Author Topic: North Yard Project - Official Work Thread (Read 104770 times)

James Patten · « **Reply #90 on:** October 29, 2015, 06:02:21 PM »

25 on some of the shop tracks (from the Kennebec Central originally).
33 on the yard tracks, and mainline out to before the north yard switch.
40 as transition pieces between 33 and 40.
50 on the first part of the mainline, and some of the north yard
56 or 60 on the rest of the mainline.

Brendan Barry · « **Reply #91 on:** October 31, 2015, 08:33:34 PM »

Stewart had an original WW&F guard rail we installed on one of the new switches last week.

Stewart "Start" Rhine · « **Reply #92 on:** October 31, 2015, 09:24:46 PM »

The guard rail is 35 lb, from the Whitefield station switch. It was dug out of the ground about 10 years ago.

Terry W. Shirley · « **Reply #93 on:** November 01, 2015, 08:26:15 PM »

Now, THAT's Cool!!

Pete "Cosmo" Barrington · « **Reply #94 on:** November 03, 2015, 08:24:28 PM »

Does anyone know/can anyone guess what the year/age is of the original guardrail? For that matter, what are the oldest rails actually in use ( ie: the length of original rail up at TOM siding)?

Jason M Lamontagne · « **Reply #95 on:** November 03, 2015, 08:47:13 PM »

The north switch at Alna Center has an original frog (from Albion) and original points (cooper's mills). All are 56 lb rail.

Jason

Mike Fox · « **Reply #96 on:** November 03, 2015, 09:14:35 PM »

Will have to look at the date on the smaller KC rail, as it was laid, never replaced, then removed, hidden in CT, and returned to Maine. No doubt, someplace there is rail 115 years old we are running on.

Philip Marshall · « **Reply #97 on:** November 03, 2015, 09:28:39 PM »

The 25-lb. KC rail we laid in the carbarn is marked "45 PS Co 90", which I take to mean Pennsylvania Steel Co., 1890, Heat 45 (for that year). This would mean it's 125 years old.

Pete "Cosmo" Barrington · « **Reply #98 on:** November 03, 2015, 09:38:46 PM »

Wow, multiple answers that quick,... you guys are da' NAZZ!

Cool answers, keep em coming!

Stewart "Start" Rhine · « **Reply #99 on:** February 05, 2016, 11:16:01 AM »

The weekday crew took advantage of the 50 degree temps yesterday and put ballast on another 15' of the bay two track in front of the car barn. The ballast has been shovel tamped and will need more work in April.

Dave Crow · « **Reply #100 on:** February 29, 2016, 08:44:32 AM »

It's been a while since I've had time to work in the machine shop down here at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. I stopped down this past Wednesday for a long lunch break and moved two of the rail lengths from storage and placed them next to the milling machine. On Saturday I moved the other three pieces of rail over by the milling machine so I could measure and mark the rails for trimming to exactly 12 feet long, which is the length required for our switch points. The pieces I had moved on Wednesday were turned the wrong way around, so I had to drag these 120-pound monsters in such a way as to reverse them end for end. Now I could place the rails, one at a time, in the power hacksaw. I also measured and marked the rails for the location of a 1" deflection bend, which helps position the web of the rail such that it continues to carry the vertical loading, even after machining the points. Supposedly we have a mechanical rail bender somewhere in the storage portion of the building; if I or one of the other fellows can find it, I can make the bends by myself. If not, a second and/or third person will be required to support the rail while making the bends in our hydraulic press. While it is definitely stronger, it's more difficult to control the exact amount of bend using the hydraulic press. I made a bending gauge to check my work which will be a lot easier than a straight edge and a tee square as used for making the frog points!

The stack of trimmed rails in front of the milling machine:

Trimming a rail in the power hacksaw:

Dave Crow

Dave Crow · « **Reply #101 on:** March 07, 2016, 10:15:27 AM »

And another good Saturday was had in Baltimore. Wayne Laepple was able to borrow a rail bender from the Stewartstown Railroad. We made the one-inch deflection in the five rails here in Baltimore. In the midst of the bending operation we bolted the first rail on the milling machine and made the first cut (of five different milling operations).

The BSM shop has a two-man safety policy when working with the large machines, so I am very grateful to Wayne for coming down for the day!

Wayne bending one of the rails:

First milling operation (15-degree tapered cut) finished on the first rail; you can see the bend in the rail, beyond the milling bit:

Dave Crow

Mike Fox · « **Reply #102 on:** March 07, 2016, 10:34:33 AM »

That is a great policy to have Dave. The company I work for has that in place as a policy too.

Dave Crow · « **Reply #103 on:** March 09, 2016, 02:45:03 PM »

I took a long lunch break and met a friend and fellow WW&F member, Matt Christopher, at BSM today. We managed to machine the 6-degree undercut angle on the other side of the rail from the 15-degree cut shown this past weekend.

End view of the switch point - somewhere around 1/16" of point at the tip:

A side view, showing where the undercut ran out; Jason, your drawing shows the run-out typically should be about 2" to the left of the deflection bend...

The next visit down will probably do a teeny cut to make the undercut a little better, if Jason wants it. I will then begin milling off the rail base on this side of the point so it can nest against the stock rail.

Dave Crow

Dave Crow · « **Reply #104 on:** May 26, 2016, 08:52:31 AM »

Wednesday, May 25, Wayne Laepple travelled down to Baltimore to work with me. We continued milling the first point, finishing up the removal of the base on the stock rail side of the point. We then took the first point off the milling machine and lifted the second point - a right-side point to be the mate to the first one. Here are a couple photos from yesterday:

An overall view of the 8-foot mill bed with a 12-foot point hanging off the end:

The point re-set, ready for the second and third sets of cuts; the other side of the head gets milled to form the sharp edge, and then the base is cut along the same imaginary vertical line so the point can nest against the stock rail:

Dave Crow

News: