[PRCo] Re: Great stop motion movie of track replacement

[Dwight Long]

Fred

Here is the reply I sent to the Volkmer list on this topic:

<<
I warned them that changing over from those dirt streets to paved ones would be an expensive mistake.  They did not listen. Their number dummies "proved" how much money would be saved by scrapping the sprinkler car and firing its operators. Progress marched on.>>

But it was a cleverly done photo shoot.

Dwight

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Schneider 
  To: Mike Hermesky ; John Bromley ; Russ Jackson ; John Garrick ; Pittsburgh-Railways at Dementia.Org ; Phillip G. Craig 
  Sent: Friday, 15 October, 2010 14:04
  Subject: [PRCo] Great stop motion movie of track replacement


  This is a most fascinating video of the replacement of the trackage at 30th and Church Streets in San Francisco over a period of 3.5 days compressed into 12 minutes.   It was Dwight Long who drew it to my attention.
  Now if you think this is a lot of work ... remember what we used to do when our transit companies were privately owned and didn't make money if the cars didn't run.   They couldn't afford to shut down a route and run shuttle buses for three days just to replace an intersection.   This kid of work used to be done under traffic.   Perhaps the most impressive job in the past was the the rebuilding of the intersection of King St., Queen St. and Roncesvalles Avenue in Toronto that was a grand union with an extra pair of tracks ... five pairs of tracks into the intersection.   All of the replacement track was all cut and assembled in a factory to make sure it fit, marked, then disassembled and moved to the site.   The actual job was done from the time the service shut down around midnight until it reopened the next morning around 5 AM.     

  My thoughts about the San Francisco job?   Poured concrete around rail will be terribly noisy.   There are better ways today such as first  imbedding the rail in rubber and then pouring the concrete around the rubber.  

  I am also questioning why gauge bars were not used in lieu of wooden ties?

  And John...    Do you understand now what a switch is?   Since you are new to this, there were two kinds ... single point where the flange on one wheel rode behind or on the moving point and just guided the other side on a fixed point.   The other switch is like railroad design ... both points are moveable ... much better for higher speed operation in streets ... much more common in Europe and gaining in acceptance in the USA today.  

  Most of the people on this list, John, probably understand that 30th and Church used to be the end of the Church Street line in San Francisco.  Cars came up Church to 30th and wyed to turn them and then headed back downtown.   In 1993 it was extended to from 30th St., three miles to Balboa Park to avoid a much more circuitous route to the car house.   I guess I am personally questioning why that track job lasted only 17 years?   Might the rails not have been in proper gauge or might it have been the equipment they were running on it, i.e. the Boeing cars?


  http://vimeo.com/15780202