Railroading buffs

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:10 am

I saw a short film this evening on the Chinese laying a new rail line across Tibet. What blew me away was this contraption:

Prefab 75 ft. (approx) sections of track just plunked down on the railbed one after the other. Note the concrete sleepers.

Do we have anything like this?

More of the story here

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:56 am

It's nice to see that some places in the world are actually putting in tracks, instead of taking them out and making hiking trails out of them. You can't ride a train south of Saigon anymore--there's only the one track that goes to Hanoi.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:47 am

The articles I could find didn't explain how curves were laid, but I assume that they were probably done by hand. Given that this rail runs mostly through high desert plain, maybe the straight prefab sections really speed things along.

Leland · Post by **Leland** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:57 pm

Of course, they could also prefab curved pieces, as long as they have good measurements from the site, good prep work, and a consistent manufacturing method. Probably just one step beyond Lionel trainsets (besides scaling up, of course).

LoyalTubist wrote:It's nice to see that some places in the world are actually putting in tracks, instead of taking them out and making hiking trails out of them. You can't ride a train south of Saigon anymore--there's only the one track that goes to Hanoi.

It's another sign that China's really taking off as a world power, IMO. Same thing happened with the US over a century ago.

Too bad that modern diesels are never as entertaining as fire-breathing steam locomotives, though.

Wyvern · Post by **Wyvern** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 2:11 pm

China is a country where the railways are still the main means of transporting goods, although sadly except for a few mining railways, steam is a thing of the past. However, you may be interested in the photos below I took in 1986 when it was a steam fan's paradise!

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:51 pm

Isn't that Chou En-Lai on the front of the loco in the third picture?

Wyvern · Post by **Wyvern** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 3:57 pm

Chuck(G) wrote:Isn't that Chou En-Lai on the front of the loco in the third picture?

The note in my photo album written at the time says "This is a very special loco allocated to Harbin. The only named QJ class! Called "Marshall Zhu De" the loco bares no number and caries a portrait of its name-sake in solid brass on the smoke box door and cab sides - 18th November 1986"

djwesp · Post by **djwesp** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:27 pm

Was this video online?

I'd like to see it.

Chuck(G) · Post by **Chuck(G)** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:30 pm

No, it was a sort of "filler item of short films" on the local PBS station. But if I find it online, I'll let you know.

djwesp · Post by **djwesp** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 4:32 pm

Chuck(G) wrote:No, it was a sort of "filler item of short films" on the local PBS station. But if I find it online, I'll let you know.

I'll snoop around oregon PBS too.

Thanks!

LoyalTubist · Post by **LoyalTubist** » Sat Jun 02, 2007 1:16 am

Indonesia used to have a lot of railroad routes. There was a main track that went through my ex-wife's hometown of Parakan, Central Java. Nearby, in Ambarawa, there was a huge switching yard. In the early 1980s there was a huge volcano eruption in a village high above the tracks. The lava flow wiped out a huge section of the track and killed almost everyone in the mountain village. There are still a few rails on the island of Java.

In 1997, I took a trip with the family from Jakarta to Denpasar by train. We got to Gambar Station about 6:00 in the evening. There are many fast food restaurants in the station. We got Japanese fast food from Hokka Hokka Bento--has anyone seen this chain anywhere else? There were four of us but we bought eight meals and six Cokes. We also bought doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts.

For the first part of our trip, we took a bullet train. All food on that train is free, but our past experience on Indonesian trains was that free food leaves a lot to be desired. We left at about 7:00. The train was set up like an airplane and there was a pretty nasty Chinese martial arts playing on individual TV screens (ugh!)

The train only stopped twice--at Cirebon and Semarang, both in the province of Central Java. The last stop on the train was Surabaya, East Java. Our arrival time was 5:45 am. There are no fewer than four train stations in Surabaya--all pretty close to each other. Each different train that goes into the city has its own train station. We needed the train that went to Banyuwangi (love the name!) There were buses run by the railroad that took ticketed passengers to their respective stations. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space for all the passengers (and their luggage) on the buses. We thought about taking a taxi, but we felt hungry at this time, so we walked to a restaurant. After finishing our meal, we could see that the train station we needed was very close--less than a block away.

We left Surabaya at 7:30 am. The train had very old equipment. I was sort of surprised it had a Diesel locomotive! It was a completely different experience than the bullet train. On the bullet train, everyone was a "first class passenger," even though it seemed more like we were "coach airplane passengers!" (I always thought first class on a train meant there was a bed for each passenger!) On the slow train, there were two classes: First Class and Third Class. A kitchen car separated the two classes. For the short distance between Surabaya and Banyuwangi, it was very slow. The trip went through some very deep jungle. We were fed breakfast, lunch, and two substantial snacks as part of the cost of our tickets. The scenery was beautiful. We arrived at Banyuwangi at 2:30 pm.

A bus from the railroad met us at the train station. Almost all the passengers from the train got on it--and it only had a capacity of 35! There were 45 of us! The bus drove to the ferry docks. We crossed the Bali Strait, which took about 30 minutes (and for me, as much as I like sea travel, about ten trips to the bathroom to relieve myself!) We got to the Balinese town of Gilimanuk. They waited about 30 minutes to make sure everyone was feeling OK--well, maybe I was the one they were waiting for! It's a good thing I never travel anywhere without a box of plain white crackers!

I can't tell you anything about the bus ride on the island of Bali because I wasn't feeling well. We got to Denpasar about 7:00. It wasn't too far to get to our hotel in Kuta Beach. We stayed there for two weeks. Actually, when I lived in Indonesia, we took many trips to Bali. But only one was on the train.

tubiker · Post by **tubiker** » Mon Jun 04, 2007 12:21 pm

Yo

This is the standard method of track replacement in the UK - concrete sleepers and plain rail - except that with us the sleepers are wacked down then the rail comes in in very long lengths (sorry can't help with the fine technical bits) and is then welded together to give continuous welded rail. For the neighbours this means a much quieter railway and for the passenger a much smoother one. Its worth noting that the above ground sections of the London Underground are being re-laid with continuous weld prior to the 2012 Olympics.

But back to the original............

pip pip

Andrew M