Steam & Excursion > Another Bob Collins Erie steam image

April 1953
Mr.Collins did it again with a great shot of this very nice looking engine.
Spring Valley,NY.

Gary

 

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Wow, that is a great photo of seldom seen Erie Steam Engines in color.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Wow!
Bob

Good composition of a nice looking Pacific with trackwork in the foreground. Thanks for sharing.

Tom

Thanks for this.

Love it... on my childhood line no less.

I hadn't realized the "self-guarding" switch frogs were around in the steam days.
The self-guarding switch frog can be seen at the wheel treads, at the rail-head.

I remember in 1970s excursions clanging through them, but I thought they 
were a 'new thing'...   Sometimes steam loco tires are fairly 'wide'...

Guradrails are used at switch frogs for avoiding derailments.
A switch frog is a rail configuration that accommodates wheel flanges.... so when crossing
from one set of rails to the other the outer wheel on an axle must bring it's flange across the rail-head
of the track you're crossing.   That special-shaped steel casting has a flange-gap & sharp point where
the wheel crosses the outer rail.

It is possible that freight car wheels have flanges that are worn very thin.
The wheel tread is about 50% wider than a typical railhead.  It is possible that a worn
flange could follow the straight-rail ( at the frog) and not take the diverging rails, like the rest of 
the cars.  The you've got a derailment.😖

Guard rails are short sections of guide-rail opposite from the switch frog.  
The back side of wheels on an axle set do not get worn.  
The conventional guard rails act on the back-side of the opposite wheel,
from the wheel which is crossing the frog. The whole axle-set is moved 
slightly to avoid the point of a switch-frog.

The guard rail slightly moves the axle-set so that a possible thin-flange avoids
hitting the point of the switch frog.    Avoiding the point ensures that all the wheel sets
smoothly cross the gap at the frog.... and a possible, "thin wheel-flange" never takes the wrong route.

Conventional Guard rails are individually spiked and take maintenance inspections and up-keep.

Self-guarding switch frogs use a steel, raised guard 'fence' that bears on a wheel's outer rim-face....
that forces the whole axle-set & possibly worn wheel-flanges away from possibly striking the point
of the switch frog & taking the wrong route --- at the point of the switch-frog.  
Such an errant wheel-set, if not 'guarded, will pull the opposite wheel off of it's rail head ....
Bad Outcome..

All wheel flanges avoid hitting the point of a switch frog casting. Often the self-guarding feature is part 
of the switch-frog's casting --- all in one-piece....as in the photo, above.

​W.


 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/24 17:51 by wcamp1472.

Did Spring Valley have a wye or turntable to revolve steam locos for return trips to (?)  -  I can't remember where their terminal was prior to merger with D L & W.  Jersey City?
jb

And a Vandy to boot!

I seem to remember that many Russian Decapods were regauged by using wider tires to move the flanges inward, and they didn't like self guarding frogs.

boejoe Wrote:
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> Did Spring Valley have a wye or turntable to
> revolve steam locos for return trips to (?)  - 
> I can't remember where their terminal was prior to
> merger with D L & W.  Jersey City?
> jb

I don't  have my Erie-Lackawanna track map book handy, but I believe there was a wye at Nanuet in steam days,