Eastern Railroad Discussion > Sweating a rail joint on the A&A RR.

Here is a video I made of the Allentown & Auburn Maintenance of Way crew repairing a broken rail joint.
They had to make it hot. Known as "Sweating" the rails to repair the joint.
Jim

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"Modern" tools and effort repair a broken joint bar......

Nice video of something we don't get to see everyday. Thanks for sharing. When I first read the subject line I was thinking about sweating copper plumbing together. Glad you explained what you were talking about.

John

Why not wait another month or so until the heat of the sun helps?

Interesting video. Congratulations on VOTD.
John

Do you want to run a train over a broken rail?

CG Tower

Oldtyme Wrote:
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> Why not wait another month or so until the heat of
> the sun helps?

I've never seen that done before, very interesting!


Jay

Holy loud breathing into the camera Batman

Posted from Android

About how long did it take for the rail to heat up and stretch enough to close the gap?

cjvrr Wrote:
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> About how long did it take for the rail to heat up
> and stretch enough to close the gap?


about 15 min.

this is 19th century technology in a 21st century world ...

here's a post i replied to on another thread a few weeks ago ...

farmer Wrote:
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> Cellulose insulation and diesel fuel is what I
> like to use.
>
> Posted from iPhone

back in the day (mid 80s and prior) 25 ft lengths of reusable abestos rope use to be placed in 55 gallon drums filled with kerosene ... then when needed for a pull apart or welding situation the rope would be laid out along the base of the rail above the spike heads and rail anchors ... ya tried to keep it off the tie plates and workers would use special 5 gallon cans filled with kerosene ... the cans were equipped with special soaker nozzles where the kerosene would drip out and not flow out ... the workers would soak the rope after it was lit to keep the flame going ... if it was a wide gap in extremely cold weather several lengths of the soaked abestos rope would be placed on both sides of the rail for up to 100 ft in both directions from the gap ... it was very very messy ... because the rope was dripping wet from being soaked in kerosene special oversized rubber gloves were worn ... the rope was heavy from being soaked and cumbersome and it took several guys to handle in 25ft legnths ... kerosene would be all over your clothes from taking the soaked dripping rope out of the 55 gallon carrying it over to where it was needed on the rail and if ya didn't change your clothes they would dry but they'd still be very flammable ... most guys kept a seperate set of coveralls and boots just for doing this and changed when they were done and immediately washed them at a laundramat ASAP ...

we all know about abestos so in the mid 80s a new product like Farmer descibed is used these days ... it's called "SNAKE" ... it comes in presoaked 25 ft lengths of flammable substance wrapped with a flammable coating in a sealed 5 gallon can with a handle for easy carrying ... it looks like sausage links ... it's placed on the base of the rail above the rail anchors or clips ... the product is wet but not soaked ... it's somewhat messy but it's a controlled messy ... it's easier to transport and carry in the 5 gallon cans with handles than asbestos rope in 55 gallon drums of sloshing kerosene ... what's different about snake is

one: it's not a carcinogen or should i say it's not a known carcinogen ...

two: it's a one time use because it dissipates while it's burning ...

three: the flame is more controlled and very little kerosene is needed to keep the flame going because it's a presoaked flammable chemical substance ... the
product just burns itself out after about 20-25 minutes altho i've seen some guys still soak it with kerosene as it's burning ...

four: once it burns out it leaves a burnt residue on the rail that dries into ashes ... no carrying burnt still kerosene soaked asbestos back to the 55 gallon drums taking them back to wherever filling up the 55 gallon drums to keep the abestos rope soaked ...

the "SNAKE" is probably more expensive but i would say the expense is well worth it for safety ( no dealing with asbestos), logistics ( easy to transport), and efficiency ( the job can be done in 1/2 the time) ... no dealing with 55 gallons filled with kerosene and heavy rope ... especially the carcinegtic fumes that are produced from the burning kerosene soaked asbestos ...

i've been railroading since the mid 70s ... we never used the term and I never heard the term of "SWEATING" when it came to repairing a pull-a-part or repairing a broken joint in the cold of winter

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/15 11:27 by Out_Of_Service.

Congrats on VOTD!!!
Dan

Posted from iPhone

I have used the "Snake" on a few pull-aparts and keep some in my railroad inventory...especially during winter months. Its not a bad product. You can also be ghetto and use some natural fiber rope, place it in an old tie keg to soak until needed, and achieve the same results.

Video Rails (now owned by Pentrex) did an award winning video back in the early 1990's titled "The Battle for Donner Pass" that documented the annual winter battle that the SP fought on Donner Pass to keep the trains running. They filmed the efforts during an especially brutal winter. They show the use of the flangers, and then later the spreaders, and after things got even worse they called out the rotaries (which hadn't been needed in several years up to that point.) During the running of the spreaders, they accidentally turned over a rail in the midst of a very bad storm, derailing the spreader and a loco. The video focused then on the amazing efforts needed to re-rail the locomotive and spreader, all the while keeping traffic flowing on the parallel 2nd track and a storm raging around them. After they finally succeeded in doing that they had to reset and spike the rail back onto the ties. Once that was accomplished they brought out a kerosene soaked rope to heat the rail to relieve any stress that built up from the whole ordeal. They called it "Burning the Rope", much like what is being discussed in this thread. I don't think it was asbestos rope, but it was indeed kerosene soaked rope. After they were done heating the rail, they set the still burning rope off to the side of the right of way in the snow, allowing it to burn itself out there, while running trains by on the now cleared track..

It's a fascinating video that also shows, among other things, them using a shotgun in the show sheds and tunnels to bring down massive ice accumulations. Other segments showed the use of chain saws and detonating cord to explode the ice that accumulated between the rails in the snow sheds from the melted snow and dripping water. They shouted "Fire in the hole!" right before detonating the explosive cord. Fascinating stuff you'd never have known was part of operating a Class 1 railroad.

Pentrex still offers this video along with another video Pentrex themselves produced around the same time (1992-93) titled "Across Donner Summit" which covered SP's operations over Donner throughout the year. They now offer both shows on one DVD and call it "Donner Combo". It sells for around $30. Heck I paid $30 apiece back in the 1990's when I bought them seperately on VHS. These are both excellent videos and now twenty two years later and twenty years after the demise of the SP itself, these can be considered vintage videos. LOL

I'm starting to feel old now.

Enjoy the hobby,

Greg


PS - Thanks for posting this interesting video Jim! Congrats on the VOTD.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/15 19:26 by SWChief.

SWChief Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Video Rails (now owned by Pentrex) did an award
> winning video back in the early 1990's titled "The
> Battle for Donner Pass" that documented the annual
> winter battle that the SP fought on Donner Pass to
> keep the trains running. They filmed the efforts
> during an especially brutal winter. They show the
> use of the flangers, and then later the spreaders,
> and after things got even worse they called out
> the rotaries (which hadn't been needed in several
> years up to that point.) During the running of the
> spreaders, they accidentally turned over a rail in
> the midst of a very bad storm, derailing the
> spreader and a loco. The video focused then on
> the amazing efforts needed to re-rail the
> locomotive and spreader, all the while keeping
> traffic flowing on the parallel 2nd track and a
> storm raging around them. After they finally
> succeeded in doing that they had to reset and
> spike the rail back onto the ties. Once that was
> accomplished they brought out a kerosene soaked
> rope to heat the rail to relieve any stress that
> built up from the whole ordeal. They called it
> "Burning the Rope", much like what is being
> discussed in this thread. I don't think it was
> asbestos rope, but it was indeed kerosene soaked
> rope. After they were done heating the rail, they
> set the still burning rope off to the side of the
> right of way in the snow, allowing it to burn
> itself out there, while running trains by on the
> now cleared track..
>


I have the DVD of this video and I pulled it out and watched the segment where they rerailed the flanger and the locomotive and then repaired the rail. It features the leadership of Jim Mahon AKA "The Bear," the man in charge of keeping Donner Pass open in the brutal winters. This thread talks about him http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1571437,1573341#msg-1573341 and burning the rope. The DVD is well worth the price.