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State of the rail on Thurso/Wick Line.

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Highland37

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DSC05603.jpg

This is a picture from Invershin Station today. Most of the fasteners between the rail and the bracket on the sleeper are like this. Lack of maintenance?
 
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najaB

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One thing I have noticed - though not in this picture - is a fair set of the screws holding the chairs down don't seem well fastened.

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Trog

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There is supposed to be a 1/4" of the ferrule showing between the screw and the baseplate/chair if that is what you are thinking of. This is so the ferrule can act as a cushion between the screw and the cast iron so there is no point loading on the cast iron that would make it crack.
 

Highland37

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There is supposed to be a 1/4" of the ferrule showing between the screw and the baseplate/chair if that is what you are thinking of. This is so the ferrule can act as a cushion between the screw and the cast iron so there is no point loading on the cast iron that would make it crack.

No I am thinking of the springy type of thing between the rail and cast iron bracket attached to the sleeper.

This one was the worst and they were all in various alignments in terms of nearly being pushed out.
 

Ploughman

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That sleeper and chair seem to be in fair condition and typical of any similar item throughout the country.

Yes, the gap between the chair and the screw looks a little bit more than 1/4 inch but no problem with that.
Probably caused by the slight amount of wear of the chair into the sleeper surface.
Rubbish could be cleared away as another point.
 
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Bald Rick

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No I am thinking of the springy type of thing between the rail and cast iron bracket attached to the sleeper.

This one was the worst and they were all in various alignments in terms of nearly being pushed out.

They are supposed to be partly out of their chairs. On uni-directional lines this to to help identify rail creep. I suspect it it also so that they are always visible, ie if one falls out it is immediately obvious.
 

Ships

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The patrollers will hammer them back in if they start comming out. Wooden keys much better than those panlock ones
 

randyrippley

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No I am thinking of the springy type of thing between the rail and cast iron bracket attached to the sleeper.

This one was the worst and they were all in various alignments in terms of nearly being pushed out.

they're meant to be out.........historic use was to knock them in/out as required to adjust the tension acting on the rail. They used to be tapered, dunno if they still are
 

Trog

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Here is the real thing photo taken a few years ago in an ex GWR running line. As ploughman says the other three companies would have used a chair with three screws instead of the two bolts.
 

Trog

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It's not strictly correct, I think. Isn't the "Chairbolt" actually a kind of huge coach-SCREW? I've seen 'em screwing them in with a T-shaped long stem tool.
The drawing makes it look like a square-head nut on a protruding stud.

See photo above, the GWR as always did it differently, to the other three companies.
 

Ploughman

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It's not strictly correct, I think. Isn't the "Chairbolt" actually a kind of huge coach-SCREW? I've seen 'em screwing them in with a T-shaped long stem tool.
The drawing makes it look like a square-head nut on a protruding stud.

With the Chair bolt there is a nut on the protruding stud.
The disadvantage is if you need to change the bolt you either have to remove the sleeper from in the track or dig a hole under the sleeper to extract the bolt from below.
Normal practice, however, is as you say for a large Screw to be used. Much easier to maintain.

Bolts can also be found in some breeds of Concrete Sleeper with BH Chairs or FB Baseplates.
 

Parallel

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This might sound like a daft question (I don't know much about the track), but what constitutes a track in a poor state of repair? And also is there a line in passenger service that is an example of this?
 

Trog

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With the Chair bolt there is a nut on the protruding stud.
The disadvantage is if you need to change the bolt you either have to remove the sleeper from in the track or dig a hole under the sleeper to extract the bolt from below.
Normal practice, however, is as you say for a large Screw to be used. Much easier to maintain.

Bolts can also be found in some breeds of Concrete Sleeper with BH Chairs or FB Baseplates.

E1 sleepers as used with CS1 chairs and Pan9 baseplates.
 

Mordac

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This might sound like a daft question (I don't know much about the track), but what constitutes a track in a poor state of repair? And also is there a line in passenger service that is an example of this?

Morecambe to Heysham maybe?
 

Ships

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they're meant to be out.........historic use was to knock them in/out as required to adjust the tension acting on the rail. They used to be tapered, dunno if they still are

Still tapered
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Here is the real thing photo taken a few years ago in an ex GWR running line. As ploughman says the other three companies would have used a chair with three screws instead of the two bolts.

Well that's one way of stopping dipped joints!
 

KNotts

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Well that's one way of stopping dipped joints!

Known as a Semi Supported Joint. The introduction of tamping machines made them obsolete, as the different sleeper gaps at the joint made their use difficult.
 
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