I was wondering how many museums own their own equipment for track renewal and maintenance. Are they many(if any) museums that still replace ties by hand without machinery? The museum I belong to is now in charge of upkeep on all 6 miles of track and was wondering what other schedule(rituals) other museums have in place. Also what kind of equipment is used. it seems that for our museum some small spike puller and driver like the one from Magnum USA would be ideal. any help is appreciated.

Michigan transit Museum
Sutterd@hotmail.com

The Museum of Transportation in St. Louis has nearly the same amount of track, all in a yard configuration with no running "main line." We've been fortunate enough over the years that we have a tamper, tie handling crane, and spiker along with two locomotive cranes (18 & 25 ton capacity) for this work. We do it every way imaginable, depending on the situation. Replacing a tie under a piece of equipment is a manual job. When the ground is clear we use every piece of power equipment we can, including a bobcat, forklift mounted on a tractor, and air compressors to operate spike driving air hammers. Some manual work is always involved and the spiker and tie handling crane are not well suited to our small jobs, being designed for work out on the main line. We have included track work on the restoration page of our web site as it is the absolute essential for a railroad museum, but gets very little attention or credit. Use the link. Go to "What's Happening" on the left side navigation bar, and then to the restoration projects page link on top.

Museum of Transportation
rdgoldfede@aol.com

On the S.V.Ry, We maintain five miles of Mainline and another mile of yard trackage with hand tools.
You need to have a dedicated tie replacement program and stay at it.
We do all lining and lifting by hand,as well as spiking.
C'mon over, We'll be happy to "Show" you how it's done...Jerry

lmcx@eoni.com

Changing the occasional tie once and a while is most cheaply accomplished manually. With 6 miles of track, I would venture to guess that your needs are more frequent and intensive and, unless you make the mistake of considering volunteer labor as having no cost, you can't afford to do without mechanical advantages.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

> I was wondering how many museums own their
> own equipment for track renewal and
> maintenance. Are they many(if any) museums
> that still replace ties by hand without
> machinery? The museum I belong to is now in
> charge of upkeep on all 6 miles of track and
> was wondering what other schedule(rituals)
> other museums have in place. Also what kind
> of equipment is used. it seems that for our
> museum some small spike puller and driver
> like the one from Magnum USA would be ideal.
> any help is appreciated.
Most of the smaller museums and most of the smaller gauges still do track work the old fashion way, by hand. As for us, we have a ritual we call "back-ache Wednesday" where on Wednesday the whole shop crew changes ties for one day. Yes, we are beat at the end of the day but the work gets done.
Many railfans think track work, once done, never has to be done again. This is false. Track is a living, breathing organism that can creep out of control when you are not looking

ironbartom@aol.com

> C'mon over, We'll be happy to
> "Show" you how it's done...Jerry

Get your revenue-thinking-cap on!!!

That's "C'mon over, We'll be happy to enroll you in our course; 'Track Maintenance - 101'. All levels of track maintenance are covered. You get hands-on training in replaceing ties on OUR track. Partial tuition credit can be met by bringing new ties."

> Changing the occasional tie once and a while
> is most cheaply accomplished manually. With
> 6 miles of track, I would venture to guess
> that your needs are more frequent and
> intensive and, unless you make the mistake
> of considering volunteer labor as having no
> cost, you can't afford to do without
> mechanical advantages.

> Dave

Having done trackwork as a volunteer and as part of my livelihood, I would say it is the most unappreciated part of the railway experience. In realistic terms, a railway must plan to replace 100 ties annually per mile to keep up with the rate of decay, particularly if you are maintaining a railway which was no great shakes to start with. The more miles of track, the more ties must be inserted. My rule of thumb, gained over 30 years of messing with track, is that it takes one man-hour to replace a tie if you have everything under control. Doing it by hand will take a bit longer, doing it with machinery a bit less. You have to balance the first cost and upkeep of machinery with the number of ties you want to put in. For every hour your tie inserter operates, plan on at least another hour of maintenance on it. If your track gang can concentrate for four hours, say, without having to clear up for a train, you can make some pretty good progress. Depending on your finances, it might be worthwhile to budget for a professional track contractor to come in and put in ties on a weekday -- they will often get 200 a day under the rail.
I am a proponent of short "demonstration railways" in most museums, simply because it is so difficult to recruit and keep people to work on track since it is such hard, dirty, thankless work. I'd much rather ride on a train over two miles of nice smooth track at 25mph than 10 miles of rough, weedgrown track at 10mph.


gbry@innernet.net

> Having done trackwork as a volunteer and as
> part of my livelihood, I would say it is the
> most unappreciated part of the railway
> experience. In realistic terms, a railway
> must plan to replace 100 ties annually per
> mile to keep up with the rate of decay,
> particularly if you are maintaining a
> railway which was no great shakes to start
> with. The more miles of track, the more ties
> must be inserted. My rule of thumb, gained
> over 30 years of messing with track, is that
> it takes one man-hour to replace a tie if
> you have everything under control. Doing it
> by hand will take a bit longer, doing it
> with machinery a bit less. You have to
> balance the first cost and upkeep of
> machinery with the number of ties you want
> to put in. For every hour your tie inserter
> operates, plan on at least another hour of
> maintenance on it. If your track gang can
> concentrate for four hours, say, without
> having to clear up for a train, you can make
> some pretty good progress. Depending on your
> finances, it might be worthwhile to budget
> for a professional track contractor to come
> in and put in ties on a weekday -- they will
> often get 200 a day under the rail.
> I am a proponent of short
> "demonstration railways" in most
> museums, simply because it is so difficult
> to recruit and keep people to work on track
> since it is such hard, dirty, thankless
> work. I'd much rather ride on a train over
> two miles of nice smooth track at 25mph than
> 10 miles of rough, weedgrown track at 10mph.

Wayne, I know you spend some time around Steamtown, and might be able to answer a question that pops into my head: who maintains Steamtown's ROW? My understanding is the mainline is ownded by the couty rail authority and D-L is the licensed operator. Does D-L maintain the track and Steamtown's contribution come in the form of its general operating fee, or what? Does steamtown pay for use of the line annually, or on a per-train basis?


eledbetter@rypn.org

> Get your revenue-thinking-cap on!!!

> That's "C'mon over, We'll be happy to
> enroll you in our course; 'Track Maintenance
> - 101'. All levels of track maintenance are
> covered. You get hands-on training in
> replaceing ties on OUR track. Partial
> tuition credit can be met by bringing new
> ties."

Charles:

At HVRM, we don't call it tie replacement. Instead its the Hoosier Valley SPA. Come lose those unwanted pounds! Build up those muscles! And our rates are cheap too (read FREE!!) Unfortunately, we've failed to attract anyone to the "SPA". Perhaps more advertising! Yeah, that's it! Now...who's gonna pay for that first ad?

midlandblb@cs.com