operation is supposed to be. I’m still trying to figure out how having nobody observing for such problems is supposed to be safer. Could it be like that song from Carly Simon sang in that James Bond movie so many years ago?

“Nobody does it better.”

And so it goes.

Tuch

Hot Times on the High Iron and the HTOTHI initials, ©2005 by JD Santucci.