Western Railroad Discussion > Cats at Cons Corner

CCS Construction, in conjunction with Union Pacific, came to Tyler Tex. Friday night and Saturday to replace two switches
and a double diamond in front of the historic Cotton Belt depot.  The diamonds have taken an absolute beating over the years,
and mainline trains had to run through a spring switch, both of which were constant maintenance issues.

The first photos here afre removing and replacing the spring switch.  A new switch was fabricated a couple weeks previous
on land adjacent to the existing switch.

Here is the location - most of the track shown here was replaced in the 24 hours starting 8:00 pm Oct 4.

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.3552734,-95.2992904,168m/data=!3m1!1e3



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/19 15:15 by WrongWayMurphy.

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Here is the new switch being set in place, west of the diamonds.

Over by Cons Corner, the double diamond was removed (second photo)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/19 15:21 by WrongWayMurphy.

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The new diamond is the jump frog type. 

The single track (MOP) branch line runs up and over the double track (Cotton Belt) main line.

Third photo looking down the MOP, known locally as the Whitehouse branch

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Amazing what modern machinery can do, great photos of an interesting operation.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

New diamond being installed.

First train on the mainline, Saturday afternoon. Cars glide through the diamond, rather than pound it.

Track machines over the jump frog on the Whitehouse branch.

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The excavator, the swiss army knife of construction equipment!

Whew, tamping diamonds must be fun.

Excellent photos, all WWM.  I miss our buddy Con ....

Regards,
Burlington John
 

burlingtonjohn Wrote:
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> Excellent photos, all WWM.  I miss our buddy Con

It just hasn't been quite the same without Con ....

 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

Pretty sad.  So many CCS guys and so few UP MOW employees.

Great photo essay!

BB

thanks . .  one of the most interesting posts on TO in a while . .  real professionals at work

Craig
mcmrailvideos.com
 

yes CAT Tractors working with true professionals

And a "jump frog" means one side has to ride up on the flanges??

Yep.

Thanks for the interesting post...

pt199 Wrote:
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> And a "jump frog" means one side has to ride up on the flanges??

OWLS ... one way, low speed. Good for the higher speed traffic on the main line(s). Not so good for the cross traffic.

I'm betting Con would be proud of your excellent coverage! Kudos...

Lance/199

justalurker66 Wrote:
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> pt199 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
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> > And a "jump frog" means one side has to ride up
> on the flanges??
>
> OWLS ... one way, low speed. Good for the higher
> speed traffic on the main line(s). Not so good for
> the cross traffic.

From watching the traffic at the OWLS crossing that is at Colton, CA the low speed line isn't affected that much other then the 10 mph speed over the crossing.
Probably a better ride then what they had on the old crossings which seemed to have a welder permamently assigned.

Great post, thanks for sharing.
Some of the most important work is the least photogenic: digging out old muddy ballast and replacing it with new rock, and likely installing underdrain pipes.