So in one page we go from WW&F's new tamper, to Australian agriculture railroads to SEPTA route discussions. Is this a record for RyPN thread creep? Asking for a friend.

Howard P.

Getting back to the WW&F tamper. I remember at one time, the WW&F group prided themselves on building track the "old fashioned" way all by hand. In recent years, they have been doing more and more with equipment such as the gantry crane they built to lay rail, pneumatic tools, etc. I'm all for letting machines do as much of the labor as possible, but I am curious as to what drove the change of heart. I've always assumed it was simply a matter of as the railroad grew, they realized that maintaining the track they had and expanding the track was going to be too much for a volunteer group to do manually. No criticism implied, just curious.

Aging membership may have a lot to do with it.

Thanks for the inside story on the Darby line. I figured someone here knew a lot more about it. I never saw any other part of that line except the grade crossing as a crew member.

That's basically it; more track=more maintenance. We are fortunate that as our original crew has aged, we have been able to raise new members up through the ranks. This is active and intentional - with one of our most recent and engaged volunteers being in the 4th grade.

The pre-preservation WW&F had gravel/dirt/cinder ballast which is much easier to tamp by hand. Since the post-preservation WW&F uses stone ballast, we quickly grew tired of tamping by hand. This is not unlike the C&TS, for example, where the value of using a more modern track base (and treated railroad ties) far outweighs the "historic" aspect of using untreated hand-hewn ties on cinder and gravel.

The gantry crane was inspired by a film showing a similar tracklaying device being used in the late 1900s. Thus it is still in-character. It is also far safer to use the crane than to lift and position rails by hand, especially in the tight confines of the "Mountain Extension." It is also a bit cumbersome and ties up two flatcars whenever it is installed, so we tend to use it sparingly, and have a small re-gauged Fairmont crane for day-to-day lifting needs.

We still do a lot of stuff by hand (including occasional hand tamping.) We have resisted calls from outsiders to get a pneumatic spiker; as long as we have crew willing to spike by hand, we'll keep doing it that way. Everyone agrees a ballast hopper would be a welcome addition - but constructing one keeps getting "bumped" by more important projects (such as our latest: reconstructing a former B&SR Livestock car into a crew/tool car for trackwork.)

Rebuilding rail on an abandoned right-of-way is one-time, exciting and the results are immediately noticed. Maintaining a rail line is never-ending, boring and often the results aren't that noticeable.

Please don't tell us that he was depicted (with a few changes to protect the guilty) on CBS's "Young Sheldon" last Thursday..........

Heck, I've seen photos of them loading ballast onto flatcars with a Volvo! :-)

Now to be fair, much of our collection of antique/antiquated tractors, loaders, trucks, forklifts, dozers, backhoes, and other non-rail equipment has been down for most of 2020. (And not repaired immediately in order to conserve cash.) The Volvo loader belongs to one of our nearby supporters.

And I am pleased to say, that nice new Volvo loader is a thing of beauty. Especially for someone used to using "vintage" construction equipment that's not only tired, but loose.... accurate work was NO problem for that machine. Comfy, too.

Howard P.

Then not more than 1/2 page through the same thread...



Um. RYPN at it's best...

Ha! Guilty as charged. But don't forget "Young Sheldon" is in it too.

BUT we've come full circle: the Volvo loader was loading the ballast the WW&F tamper was going to tamp.

Phil Mulligan

Ok, ya got me! And there will soon be TWO 24" gage tampers in Maine!

Howard P.

Different Volvo than the one your thinking of.

This is not thread creep - it is more like a brisk walk back to the Darby Crossing.

This is an enlargement up of a picture of the dual-gage crossing at Darby taken about four years ago. The B&O runs top to bottom with Philadelphia behind the photographer.

It is not a properly built crossing at all but looks like a jury rig made out of bits of left over rail (That's both the lawyer and the civil engineer speaking). Despite the guard rails there is inadequate flange support for the SEPTA cars and the flanges were striking the CSX running rails instead of just rolling over them. If you look closely the grooves in the running rails from the streetcar wheels are between the size of a quarter and a half-dollar.

Meghan