The steepest grade in North America on a Class 1 was Saluda Grade on the NS. At it's steepest point, it was about 5.4%. It has just recently been closed down.
Makes sense, I guess. Too expensive to haul cars over it. I saw a picture of a train doubling the hill and there were only about 20-25 cars on it. At one time, some civil engineer must have thought it was a good idea, or the only way to get across. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
At the time it was built it was the least expensive way to go. Many railroads built cheap planing to reroute the line later or build tunnels, whatever. It seems this one never developed enough traffic and revenue to justify realignment but was still busy enought to keep it in service. So they just kept doubling trains over it. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
What does it mean to "double trains" I'm guessing it is to send two shorter trains and maybe then connect them into one on the other side? The excess engines would then be sent "home"? Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
There's an 11% grade at Cass, it's standard guage but probably doesn't make record books since it was a logging operation. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
Doubling trains, or more correctly, "double the hill," is a process to get a train over a hill when the available motive power is not sufficient. Or...in our case, the hill is too steep. You just cut the train in half and take each half up the hill one at a time. Then, you reassemble the train at the top of the hill. Thus, you have to go up the hill twice, or "double the hill." It does not require extra motive power. I read that somewhere, but I think the book was about steam. It is probably very rare these days; the rr just adds DPU. In steam days, each additional engine required a crew. I would say that railroading is significantly less labor intensive than it was 75 years ago. In fact, the book I read had a bunch of railroad moves described, like double the hill. Another was the "saw-by" where two trains can pass using a siding that is shorter than either train. There were several types of moves described in the book. It is more of a railfan thing, I think. Heck, if I need a longer siding on my layout, I just build one! Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
There was a 14% grade on the Yule Tram railway, somewhere near Marble, CO. I think they hauled marble blocks from the quarries. Crystal River & San Juan RR hauled them from there to connections around the country. Fourteen percent!?!?!?!! Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
This next installment is not to add significantly to the class, but racther to illustrate what poor drainage, and neglected, fouled ballast will create: This is somewhere between T6 and 7, and I must say, I have never before seen track this bad on a class I mainline! Lastly, it's not prototype to leave out a tie.... Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
At least the remaining ties are in great shape where the one(!) had been left out. I have been told by our local CSX track inspector that his inspection criteria is that ONE good tie in FOUR is acceptable. Anything better. e.g. one good in three or less is great. If he sees four bad ties in succession, then he reports it, and the Section crew will replace ONE of the four bad ties...! Sadly, I watched this occur last January and February...not once, but three times within 100 yards! Last week a tie/ballast tamping machine came through, retamping and leveling each tie. This was followed by a ballast shaper. The shaper tore up at least three out of every four ties because they were rotten, split, or otherwise pure crap....! The last time the ties in this secton were replaced wholesale by a blitz crew was in 1997. Since then, it has been replace ties on a onesy-twosy basis to remain just under the FRA radar. And this section has a 60/50 speed restriction. Sorry for the rant, but deferred maintenance costs so much more in the long run. [ June 20, 2005, 07:49 PM: Message edited by: Hytec ] Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
Wow! The BORIS KARLOFF, eh? Cool- horror stars and trains together! Ho-tay, for those of us who are abbreviation-challenged, what is a "DPU"? It's interesting to see this kind of presentation. Western railroading is quite a bit different than here in the East, and frankly I know doodly about the UP except that they were involved in the Golden Spike and the trancontinental railroad and that Sam Elliott does their voiceovers. Very nice work, gents. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
Distributed Power Unit=DPU. A fancy-schwancy way of saying 'unmanned helper'! Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
Jere,I think this is where the stone for the White House came from,because it was umm so,errm well,white! I have an excellent book on that road here somewhere. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
pretty cool lesson..... I wish scool was this interesting I would've paid more attention. It was interesting to note that you have separate signals for your slide fences. We don't have fences per se over here but we do have slip detectors and rainfall monitors on the south coast. The slip detector is interlocked with the running signals which revert to stop if a slip is detected. These signals can only be passed at Stop per rule NSG604 under signaller authority. The rain fall monitors are buried into the mountain and set off an alarm at the conrolling signal complex (in this case Wollongong). It is used to monitor heavy rainfalls which can cause the slips and thanks to our drought they have not gone off for a few yrs I noticed Hytecs comment about 1 in 4 for ties (or sleepers) it is the same here, on the main south which thanks to govt control is a bit neglected you'll notice steel sleepers avery 1 in 4 at most places. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
this looks sorta like my shop tracks [this is a little worse] after a good rain... now for main line, that is awful... Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
Flash - Thanks for the explanation on "doubling the hill". Sounds like a great operation to add to a model railroad cept i think it would interfere with continous running. Oh well, I better keep my grades reasonable. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
Flash, was the book you read about "doubling" in by any chance John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation? It explains saw-bys, too... Good book, but a lot of the more interesting ideas are mostly applicable to steam-era. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
Probably was. I don't read that exotic real railroad stuff...makes my head hurt. Besides, remember the three foot rule. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
I cannot believe that bad bit of track Surely it would be re-ballasted very quickly? Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
The track in such poor condition would indicate failure of the sub-formation reballasting would have no effect. The only solution is to recondition the total track which means excavating to a depth of approx 1 metre and relaying the sub formation and of course some good drainage. Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
No kidding? I woud think cleaning/laying new ballast would cure the problem. I guess the issue is deeper than I thought. Thanks, Colonel!! Copyright 2008 Jerry DeBene
