WW&F Track Laying Weekend

Ted Miles · **Posted:** Tue Oct 14, 2008 12:14 pm

Folks,

Does anybody have a report on the activity at the
WW&F Museum this past weekend?

Apparantly the weather was not very good for outdoor activity. I hope that they got some new rails down anyway!

Ted Miles

elecuyer · **Posted:** Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:41 pm

While I wasn't there...

I can report that over 1000' of track was laid - right to the end of the graded line and just short of the switch for the "Top of the Mountain" siding (used back in the day for doubling trains coming up the other side of the hill.)

Weather was reported to be spectacular.

They also began framing the shop extension.

Pictures, discussion, and details at:
http://forum.wwfry.org/index.php?topic=83.0

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

Congrats to the volunteers and their work on getting 1,000' of new track laid last weekend on the WW&F. I have a question though. I noticed that the rail is apparently not "staggered". That is, the joints on each parallel rail are opposite one another. Is this the way the various Maine 2-footers originally did things? Or just the way the new WW&F does it? Just curious.

Les

elecuyer · **Posted:** Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:10 pm

It is my understanding that keeping the joints together helps prevent "oscillating" - which is the term George Mansfield (promoter of 2' gauge railroading) used to describe the fact that the cars (and engines) tend to rock back and forth a bit more than their standard gauge counterparts.

-Ed Lecuyer

John E. McNamara · **Joined:** Sun Aug 29, 2004 9:21 pm **Posts:** 105

To expand just a little on what Ed said, I too was surprised to find aligned joints when I first joined the WW&F. However, if you compare the width of standard gauge cars and their rail gauge with the width of two-foot gauge cars and their rail gauge, the overhang of the cars is very similar, roughly 2.5 feet on each side, but the two-foot gauge track is much narrower. Thus, "oscillation" is indeed a concern. It is safe (although a bit uncomfortable) to have a car bang up and down slightly when going over the joints, but downright unsafe to have it tip from side to side when going over the joints, especially if the joints are low.

Raymond Dewley · **Joined:** Thu Feb 14, 2008 7:57 am **Posts:** 32

From what I have read, there is a critical speed - around 13 MPH where the rhythem of the rocking cars is especially dangerous as the low point of each oscillation is at the joint. Therefore, is doesn't take very long before the angle of the lean exceeds the center of gravity and ability to correct. As already stated, this is an even bigger deal with narrow gauge equipment. Hats off to the WW&F museum for paying attention to details such as this!!!