# Work starts on Denton commuter train



## stntylr (Jul 1, 2009)

Construction has just started on a commuter train from running from Denton County into Dallas.

Denton County commuter train


----------



## Green Maned Lion (Jul 1, 2009)

Sounds like this A-train doesn't go to Harlem. Can we get a ouigi board and still resurrect Ella for the ribbon cutting ceremony?

_Wellll, YOU must take the A-train, you'll find it the quickest way to get to DALLLAASS!_

Seriously, though- something I just thought of, that has little to do with this specific line. Which is: how the heck do you actually transport 1600-foot long lengths of rail? Indeed, how the heck do you transport 1600 feet long anythings over land?


----------



## George Harris (Jul 1, 2009)

Green Maned Lion said:


> Seriously, though- something I just thought of, that has little to do with this specific line. Which is: how the heck do you actually transport 1600-foot long lengths of rail? Indeed, how the heck do you transport 1600 feet long anythings over land?


Ity is called a rail train, or CWR train. (CWR = continuously welded rail) You need to get out of town more often. Been done this way for about 50 years now.

I though I could find a couple good pictures, but not so easy. After all, how do you take a picture of something a quarter mile long?

This is about as good as I could find in a fairly short search:

http://www.wsorrailroad.com/projects/projects03.html

The top picture is a fairly good picture of a train, probably taken from an overpass

The secon picture from the top is picture of the anchor car in the middle of the train. The rail is anchored only at this car. The rest of the cars support the rail on rollers so the train can go around curves.

The third picture shows the start of an unloading operation. Not a very good view. The point here is that, in relay jobs, the end of the rail is grabbed and held and the train pulled out from under it.

Look at the second picture from the top at this site for another view of a rail train, this time on a curve:

http://www.robl.w1.com/pix-5/rr-generic.htm

here is a picture of an end car of a welded rail train:

http://www.anyrr.com/equipment/cwr%20train...20additions.pdf

here is a drawing from one of the suppliers of the rail trains:

http://www.hollandco.com/equipment/images/...ail%20Train.pdf

This site has a few pictures of parts of a near empty rail train and some explanation of how the stuff is handled

http://www.mnnr.org/railroads/welded-rail/


----------



## Green Maned Lion (Jul 1, 2009)

*shrugs* I don't know everything, or claim to. I just usually keep my mouth shut when I don't know enough to open it- or rather, don't think I know enough to open it. I do occasionally open it thinking I know what I'm talking about mistakenly.

Thanks for the info, George. So those rails can actually bend that easily?


----------



## George Harris (Jul 2, 2009)

Green Maned Lion said:


> *shrugs* I don't know everything, or claim to. I just usually keep my mouth shut when I don't know enough to open it- or rather, don't think I know enough to open it. I do occasionally open it thinking I know what I'm talking about mistakenly.
> Thanks for the info, George. So those rails can actually bend that easily?


The only dumb question is the one that should have been asked but was not.

A short piece of rail is quite stiff, but give it much length and it will bend quite easily.

At one point in the early days of using continuously welded rail several railroads had quite strict limits on using welded rail on small radius curves, but most of those rules have long since gone away. When we were young and dumb about a lot of these rules (they were still there at the time, and only one person in the group involved had seen 30) we insisted that the yards in Washington Metro be build with welded rail. The contractor had a single level rail train, and had very little problem running it through the 300 feet radius curves we had in the yards, even less in a few places. To put a perspective on this, the nervous Nellies usually did not want CWR on anything under about 1000 feet radius. Also, most main line railroad curves seldom get under around 500 feet radius, even in mountainous areas. It is now standard on most systems and for all but the smallest turnouts to have the switch rail welded to the rail between switch and frog, so when the switch is thrown you really do "bend the iron".


----------



## Green Maned Lion (Jul 2, 2009)

George Harris said:


> It is now standard on most systems and for all but the smallest turnouts to have the switch rail welded to the rail between switch and frog, so when the switch is thrown you really do "bend the iron".


Doesn't that eventually weaken the metal, though?


----------



## GG-1 (Jul 3, 2009)

Green Maned Lion said:


> George Harris said:
> 
> 
> > It is now standard on most systems and for all but the smallest turnouts to have the switch rail welded to the rail between switch and frog, so when the switch is thrown you really do "bend the iron".
> ...


Considering its size and the amount of bending, yes, over a very long time.

Aloha


----------



## VentureForth (Jul 13, 2009)

I was going to ask the same question that GML beat me to (by 12 days). Facinating. I've never seen a CWR train. I would LOVE to run into one sometime!


----------



## stntylr (Jul 13, 2009)

Here is a video of a BN&SF train carrying rails for either the Trinity Railway Express or the DART LRT.


----------



## George Harris (Jul 13, 2009)

GG-1 said:


> Green Maned Lion said:
> 
> 
> > George Harris said:
> ...


Actually no, because you do not go beyond or even near the yield point of the steel, so there are not fatigue issues. Even if there were on the smallest turnouts, the wheel wear on the point would normally result in condemnation of the point first.


----------

