I am a Professional Land Surveyor and work along railroads and with old right-of-way plans. I am searching for a book that explains the symbols and text on the right-of-way plans. It would be something put out by the railroad company.



rayriggs@hotmail.com

a good book on the subject that you might find on ebay is by Searles titled "Field Engineering".

leafing through mine i didn't see any tables of abbreviations for ya though...

some basics that i recall from my summer internship down at 30th street are:

PT point of tangency
POT point on tangent
PC point of curve
POC point on curve
TS tangent to spiral
SC spiral to curve
CS curve to spiral
ST spiral to tangent
PITO point of intection turn out (if i remember correctly)

that's all just track alinement stuff though.

RCW

http://brwrr.com
rcw7585@njit.edu

> PITO point of intection turn out (if i
> remember correctly)

intersection (if i remimber to speel curektly)

;)

rod

http://brwrr.com
rcw7585@njit.edu

For old time railroading you've got to remember that survey stationing on the curves is along 100' cords -- not along the arc of the curve. If you've got a map showing a curve, run out the trig, etc. and determine which system is being used.

Various fixtures, buildings, etc. will be identified by station and then now far right or left of the survey line. Also I've seen point of frog and end of switch points called out -- but I cann't remember the abbreviations.

Brian Norden

bnorden49@earthlink.net

> Also I've seen point of frog and end of
> switch points called out -- but I cann't
>remember the abbreviations.

oops forgot the switch basics:

PF - point of frog... or theoretical point of frog, as opposed to the "1/2 inch PF" which the guys in the field doing the trackwork go by (a line stamped on the point of the frog)... the difference between the half inch PF and the theo PF depends on the number of the frog.

and PS is the point of switch... i think standard switch layout drawing refer to a 1/8" PS... similar to the 1/2" PF.

RCW

http://brwrr.com
rcw7585@njit.edu

I have a book from the International Library of Technology titled 'Surveying Railroad Location Construction, and Structures Trackwork'.
It seems to tell all! The latest copyright in my copy is 1903.

steameng@att.net

If you have specific questions, feel free to post here or email directly. I'm sure we could help you figure it out.

Andy Nold, TxRPLS No.5658

> I have a book from the International Library
> of Technology titled 'Surveying Railroad
> Location Construction, and Structures
> Trackwork'.
> It seems to tell all! The latest copyright
> in my copy is 1903.


andy@tri-tech-surveying.com