Post by bigc691 on May 7, 2013 15:00:06 GMT -5
to whom it may concern;
several years ago, back in 1985-86, I was envolved in a track laying project here in Memphis tn. the rail was extruded in 20 foot lengths and was made up off site and delivered to the track site all made up. one rail was secured tightly to the ties while the other was loosly screwed down. we used washer head number 10 wood screws with .3125hex head. we picked a point and joined the first two sections together and went from there. as we progressed, the ends didn't stay even, so we had to adjust ties and railends so the would meet. anyhoo, the next batch of panels that we had made up, we just put down one rail to the ties, which resembled an huge flimsly comb. we laid this on the ground and jiggled it into place. put the other rail down and proceeded to screw every fourth tie to the rail. we were running up and down this track on flat cars with a gas generator and a bucket of screws on board and working from both ends, we laid well over a thousand feet of track that day. we would come back and ballast and fine tune the track at a later date. we started in late august and finished up the first loop in middle October
sadly to say, we don't use the track any more. several people who are connected with it have either died off or moved away, but the track is still their.
if I had to do it again, I would use the twenty foot lengths. this person had it made specially for him. I don't know if the die is still around. the firm that made up the rail was located somewhere in texas.
big c
several years ago, back in 1985-86, I was envolved in a track laying project here in Memphis tn. the rail was extruded in 20 foot lengths and was made up off site and delivered to the track site all made up. one rail was secured tightly to the ties while the other was loosly screwed down. we used washer head number 10 wood screws with .3125hex head. we picked a point and joined the first two sections together and went from there. as we progressed, the ends didn't stay even, so we had to adjust ties and railends so the would meet. anyhoo, the next batch of panels that we had made up, we just put down one rail to the ties, which resembled an huge flimsly comb. we laid this on the ground and jiggled it into place. put the other rail down and proceeded to screw every fourth tie to the rail. we were running up and down this track on flat cars with a gas generator and a bucket of screws on board and working from both ends, we laid well over a thousand feet of track that day. we would come back and ballast and fine tune the track at a later date. we started in late august and finished up the first loop in middle October
sadly to say, we don't use the track any more. several people who are connected with it have either died off or moved away, but the track is still their.
if I had to do it again, I would use the twenty foot lengths. this person had it made specially for him. I don't know if the die is still around. the firm that made up the rail was located somewhere in texas.
big c