Western Railroad Discussion > SJVRR Track replacement

They are replacing the old jointed rail with welded rail. Though it looks like they are bolting (?) the sections together and not welding it.

This is between Reedley (SP mp 229.9) and Dinuba (mp 235.0) on the old Exeter Branch.

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They may come back later and weld the sections together.

I've seen them come in and cut the bolt hole ends off, slide the rails together and weld. I've seen them do this to jointed rail also. This also eliminates the "dip" at the end of jointed rails.

Mike

A thermite weld requires a 1" gap between the rail ends and usually a temporary joint is made using 6-hole joint bars with no bolts in the center two holes. When the time comes to do the weld the bars are removed and a small "slice" is taken off the end of one rail to make the proper weld gap. So long as the holes are not drilled for the center two holes, no longitudinal adjustment is needed and the four holes for the joint bars just stay there.

Dick Samuels

The 115lbs welded rail will not go as far south as Dinuba. It will end, for now, at the north switch at Richard Best Transfer / Ivory station. Several miles of this "new" rail was laid on the north end of the Arvin Sub last month, supporting the traffic to Kern Oil. The rail replaced, in both cases, was 75lbs dating from as far back as 1898.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/13 18:06 by MarsLight.

MarsLight Wrote:
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> ...It will end, for now, at the north switch
> at Richard Best Transfer / Ivory station. Several
> miles of this "new" rail was laid on the north end
> of the Arvin Sub last month, supporting the
> traffic to Kern Oil. The rail replaced, in both
> cases, was 75lbs dating from as far back as 1898.

That makes sense, unit grain trains to Ivory and oil trains to Kern Oil.

mapboy

Mapboy... Yes, and heavy manifest volume to both as well.

Posted from iPhone

Is this project part of the new "high speed' train between LA and "Frisco"?