Eastern Railroad Discussion > Broken rail!

3-28-2021
This Sunday morning started with a broken rail in the 6th St crossing on the CE&D sub in Vincennes, IN. The hot I025 at 13,000'+ had to be walked over the break first before the crew can start to fix the break. Takes a long time for that train to pass at walking speed. 

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Break was fixed and vehicle traffic & trains could now pass on 6th St.

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That has happened twice here at Greencastle since last summers wreck.

Vernon Sargent
Greencastle, IN

When a rail breaks like that, does the owning railroad do any sort of testing to find he reason, or is it just fixed and they move on?

a737flyer Wrote:
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> When a rail breaks like that, does the owning
> railroad do any sort of testing to find he reason,
> or is it just fixed and they move on?
From what I have seen they just fix it and move on to the next dumpster fire.

Interesting from an engineering perspective to see how the rail failed -- right between two spikes, a tie length apart.  I suppose this demonstrates where stress hits on a rail.

If any testing is done, it would probably involve sending the failed section to a lab for metallurgical examination. A broken rail in a crossing would commonly mean a quick repair to open the road back up, followed by a more thorough job later at a planned time.

Question, how great was the temperature change in the past few days? Everycold weather break I ever was walked over was just a clean break. That one was n pieces. It could have broken and still made contact and. run over by the previious train and broke it into pieces.

Sam

CSX2605 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> a737flyer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > When a rail breaks like that, does the owning
> > railroad do any sort of testing to find he
> reason,
> > or is it just fixed and they move on?
> From what I have seen they just fix it and move on
> to the next dumpster fire.


Correct

Posted from iPhone

It appears they used the cut and slide method for repair.
Any idea what size rail this is and age?
Broken rails are common in road crossings where salt is used during the winter months.
A good Roadmaster will try to get new rail through any crossing that is questionable before winter
Breaks always seem to occur in the middle of the night on a Sunday morning
Trying to find employees to repair can be difficult.

Posted from iPhone

Way back in the 80’s my dad took my brother and I out to chase trains and there was a broken rail on the Blandon low grade which is the single track between Blandon and Temple, PA. We got to watch Mail 3 roll ever so slowly over the break, and then stuck around to watch the repair. I’ll never forget the heat coming off of the pot when it was lit to weld the rails!

Dan

Posted from iPhone

Trainhand Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Question, how great was the temperature change in
> the past few days? Everycold weather break I ever
> was walked over was just a clean break. That one
> was n pieces. It could have broken and still made
> contact and. run over by the previious train and
> broke it into pieces.
>
> Sam
This was back in '21 but I think the temperature had been fairly steady over those last few days. We had taters in the ground so I know it didn't get too cold. ;)  

farmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It appears they used the cut and slide method for
> repair.
> Any idea what size rail this is and age?
> Broken rails are common in road crossings where
> salt is used during the winter months.
> A good Roadmaster will try to get new rail through
> any crossing that is questionable before winter
> Breaks always seem to occur in the middle of the
> night on a Sunday morning
> Trying to find employees to repair can be
> difficult.
136 lbs laid down in 1993. I've had three breaks right here near the house over the last 15 years. Same rail line. One broke as the train passed over at track speed and sounded like a shotgun going off every time a wheel ran over it. Of course a track light is left on and eventually find the cause.
This one in the video was back in 2-20-2012

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farmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It appears they used the cut and slide method for
> repair.
> 
Here is the fix on the one that broke while the train was passing and sounded like a shotgun as the cars passed over. It was fixed at night and this was filmed the next evening.
First train is CSX Q124 and second train was G130. 
This was near the house. 10-21-2011



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/12/26 03:32 by CSX2605.

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There are ways to figure out how/why things fail the way they do, on the atomic level even.

https://neutrons.ornl.gov/content/all-aboard-neutron-train-mapping-residual-stresses-more-robust-rails

Dan

Posted from Android

CSX2605 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> farmer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > It appears they used the cut and slide method
> for
> > repair.
> > Any idea what size rail this is and age?
> > Broken rails are common in road crossings where
> > salt is used during the winter months.
> > A good Roadmaster will try to get new rail
> through
> > any crossing that is questionable before winter
> > Breaks always seem to occur in the middle of
> the
> > night on a Sunday morning
> > Trying to find employees to repair can be
> > difficult.
> 136 lbs laid down in 1993. I've had three breaks
> right here near the house over the last 15 years.
> Same rail line. One broke as the train passed over
> at track speed and sounded like a shotgun going
> off every time a wheel ran over it. Of course a
> track light is left on and eventually find the
> cause.
> This one in the video was back in 2-20-2012


I’m very surprised 136 pound rail from 1993 is causing that much of an issue.
I know that line carries a lot of traffic. Is regular surfacing done?
The former B&O west of Deshler to Chicago had a lot 122 pound rail laid in the late sixties to late seventies. Still in service in the early 2000 that had some broken rails. Nothing serious although.
One thing that helped was the sperry truck was ran very often. Finding internal defects before they became broken rails.
Any idea how often the line is tested by Sperry?
If they are using the high speed test car. That would explain the broken rails.
High speed car keeps the FRA happy. Doesn’t do the quality of job a slow speed truck does .

Posted from iPhone

farmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I’m very surprised 136 pound rail from 1993 is
> causing that much of an issue.
> I know that line carries a lot of traffic. Is
> regular surfacing done?
> 
> Any idea how often the line is tested by Sperry?
> If they are using the high speed test car. That
> would explain the broken rails.
> High speed car keeps the FRA happy. Doesn’t do
> the quality of job a slow speed truck does .
>
About every 5-6 years new ties are installed with ballast dropped and surfacing done here by the farm. Other than that they will tamp & regulate trouble spots. I can't say how often the Sperry truck runs but they do use the slow speed Sperry for rail inspection and usually have a place or two for M of W to fix.
Here are photos of a Sperry find here by the house for M of W to fix. 4-29-2022
 

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Must be getting a lot of flat wheel cars. Otherwise the maintenance program seems good.

Posted from iPhone