Tamping for a better ride

Many different disciplines are required to prepare for the Museum's operating season.  After a winter shutdown, there is a certain amount of work re-activating the locomotives and coaches, but the bigger effort is performing annual maintenance.  Maintaining track, bridges, and signals require significant resources to inspect, repair and maintain.  Statistically, most railroads each year will invest about 60% of their resources into those three areas.

For the Museum's track and bridges, the last 12 months have been busy.  Substantial reconstruction of bridge 35's east pier, installation of more than 750 ties (including 500 feet of reconstructed track at Snoqualmie Falls) and surfacing of more than a mile of track are among the year's highlights.

During the last few weeks, crews have been changing ties and surfacing track in North Bend.  Surfacing is a slow process that uses a ballast tamper, jacks, and a good set of eyes!  The tamper is a Jackson that was delivered to the Northern Pacific Railway in the 1950s.  Before track tampers were introduced, men with tamping bars performed this work.

Check out the dip in the track in the first photo below, and how Mark S. and Brandon P. made it disappear in the second.  Come up to Snoqualmie and ride the train this coming Saturday, April 4 and check it out for yourself!  First train departs Snoqualmie at 11:30 AM.

 

Keeping track safe and reliable

The grade immediate below the track

structure is called the subgrade.  It was

disturbed by an excavator during a

recent construction project conducted

adjacent to the track.

Good track is easy to take for granted, but a safe and reliable railroad depends on it.  And good track requires a stable subgrade, especially within the 1:1 live load zone beneath the track.  (The 1:1 live load zone is the area that extends downward from the ends of the ties at a 45 degree angle.)  Steep slopes, poor soils, seasonal flooding, adjacent uses, earth quakes, and heavy annual precipitation are all among the conditions that must be considered to ensure stability.  So when recent construction activities were found to have affected the subgrade at Snoqualmie Falls, immediate steps were taken to protect the track and trains. 

A rock slope was constructed to stabil-

ize and strengthen the subgrade for

more than 200 linear feet.  Geotextile

fabric was placed below the rocks to

improve performance of saturated soils.

First, for trains already operating, speed was immediately reduced to a crawl to reduce dynamic forces on the track and subgrade.  Second, a licensed geotechnical engineer was called in to inspect the subgrade below the track and determine if and under what conditions trains could continue to operate.  Third, rehabilitation work was performed to mitigate the issues discovered in the affected area using a design that was reviewed by other engineering professionals. 


A new rock slope below

the track at Snoqualmie

Falls.

The long term rehabilitation plan was developed by the Museum's geotechnical engineering consultant at PanGEO Inc and reviewed by other knowledgeable professionals including Museum volunteer Dave H., who is a civil engineer - thanks Dave!

The design uses "heavy loose rock," which are large rocks 30 inches and more across.  It relies in part on prior stabilization work performed when soil anchors were driven under the track and a retaining wall was installed at the toe of the slope.  To address the current issue, the slope on the subgrade below the track was covered with geotextile fabric and the heavy loose rocks were keyed into the sloped using an excavator.  This design places several hundred tons of rock on the subgrade slope and restores integrity to the 1:1 zone beneath the track.  However work did not stop there.  Areas affected by construction activities that were outside the 1:1 zone but within the 2:1 slope of the railway grade are being strengthened with a foot or more of quarry spalls three to six inches in diameter.

Work took three days to perform and was completed between scheduled trains.  What is most impressive to Spike is that the total elapsed time between discovering the issue and implementing final rehabilitation was just four days!  Trains are continuing to operate and will resume track speed when authorities determine that stability has been fully restored.  So a stable subgrade once again supports good track.

Crossing repairs

Center of crossing is re-

paired on North Bend Way.

It may be Halloween but things will no longer go bump in the night when using several newly-repaired crossings. 

The Northwest Railway Museum has 13 public crossings at grade or, more simply stated, 13 public roads that cross the tracks.  The Museum has certain statutory responsibilities to maintain portions of these crossings even though it is cars and trucks and not trains that wear them out.  Other portions of the crossing are generally the responsibility of the road authority.

Asphalt By George's crew compacts

new asphalt on Stone Quarry Road.

 Projects usually turn out better when groups and individuals work together, and road and railway projects often work the same way.   So the City of Snoqualmie and the Northwest Railway Museum hired Snoqualmie’s own Asphalt By George to perform repairs on Northern Street, Stone Quarry Road and North Bend Way and then split up the costs according to areas of responsibility.  These crossings were damaged by heavy use, snow plows, and just plain old age.  

George's crew poses at Northern Street

along with locomotive 4024.

Deteriorated wooden planks and broken asphalt were removed and replaced with new asphalt.  A spacer was used to ensure the slots to accommodate the car and locomotive wheels were inserted.  And old asphalt was shipped to the asphalt plant to be recycled into new asphalt.  Kudos to the great workers at Asphalt By George, and to the City of Snoqualmie Public Works Department for working with the Museum!

Trains are running again!

The Jackson tamper was introduced in

the 1950s on the Northern Pacific

Railway and continues in a new role

at the Northwest Railway Museum.

It has been an unusually long winter in the Northwest but spring weather has finally arrived.  Track machines and crews have been working on the railroad and trains are running again between North Bend and Snoqualmie Falls.  Check out this season’s schedule here; regular trains are operating on Saturday and Sunday through the end of October.

Vibrating work heads pack ballast

(rock) under the ties.

There are many aspects to a operating a railroad that are not apparent to the casual observer. Whether historic or contemporary, railroads have a right of way to maintain and it is a significant responsibility that consumes the majority of a railroad's resources. Bridges are "big ticket" items but even the ubiquitous tie (at the Museum there are more than 3,000 per mile) are valued at more than $100 each to purchase and install.  Signals and railroad crossings also require significant resources to inspect and maintain in compliance with Federal regulations.

A hyrail excavator from RailWorks

installs a new stringer in one of the
Museum's bridges.  Each timber is
9 inches x 18 inches and can be over
30 feet long.

Over the winter, volunteer and community work crews changed more than 150 ties and tamped them, performed maintenance along the right of way including brush cutting, and performed annual, periodic and monthly maintenance on signals. Bridges were inspected and bridge maintenance performed. In addition, the locomotives were check out, oiled and fueled.  Coaches had minor repairs and were cleaned. Now the Museum is ready for an estimated 50,000 guests who are expected to ride the railroad this year.  Come up and visit this weekend and take a trip back in time!

Need spikes? Zap it!

Back in the 1970s, a forward-thinking company called RMC-Portec (track machine division now part of Harsco) came up with a machine design that holds a railroad tie in place under the rails and spikes it. Mind you an operator (or two or three) is required to manipulate a joy stick and some push buttons, it is nevertheless an effective and fast machine that takes most of the heavy labor out of the equation.

The Northwest Railway Museum has a former British Columbia Railway Portec Model B "Zapper" Automatic Spike Driver ASP-3. With the upcoming construction of the tracks inside the new Train Shed exhibit building, and the turnouts and siding connecting to it, Richard Wilkens has been leading an effort to get the Zapper back in working order and reports on some significant progress:

In September a rebuilt blower for the three-cylinder Detroit 3-53 diesel was installed along with a rebuilt starter. On Labor day weekend Brandon C. and Steve P. were successful in getting the engine running, despite it being out of service for 19 years. The engine on this machine is in very good condition with only a couple revolutions it fires right off. Other work leading up to its return to operation included draining the fuel tank to install shut off valves and a sight glass for the fuel level.

For those not familiar with this machine it is used to nip and insert spikes with a minimum of physical effort, something good for those of us not 18 any more. Using 3 people, two operators and one spike loader, the controls consist of a toggle switch to control movement, a foot pedal air brake pedal, and push buttons and joy sticks to place the spikes. After reaching the tie to be spiked a push button is pressed and clamps descend around the tie to nip it up snug to the base of the rail. Spikes are held in holders above the tie plates and a joy stick is used to line up the spike to the hole in the tie plate. After the spike is in the proper position a button is pushed and a hydraulic cylinder pushes down and sets the spike. After the cylinder retracts a new spike is placed in the holder for the next tie. Normally spikes are driven on both rails but the spike chutes on one side have been removed.

Being out of service for so many years we are in the laboriously slow process of checking electric circuits from the switches to relays and to solenoids that operate the air and hydraulic cylinders. So far part of the circuits are working but more testing is needed. Besides the previously mentioned work another major task has been repairing the roof. Several weeks ago the roof was pulled and placed on saw horses so we could remove peeling paint and deal with some rusted out areas. The largest rusted area is 3’ by 4’ and the failed metal was cut out and a patch was made.

First step was to remove paint and tar type undercoat on the bottom of the roof and this was done by Dan C., Dale C., Brandon C., Richard W., and Dick H. and a coat of primer was applied followed by a coat of yellow paint. On the weekend of the 10th and 11th the roof was flipped and the surfaced cleaned and primered. This past Thursday the 16th Richard W. applied the sheet metal patch and also some roof sealing tape to deal with smaller rusted areas. Saturday the 17th saw additional rust repairs and Sunday two coats of yellow paint was applied. This coming weekend plans are to reinstall the roof and to do final touchup painting, painting of lettering, and more work towards getting the machine to 100%.

So there you have it, thanks to this Shop Log update from Richard Wilkens. While a month or two of volunteer effort still remains, a few months of effort inside the Conservation and Restoration Center has restored basic operation to an RMC-Portec Model B Zapper. We'll update progress again soon.

Regulating track ballast

It's not a form of government control but an essential component in good railway track. Track ballast is part of the track structure. It provides supports to the ties from below and holds the ties and rail in place by resisting the moving - or dynamic - forces caused by a passing train. In a curve, the train tries to push the curve outwards. On tangent track, any rocking and rolling of the cars tries to force the track to one side or the other. When braking down a descending a grade, a train tries to push the track down the hill. A sufficient amount of properly placed ballast resists these forces and holds the track in position.

Ballast has existed since the first colliery railroad some 200 years ago. Historically, it was often little more than locally-mined sand and gravel, and in many instances was no better than the best local native material. That meant it could have been sand, or even just dirt. Today, however, most railroads including the Northwest Railway Museum have graduated to crushed rock - meaning fully-fractured faces with no round edges - because it holds the track level and within lateral alignment ("in profile") far better than sand or gravel and helps promote good drainage. But crushed rock is heavy and difficult to shovel so working with it by hand is very labor intensive. During the labor shortages of WW II, that gave a cleaver railroad contractor in Alabama the incentive to develop a better way. Royce Kershaw designed and built the first ballast regulator by mounting a set of railroad push car wheels on a old Ford pickup and attaching a plow blade to the front.

A ballast regulator in its simplest form is a plow blade that spreads ballast evenly along the track, often right after it is dumped along the track by a rail car. In a more complex configuration, it uses a series of plow blades to transfer ballast from one side of the track to the center, or even from one side of the track to the other. Today, many "regulators" have also added a broom attachment that is used to sweep the excess rock off the top of the ties and spread it along the sides of the track.

The Museum holds a classic ballast regulator in its collection. This 1963-built Kershaw was used on the Great Northern Railway and successor Burlington Northern in Stevens Pass. Powered by a Detroit 3-53 diesel engine, it has been undergoing rehabilitation in the Museum's Conservation and Restoration Center. Leading the effort is Brandon C. with active participation from Rich W., Dan C., Ian, Earl W. and Dale C. Several bearings have been reworked, some missing and damaged hardware has been replaced, sheet metal panels have been straightened and cleaned, cracks in the plows have been welded, and everything has been painted. With a few more weeks of work remaining, this ballast regulator will be fully functional; more will be posted about the regulator in the coming weeks.

Tamping track

So Spike, what makes rough track smooth again? A surface, line and dress. Huh?

A few short decades ago, gandy dancers did this work with lining bars, hand operated jacks and tamping bars or shovels. Today, workers (or more correctly, one worker) use a multifunction machine called a production tamper to level and line the track, then "tamp" (or compact) ballast under the ties to hold them in position. A production tamper uses lights, sensors and a servo circuit to detect deviations from profile (low spots in the track or lateral misalignment). Another function activates a jack to lift the track to the proper level and push it to one side or another until the sensors indicate that it is back in a straight line (or conforms to a predetermined curve). Confusing? Perhaps to most of us so instead check out these photos of a Jackson 6300 in action (followed by a ballast regulator to broom the extra ballast off of the track) and see the end result at the bottom. (Tip: if you click on the photo, you will be able to view a full screen version.)

Flood repairs begin

Damage surveys are complete, reports have been written, and funding applications have been filed. Resources to fully fund the repairs will take months to secure – or at least attempt to secure – but now it’s time to begin the repairs so they will be completed in time for April trains. RailWorks of Chehalis-Centralia was the low and successful bidder, and they began work this week. There were three bids with base prices that ranged between $59,000 and $140,000. Bids were based on unit costs and the actual cost will reflect the final quantity of materials and footage of track.

A large contractor such as RailWorks has a lot of resources to draw on in undertaking the flood repairs. Arriving on site this week was a veritable parade of specialized equipment, most of it new and all of it fully operational. And with it came a well-qualified and dedicated crew including the foreman Jim W., a Mt Si High graduate and former resident of Fall City. Some of the equipment is specialized for railroad work but other pieces are more common machines with hyrails, special railroad wheels that can been lowered or raised to operate on or off the track. Examples of the latter include a small excavator and a dump truck.

Repair work included in the scope of this project includes replacing about 700 tons of washed out ballast, surfacing over 2,000 feet of track, and adding rip rap to the inlet and outlet of a large culvert. Also as part of the project, nearly 100 cross ties are being replaced. Work is expected to take about 2 weeks. This contract will not address damage to electric gates, journal boxes, the Rainier gang car, or general debris clearance.