What's the minimum distance any tree should be from a track on an American road?

J

JonMyrlennBailey

Well-known member
If trains brush against tree branches, I fear paint can become scratched or some parts of the rolling stock can be damaged. Falling trees and heavy limbs may be a railroad hazard.
How do American roads generally manage trackside trees? Do railroads actually do tree pruning service on trees on their right-of-way property?
 
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Never Fear ... The Federal Bureau of the Interior has a constant team of thousands of MIFGSV's (MenInFlorescentGreenSafetyVests) surveyors on the ground at all times, meticulously measuring trees and teleophone pole locations, and they have an army of emergency radio dispatched 10 bladed whirlybird tree trimming devices in the air at all times, and any trees found in violation are quickly tagged, cited, and are immediately cut down. Any railcars that happen to get dented and scratched are carefully filled with Bondo® fiberglass body filler, finish sanded with 800 grit sandpaper, and electro static match touch up powder paint is applied, and when dry they are buffed and waxed, and are brought back into their original high glossy sheen.

https://youtu.be/Mfz1YrpMbBg
https://youtu.be/Pla06PO6Odk
 
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This might give you an idea about distance.

https://youtu.be/n_gU580ZqDA

It's whatever the machines can reach.

Pan Am Railways doesn't believe in doing this unless a fuel tank gets punctured then they take the tracks out of service like they did on the Topsfield branch, which at one time was an active double-track line to Newburyport slowly cut back to Topsfield then Danvers, and now gone.
 
I saw a 10 diameter rotten tree fall across the both rails of NS tracks, a train came along at track speed of 47mph, the snow plow schmizened it to smitherines, and it exploded into a million pieces, without even scratching or denting anything
 
The machines seem to be able to reach far enough to keep the trackside vegetation ample clear of passing trains. Plants, unlike telephone wires, railroad signals and power lines, grow constantly so they are always a concern.

I think the term having to deal with railroad clearance is "loading gauge". I think if I were to own a railroad, my standard for track side trees would be that no part of any tree would be allowed to break any imaginary vertical plane paralleling the track and such plane being 20 feet to either side of the tie ends and no part of any tree shall be any lower than 20 feet above the track directly overhead. Trees grow upward and outward constantly and the farther they are from the rails the less often they would need pruning.

Nearby trees within falling distance over tracks would also be inspected regularly for health, soil erosion around their bases and for being dead. Trees deemed dangerous to rail traffic would be removed promptly.
Railroads probably hire arborists to inspect their nearby trees regularly. The trees are a concern on train lines that run through forested areas.

I never knew helicopters could double as giant flying pruning saws.
 
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Well, John above posted a video and that lead to my discovery of even more videos which pretty much covered all my questions.

Thanks John. I was worried that a line-side tree branch would poke right through the window and hit me in the face if I were
to have to ever travel Amtrak in the future.


Just be sure when you build Trainz layouts not to plant trees too close to your tracks. Fortunately, Trainz trees never need pruning,
but you can make trees smaller or larger by moving them in Surveyor a few feet in any direction. Whenever I plant track-side trees,
I put large diesel engines like the SD40 and tall three-level Autoracks on the track and check for clearance.
 
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Does this answer your question?

trees_in_tracks.jpg
 
I'm sure they have a ROW just like roads do, so they would only be able to cut what's in the ROW, what ever that mire be.
 
I think a RR ROW is 20' to 30' wide, and was on a 99 year lease ... I would RR's cut costs, and only cut when a tree causes a problem ... They are in it for the sort haul, to make as much money as possible, in the shortest amount of time, and turn a profit
 
In 2011 the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum had their first annual Railfest. Of course the highlight was Norfolk Southern's first mainline excursion in about twenty years. The other notable event was on the last day of the event, the remains of Hurricane Lee, by then Tropical Storm Lee, hit the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and caused a downpour. There was a special Chickamauga Turn from Chattanooga to Chickamauga and back. Leading the train south (to Chickamauga) was Southern FP7 #6133, owned by the North Carolina Transportation Museum and was one of two special guests at Railfest, the other being the grand premiere of the Gramling's Lehigh Valley Coal Company 0-6-0T #126, called Sadie. On the return trip from Chickamauga, Southern GP30 #2594, on loan from the Southeastern Railway Museum, lead the train, with 6133 on the rear, because there is not a turntable in Chickamauga. There were plans for several photo run-bys, but they were cancelled due to the rain, so we would arrive two hours earlier than planned, 4PM instead of 6PM. On the return trip, the train was stopped by a tree that fell on the tracks. Here's where things get interesting: Normally the crew has a chainsaw on board in case something like this happens, but they forgot to put it on the train before leaving the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. We had to wait for a person from Lafayette (where the office for the Chattanooga & Chickamauga (the railroad the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum runs its excursions on) is located and further south of Chickamauga) to get up to us and cut up the tree so we could continue on back to Chattanooga. After waiting for two hours, a guy came along, cut up the tree, and we were on our way back to Chattanooga. We arrived back at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum at 6PM, when we were originally planned to return.
 
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