# Hurricane Damage in Texas



## MrFSS (Sep 10, 2010)

Forum Member *Had8ley* sent these pictures along from his son who is a railroad man in Texas where all the damage from the recent hurricane happened. He was in charge of getting all this repaired. I'm sure Jay will have some comments about this, too.


----------



## Eric S (Sep 10, 2010)

Do you happen to know where those pictures were taken? What rail line that is?


----------



## George Harris (Sep 10, 2010)

Actually, not too bad given the amount of rain. Looks like a few car loads of ballast should fix most of this. Did anyone else notice that there were steel ties in one of the tracks leading up to the road crossing? I believe the siding track from the look of the rails in the two tracks.

Could well have been worse in other areas, however, Can't take pictrues of what you do not get to.


----------



## Eric S (Sep 10, 2010)

George Harris said:


> Did anyone else notice that there were steel ties in one of the tracks leading up to the road crossing? I believe the siding track from the look of the rails in the two tracks.


I was wondering that too, trying to decide if those were steel (or plastic or something other than wood). Didn't quite look like concrete.


----------



## Bob Dylan (Sep 10, 2010)

These pictures were from Austin, the line is where the RedLine trains run (also freights @ night and on weekends.) CapMetro, our Keystone Cops Transportation Agency



had spent big money replacing wood ties with metal and concrete before the RedLine was in operation, most had to be replaced except on the sidings. And the poster that mentioned other damage, it was true, there was worse damage in the Area but you couldnt get to lots of it due to flooding,bridge washed out etc. and as a result the Texas Eagles for two days were turned in FTW with bustitution for we peons down this way!


----------



## WhoozOn1st (Sep 10, 2010)

George Harris said:


> Did anyone else notice that there were steel ties


Immediately! I too would like to know the particulars of line and location.


----------



## had8ley (Sep 10, 2010)

George Harris said:


> Actually, not too bad given the amount of rain. Looks like a few car loads of ballast should fix most of this. Did anyone else notice that there were steel ties in one of the tracks leading up to the road crossing? I believe the siding track from the look of the rails in the two tracks.
> 
> Could well have been worse in other areas, however, Can't take pictrues of what you do not get to.


The last pix is of an entire bridge wash out. I doubt an entire ballast train would do any good as there was 22 feet of water under the bridge. This is what the remnants of a "small" tropical depression can do!


----------



## had8ley (Sep 10, 2010)

WhoozOn1st said:


> George Harris said:
> 
> 
> > Did anyone else notice that there were steel ties
> ...


Red Line in Austin, TX a 32 mile line from downtown Austin to Leander; northwest of town. Five other RR's use this track, including a steam train that hasn't had an operational steam engine since 1999. Steel ties were the brain storm of Veolia (spellig?)~run out of town 01/10~same outfit responsible for the big wreck in CA where so many were killed while the engineer was texting.


----------



## Devil's Advocate (Sep 10, 2010)

Interesting photos, thanks for posting. I honestly didn't even know about the use of steel ties and had to consult the web to get sped up.


----------



## George Harris (Sep 10, 2010)

had8ley said:


> George Harris said:
> 
> 
> > Actually, not too bad given the amount of rain. Looks like a few car loads of ballast should fix most of this. Did anyone else notice that there were steel ties in one of the tracks leading up to the road crossing? I believe the siding track from the look of the rails in the two tracks.
> ...


O-o-o-o-o-o-K. I take it you mean the last picture that has no railroad, bridge, orr any other feature in it that appears to be manmade. Definitely a lot more than a few cars of ballast there.


----------

