Has anyone had (or planning to have) a new turntable ring rail made? This seems a bit too precise for a common hydraulic rail bender, more like a job for a steel mill. Any thoughts or ideas?

ryarger@rypn.org

McKinney Avenue Transit Authority is scheduled to have its Cityplace Station turntable built later this year. The designs show a ring rail, but I think it's being left up to the contractor to provide the rail.

Doesn't one of the museums have a bender specifically for ring rails?

Andy Nold

> Has anyone had (or planning to have) a new
> turntable ring rail made? This seems a bit
> too precise for a common hydraulic rail
> bender, more like a job for a steel mill.
> Any thoughts or ideas?


tnold@northtexastransport.org

Bob,
The turntable at Amtrak's Redondo Junction just had the Ring replaced. I watched the installation but do not know who rolled the rail to the correct degree of curvature.

> Bob,
> The turntable at Amtrak's Redondo Junction
> just had the Ring replaced. I watched the
> installation but do not know who rolled the
> rail to the correct degree of curvature.

Um, does this raise the thread that maybe we should look at preserving THE WHOLE turntable, including the ring, when possible? I know an awful lot of preserved tables without their rings. If we don't know how or who does it, thats not a good sign. Otherwise, you have a bunch of REALLY well built footbridges....

TJG


Port Huron Museum
tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

One way that has worked well with light rail (25 or 30 lb, I think) is to start with rail already bent to a fairly sharp curve. This formed an almost complete circle when bolted together, although of a larger diameter than needed. A length of chain was run around the outside and constantly drawn tighter until the circle was at the correct diameter, then the rail cut at the proper length and the final joint bars inserted. the use of the chain kept the tension even around the entire circle.

This has worked fine for us for over 12 years now, we don't have any tight spots. We have more trouble with frost moving the entire ring or pit wall. We have had to re-level the pit rail only once.

For photos, see
http://home.alltel.net/bandw/

click on "history", then "1990s" and check out 1991.

I don't know if this has any applicability to use with larger size-rails.

Nick



B&W RR
nickDELETETHISd@icubed.com

Direct link the the photo of B&W's turntable ring being formed.

http://home.alltel.net/gbauer/1991_1.jpg

full site:

http://home.alltel.net/bandw

nickDELTEETHSISd@icubed.com

For anything but the smallest, lightest pit rail, or someone with a lot of acetylene handy, this job can be handled by a good regional steel fabricator. Even heavy rail can be bent and cut to the exact diameter needed on a fabricator's roller machine without skew or twist. Pit rail is bent on the rail section's weak axis (called "the easy way").

Do a general internet search for "steel fabricators" websites and you'll get a good idea of how it's done. Or start at the American Institute of Steel Construction website (www.aisc.org).

The Orande Empire railway Museum built a replica Southern Pacific narrow gauge turntable from scratch a few years ago.

if I recall, the overhauled a Muni Railway rail bending rig of some sort to do the work.

Perhaps John Smatlak from there would like to comment.

One or the other Long Island Railroad preservation groups just bought a turntable from near Buffalo,
they must be busy learning about turntables.

Ted Miles


ted_miles@nps.gov

> For anything but the smallest, lightest pit
> rail, or someone with a lot of acetylene
> handy, this job can be handled by a good
> regional steel fabricator. Even heavy rail
> can be bent and cut to the exact diameter
> needed on a fabricator's roller machine
> without skew or twist. Pit rail is bent on
> the rail section's weak axis (called
> "the easy way").

> Do a general internet search for "steel
> fabricators" websites and you'll get a
> good idea of how it's done. Or start at the
> American Institute of Steel Construction
> website (www.aisc.org).

Undoubtedly true, but sounds expensive to me. Some years ago, I was involved with bending 540 degrees of curvature (six rails, ninety degrees of curve each) for the barn leads at IRM, and we did it in a reasonable amount of time using nothing but a good ol' BUDA portable bender. Curve radii ranged from 45' to 75', IIRC. We simply marked off the rail in increments equal to the length of the arm of the bender, calculated the amount of offset, and jacked away.

A few years later, when I was working for the Chicago Transit Authority, the "Frog Shop" was right next door to the mill shop I worked in. These were the people who fabricated curved guard rails for the elevated, and these were bent on the vertical axis of the rail (the hard way). These weren't rolled; they were "bumped" using a mechanical bulldozer and the methodology I just described. Final tweaking was done to plywood curve gauges that our shop cut to engineering dept. drawings.

Here is what I'd do. Lay out the points to set the bender, calculate the offset, and work along a whole length of rail. Initially shoot for a curve a little wider than needed. Calculate the mid-ordinate of a resonable length chord (say 10' or 15') and use it to check the work, in several different places on the rail. If not curved enough because of spring-back, jack a bit more at all the points, making note of the jack displacement. When the first rail is close to correct, bend all the rest to the same displacement.

I'd shoot for a little less bend than is needed. simply because you can jack against the pit walls to close the gap, also to work out any kinks in the curve. Widening a too tight curve sounds like a lot more work.

Dennis (been goin' in circles for years anyway...) Storzek

dstorzek@elnet.com

Hi All
Where can I get specifications on transfer tables or a web site that shows one?
Andrew Martin
TWVRPS

amartin@wlu.edu

Try the people at the California State Railroad Museum. I believe they recently installed a new transfer table in an existing pit.


artschwartz@sprintmail.com