Inrfastructure help/advice

[sharkfin]

Hi everyone just looking for some help and advice really. I am keen to be able to recognise on sight alot of the railway construction such as the types of sleeper, baseplate and fittings. At the minute i refer to sleepers as the material they are made from and not the code of each different type and i would like to be able to spot them, same with baseplates and fittings/clips. Also the components that exist like axle counters. I am only really interested in the uk railways and if someone could help that would be great. Thanks for any input guys and keep up the great work on the forum.

 

[Old Timer]

Hi everyone just looking for some help and advice really. I am keen to be able to recognise on sight alot of the railway construction such as the types of sleeper, baseplate and fittings. At the minute i refer to sleepers as the material they are made from and not the code of each different type and i would like to be able to spot them, same with baseplates and fittings/clips. Also the components that exist like axle counters. I am only really interested in the uk railways and if someone could help that would be great. Thanks for any input guys and keep up the great work on the forum.

PM me and I will send you a list and some drawings.

 

[sharkfin]

Hi thanks that would be great but for some reason it wont allow me to PM ill keep trying and thankyou again

 

[asylumxl]

Hi thanks that would be great but for some reason it wont allow me to PM ill keep trying and thankyou again

You have to have a certain number of posts on the forum before you can use the PM function.

While I'm mobile I can't see how many you have, but I assume this is the issue.

 

[ainsworth74]

You will need five posts to be able to send/receive PMs so perhaps another reply on this thread would be in order

 

[Telcontar]

PM me and I will send you a list and some drawings.

I can't get my head around UK OHLE types and terminology, and what little information there is seems to be contradictory. (There doesn't seem to be agreement on what "cantilever" means, for example.)

The only comprehensive site I've seen for UK railway infrastructure is Railway Signs and Signals of Great Britain, but nothing appears to exist like this for OHLE. I presume that likewise, nothing comparable exists either for the track terminology sought by the OP.

My issue with the sending of private messages is that no-one else reading this will benefit from the knowledge, which is why some places frown deeply on it.

I've never been sure whether having a dedicated UK railway encyclopaedia website (set up on Wikia for example) would be beneficial – the only real pro is that there would be no rule forcing citing of references, if people wanted to chip in with knowledge for which they have no hard and fast proof. However, that sounds dangerous, and likely to get clogged up with incorrect information and edit wars.

Should, for example, the whole of Railway Signs and Signals of Great Britain be moved to Wikipedia? I mean, it's got enough on there from TV shows and works of fiction If it can go into the finer points of Tolkien's elf languages, I'm sure a bunch of railway infrastructure can fit on there as well!

 

[Old Timer]

I can't get my head around UK OHLE types and terminology, and what little information there is seems to be contradictory. (There doesn't seem to be agreement on what "cantilever" means, for example.)!

I am not sure why that should be so.
The following PPTs may be of interest, although not strictly correct for UK practice.

http://kataner.com/OHL-components.pdf

ftp://158.132.178.85/cttse/Paul07/E533%20Wk9%20for%20printing/OHL01%20-%20Appreciation%20General.pdf

...My issue with the sending of private messages is that no-one else reading this will benefit from the knowledge, which is why some places frown deeply on it.!

The document is a pdf, and not one that can be uploaded onto here easily.

..I've never been sure whether having a dedicated UK railway encyclopaedia website (set up on Wikia for example) would be beneficial – the only real pro is that there would be no rule forcing citing of references, if people wanted to chip in with knowledge for which they have no hard and fast proof. However, that sounds dangerous, and likely to get clogged up with incorrect information and edit wars.

Should, for example, the whole of Railway Signs and Signals of Great Britain be moved to Wikipedia? I mean, it's got enough on there from TV shows and works of fiction If it can go into the finer points of Tolkien's elf languages, I'm sure a bunch of railway infrastructure can fit on there as well!

It really should be rather simple but the devil is in the detail, and nothing on the Railway is totally "standard" thus as with explanations on here, you will get the pedant wanting to point out some detailed point, and those who delight in picking fault with others, or who have personal grudges of one sort or another, will always appear with some specific point of detail (usually not relevant) in an attempt to demonstrate that the poster does not know his subject.

 

[Telcontar]

Those PDFs are more in line with how I've been thinking of the structures, as they suggest that “cantilever” structures are the ones that are only supported on one side (as opposed to portals and headspans), which for me seemed the most logical interpretation. However, I've got unofficial PDFs from the UK that give different terminology that also in its own way makes sense!

I don’t want to threadjack on the topic of OHLE (I was cheekily giving it as an example), but I just felt like we (be that the forum or the UK at large) lack a repository of knowledge that would contain information on both topics and more. The problem with adding content to, say, Wikipedia (or Citizendium if that now isn't completely dead is the need for someone to possess official documentation to cite. That's where a Wikia site would help (since then we could bypass the reference requirement), except that you feel the same way that I do in terms of disputes over “facts”.

Not being in the rail industry, and as someone who couldn’t convince an alcoholic to crack open a bottle, that’s about all I can say, so I’ll get down of my little soap box now :-P ttfn

 

[Old Timer]

Those PDFs are more in line with how I've been thinking of the structures, as they suggest that “cantilever” structures are the ones that are only supported on one side (as opposed to portals and headspans), which for me seemed the most logical interpretation. However, I've got unofficial PDFs from the UK that give different terminology that also in its own way makes sense!

There are in effect three basic types of Structure that use the term "Cantilever", as follows.
1) The conventional single track cantilever (STC) where the catenary system is supported from a lineside mast by means of a two-tube cantilever

2) There is a "Back to Back" cantilever which consists of a twin mast with an STC set on each side.

3) There is a Twin Track Cantilever (TTC) which is where I think there may be confusion. This is a Structure which spans two tracks. The catenary system on each is supported by an upright tube secured to the cross-piece

Have a look at this site and let me know whether or not it answers your questions ?

http://fatbaldbloke.bravehost.com/multitrack.html

Forgot to say there is a Twin Cantilever which is a duplicated STC on a twin mast, used where two catenary systems are passing through one another.

 

[Telcontar]

I need a thread re-railer ... sleepers, this thread is about sleepers!!! (My real point was about a knowledgebase/encyclopaedia ...)

(Yes I've studied that site in fact, unfortunately with my goldfish memory I've forgotten what conclusions I drew from it

 

[Old Timer]

I need a thread re-railer ... sleepers, this thread is about sleepers!!! (My real point was about a knowledgebase/encyclopaedia ...)

(Yes I've studied that site in fact, unfortunately with my goldfish memory I've forgotten what conclusions I drew from it

This is probably as good as you will get

http://www.mmrs.org.uk/technical/track.html

 

[Trog]

The thing about sleepers is that there are so many different types, there must be nearly 250 different British types and variations in concrete alone. Timber is simpler in that there are only a few wood types and usually all you need to know is hardwood or softwood. But there are a miriad of different baseplates and chairs, dating back nearly 200 years to put on them.

 

[sharkfin]

thanks for the help i can PM now i think

 

[Hydro]

I'm sure if you write nicely to Pandrol, they'll send you one of their small recognition catalogues - they're very useful.