Maintenance? Guilford?

Well after running around District 1 (CPF167-CPF191) the other day I noticed it appears as if Guilford may be doing some Maintenance. Now I know that this seems completely impossible but I think they might be doing some work. There were many ties that had been sprayed orange, indicating bad ties. Also I saw many crews at CPF 187 in Cumberland doing work. Further more, I've got reports that there is a CWR train sitting in Danville, current destination unknown (SLR or GRS). We'll find out shortly I guess.

Damn Chuck, here comes the apocolypse...

Lol I know right. Imagine that, every 4th tie marked for replacement, exactly the FRA's minimum.... crews doing work, wow.

newpylong wrote:Lol I know right. Imagine that, every 4th tie marked for replacement, exactly the FRA's minimum.... crews doing work, wow.

What class of track do they maintain to?

I heard the CWR train was going to the MBTA.

Why would it be routed through Danville though? Is there a CWR facility in Canada that is East of Montreal? If there was something west of Montreal wouldn't it have gone on the D&H to reach MBTA?

The CWR train came out of Chicago via Canada to SLR, to GRS at
Danville.

Its now stored on Track 4 at Anderson Station in Woburn. Starts
dumping Monday, 7/23

D

20,000 ties going in between Leeds Jct. and Rigby. Not much I know...
How many ties are there per mile of track?

-Alan S.

Mainlines-- 3200 per mile with the most common mainline spacing

Branches--- 2800 per mile with the most common spacing for branch and side tracks

Average tie life is 25-30 years, so rule of thumb is to replace 100 per mile per year to stay even. More per year would be needed to catch up with deferred maintenance.

Most railroads try to replace 800-1000 per mile every 6-7 years, which gets max efficiency out of a full mechanized tie gang.

How many miles between Leeds and Rigby?

The distance between Leeds and Rigby is about 50 miles. Per the standards given, that would be approx. 610,000 ties, meaning 20,000 new ties is only a little more than 3% of the ties.

You transposed your figures 3200 x 50 = 160,000 not 610,000. Thus they are replacing 12.5% not 3%. That said, you only need 8 good ties per 39' for Class 2 track (1083 per mile, or one out of three). Class 3 is the same requirement plus an extra good tie per 39' on curves in excess of 2 degrees. 50 miles between Leeds and Rigby would need 54,150 good ties, if they are putting in 20,000 that is 37% of the requirement.

Um, 3200 ties x 50 miles is 160,000 ties. Maybe it's time for a new battery in the calculator?

20,000 ties in that segment is one out of 8 ties, so they'll be averaging 2.9 ties per 39-foot segment of track. Let's round it out to 3 ties per 39-foot segment. Not really all that many, considering that FRA Class One (10 mph freight-15 mph passenger) calls for 5 effective ties minimum per 39 feet. Class Two is 8 ties per 39 feet on tangent and 9 ties per 39 feet on curves. If the existing tie condition is in the 10-12 effective range, then another 3 ties will certainly help keep things in good shape.

There may be areas that have already high tie counts, so the average may go up to 4 or 5 new ties per 39-foot segment in many spots.

Let's hear some reports from the field when the work starts!

I was down there the other day and saw that there were very few ties that had been marked with the orange paint indicating removal. They only seemed to be marked "here and there"

Last week I saw the surfacing gang in Winthrop, and Tuesday there were probably 6-8 B&M 9XXX gons and track equipment at Cumberland at the Route 9 crossing.

H.F.Malone wrote:Um, 3200 ties x 50 miles is 160,000 ties. Maybe it's time for a new battery in the calculator?

Oops... Apparently I can't multiply too well.... I should just stick to photographing.