Silver Boxes in Between Express and Local Tracks, What's Up?

I came home today 9/20/05 and looked out my window to see what appears to be silver boxes with a hook attached to them lined up in between the local and express tracks on the Eastbound side. I'm in Forest Hills and they appear to travel as far the eye can see Westbound and Eastbound. It also appears they may have dropped some new rails along with them. Any ideas of what the stuff is and what may be happening in the future? Are they replacing the rails here or is this part of the replacement of the cement ties which I believe I read some time ago were defective.

I was told by an engineer today 9/20 that there going to be replaceing the 3rd rail through forest hills thats probly what the things you seen are related to.

Yep thats what you saw, the metal brackets used to hold up the third rail, and the new third rail are lying between the tracks.

from the flushing bound 7 at woodside i saw wooden ties weaved in with the concrete one. gotta love LIRR track maintenance or the lack of it

the metal brackets are to support the third rail protection boards. they used to be wood but are being replaced by fiberglass.
the third rail is supported by ceramic insulaters as to not ground the rail.
As for the wood replacing concrete ties, the manufacturer of the cement ties blames a "bad" batch of concrete

Has LIRR been haveing the same problems with the cement ties like MN is haveing?

The parts on the right-of-way are indeed for mounting third rail. The square "u" channels are extensions that bolt onto the concrete ties. The existing ones were of faulty design and are sagging. The insulators are too, Fibreglas. Until about 25 years ago, they were porcelean. Steel brackets hold the Fibreglas protection board.

The concrete ties on the Main Line are indeed defective, and the supplier is offering a 3 for 2 replacement supply. They have lots of problems. In their defense, the Long Island has not lived up to its warranty requirement by not surfacing the track and providing proper drainage.

In places where the track floods and the ties pump up and down, the bottom of the ties wear rather quickly, forming a slurry that hardens and further negates drainage. The causes more wear.

The threaded inserts in the ties for the third rail extensions also cause problems. The unused ones were plugged with plastic plugs. They pop out and the holes fill with water. It freezes and cracks the tie. Water enters the concrete and rusts the reinforcing bars, causing further degeneration.

In a word, these things are a nightmare. The Long Island was warned by many of their top track guys... This is a very expensive mistake.

Clemuel

So will they ever go back to all wood ties after learning this mistake?

i don't understand. many other railroads use concrete ties and don't seem to be replacing ties en-mass. 1. if anyone in management knew what a track maintenance vehicle was this problem would not be so severe. Track and ties wear out.. but this is pretty lame. I remember when this section was 'new' and the ride in even the worst, square wheeled m1/3 was like heaven.. until you hit the mess known as Queens.. brace yourself for being thrown around the cabin. anyway... that section of track has not been touched since they did the trackwork.. this is not the NYCTA and the overweight M7's make matters much worse.

Long Island 7285 wrote:So will they ever go back to all wood ties after learning this mistake?

I do not think they should go back to wooden ties, if done right and maintain right the concrete ones would be a blessing in disguise.

Yes wooden ties if treated right would last a long time, but concrete has an overall longer lifespan, plus there is alot more advantages from using concrete than wood.

Thats true, however how many times and millions of our tax dollars will be pissed away on concrete untill they get it right, just because the life span is longer does not mean that deferred maintenance is the way to go.

spen the money now to send the track gangs out and you dont need to piss millions away replacing every tie that you laid wrong.

maby wood is the way to go unitll this concrete thing is takencare of. though as previously stated. other railroads nation wide use cement and have no problems like this. so it leaves us with some questions.

Other railroads who invest in concrete ties don't install them in pools of water, atop clay and fouled ballast. They respect their investment and do the proper grading and sub-surface work first.

Remember that the Long Island is a political machine. They look for the most glitter for the buck, the most votes and the best appearance. Their "board of directors" is the public -- the voter. And the public, who enmass is not very smart, doesn't appreciate money spent on things that don't show.

The way it looks now, those areas with horrific drainage will see their concrete ties replaced with wood when the concrete fails. There will probably be more concrete tie projects, and more ongoing problems.

Lessons aren't learned easily here. Remember, there is a bottomless till of money, and unless the place is publicly smacked in scandel, little will change.

The rest of the planet's been using concrete for decades now and it's worked just fine.

Then again, given the overweight M-7s and C-3s, maybe the LIR should start looking at direct fixation on the curves at least...

As for the ride when new? Yeah, the M-1s ride great when they're on decent track, they just don't do well on sub par track, but then, most stuff doesn't.

Oh yeah, if anyone knows who at the LIRR to pass this to - take a good look at the eastbound track in Mineola between the grade crossing at Nassau tower and the next one down - I've seen the rails lift darn near off the tie plates a few times...

Nasadowsk wrote:Oh yeah, if anyone knows who at the LIRR to pass this to - take a good look at the eastbound track in Mineola between the grade crossing at Nassau tower and the next one down - I've seen the rails lift darn near off the tie plates a few times...

I've noticed that the EB track around the Roslyn Road (is this the one you mean? I'm not sure if there's another road between Willis Ave and Rosyln Rd) crossing seems to have a fair bit of vertical motion to it; certainly more than the WB track in the same spot.

Clem,

I totally agree with your points, that is clearly true of the LIRR or any political machine for that matter.