magickmaker
New member
Hey guys. This has been bugging me for years now, and I finally decided that maybe I'd take it to the forums here. Maybe someone might have photos or know what I'm talking about.
Here's the deal:
Several years ago while looking at photos of logging routes, I happened across a curious photo that really piqued my interest. It was something that I'd never heard of, which both sounded interesting and strange in the same breath. Now I forget what railroad this was on, which has driven many google image searches to try to find. It's also something that I think may have been commonplace in logging routes, but you never see it featured on any of them.
In the photograph, from what I remember, you had a strange orientation where the track on the downhill side of a tall grade seemed to "splay" out on either side of the rails. Not unlike those angled expansion gaps you sometime see. However this took it to the extreme. The track actually seemed to "curve" out past the expansion point a good foot or two. In the photograph description, it noted that this was to solve a problem that many logging railroads had.
From what I recall, it described the reason for this weird arrangement thus:
When coming down a high grade with several heavy loaded cars of logs, sometimes the weight of the train braking and the loads would cause the rails to actually slip forward. Usually it was only an inch or two, but in extreme cases it was possible for the rails to move several feet at a time. Since this would under normal situations cause derailments when the rails kinked, the logging companies would use this curious setup to prevent it. By allowing the rails to "splay" out to either side of the track by way of a special angled expansion gap, IF the rail did slip forward then it would do so in a way that would keep the train on the grade from suddenly derailing. After a heavy train passed, a crew would go by and check to see if slippage had occurred, and if it had to a large extent, they would simply cut off the rail from the splayed end, carry it back up to the top of the hill, and bolt it back in place to fill the gap that the slip had produced.
Now it didn't say whether or not the replaced portion was bolted to the rails at the top of the hill, so I'm guessing that they weren't. That would only make sense I suppose, as it's unlikely the weight would be enough to shear the rail joiner bolts. Alternatively they could have used a softer metal that WOULD shear if needed, but I really don't know.
What I'm talking about is a somewhat extreme version of this, though it's not for rail expansion but slippage.
Edit: For some reason I think the track type I'm looking for was on the Cass Mountain...but I could be wrong.
Here's the deal:
Several years ago while looking at photos of logging routes, I happened across a curious photo that really piqued my interest. It was something that I'd never heard of, which both sounded interesting and strange in the same breath. Now I forget what railroad this was on, which has driven many google image searches to try to find. It's also something that I think may have been commonplace in logging routes, but you never see it featured on any of them.
In the photograph, from what I remember, you had a strange orientation where the track on the downhill side of a tall grade seemed to "splay" out on either side of the rails. Not unlike those angled expansion gaps you sometime see. However this took it to the extreme. The track actually seemed to "curve" out past the expansion point a good foot or two. In the photograph description, it noted that this was to solve a problem that many logging railroads had.
From what I recall, it described the reason for this weird arrangement thus:
When coming down a high grade with several heavy loaded cars of logs, sometimes the weight of the train braking and the loads would cause the rails to actually slip forward. Usually it was only an inch or two, but in extreme cases it was possible for the rails to move several feet at a time. Since this would under normal situations cause derailments when the rails kinked, the logging companies would use this curious setup to prevent it. By allowing the rails to "splay" out to either side of the track by way of a special angled expansion gap, IF the rail did slip forward then it would do so in a way that would keep the train on the grade from suddenly derailing. After a heavy train passed, a crew would go by and check to see if slippage had occurred, and if it had to a large extent, they would simply cut off the rail from the splayed end, carry it back up to the top of the hill, and bolt it back in place to fill the gap that the slip had produced.
Now it didn't say whether or not the replaced portion was bolted to the rails at the top of the hill, so I'm guessing that they weren't. That would only make sense I suppose, as it's unlikely the weight would be enough to shear the rail joiner bolts. Alternatively they could have used a softer metal that WOULD shear if needed, but I really don't know.
What I'm talking about is a somewhat extreme version of this, though it's not for rail expansion but slippage.
Edit: For some reason I think the track type I'm looking for was on the Cass Mountain...but I could be wrong.
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