The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-07-22
kansas CITY. Star.l


Railroad travellers speeding at the
rate of a mile a minute i'm luXuriouSiy
appointed trains. might doubt THAI tire
massive steel rails beneath h swift
iy turning wheels move forward and
change their position. This crawl
ing" and "~treeping' of the rails is
one of the difficult problems of mod
crn railroading and mas increased
since the introduction of heavier
equipment and the double track sys-
TEN. which provides for one-way traf-
ic over a single line of track. a nan
who has been engaged practically for
the last twenty-five years in track
construction and maintenance recent
~ said that the advance in the use
of improved rolling stock on railroads
in h United States was seventy-five
per cent ahead of track equipment.
He believed that the difference was
du" to the failure of railroad com
panies to pay salaries large enough to
attract men of brains and construc-
tive ingenuity to the track department.
In the early days of %railroading the
rails did not exceed owe sixteen or
eighteen feet in length. They were
laid in chairs" short steel clutches
that held the rail from below and
which, in turn We're spiked to the
ties. But the noise made by a train
= '''iiiiS oNSi 81 ttdlh Idlu Wy ClldlIS
was Very great and it was difficult to
keep the rails fastened down.
In the early '7os many patents were
granted for improved rail joints. At
an exposition that was held in Chi
cago in the late los there were en-
hlbited over 500 patented rail joints.
The new joints improved track con-
struction. But at the same time hcav-
Ter rails began to be used and the
rcaGninp nf tho roi1c hoonn,o ~ prol,
lem. In the early '70s a sixty pound
rail, that is, sixty pounds TO the yard.
was h maximum weight. Now no
we'll constructed line would be laid
with less than seventy pound rails,
and they have been made 100 pounds
in weight.
This crawling of the rails is caused
ny the physical impact of the trains.
Then follow what are known as
"kickouts" and kickups," or buckling
OF the rails. damned closely together
the rails expand in the heat of the
sun. The direction OF least resistance
is straight no or to one side, and in
that direction the track suddenly
springs. throwing itself far Ii of line,
sometimes causing the derailment of
a train. \ kickout has been known
I" happen al the a train was
passing, even in the middle of the
train.
This expansion n contraction of
the heavy steel rails i'm heat and cold
Is a law Of physics that has not been
clrcumvented in a satisfactory way
i'm railroadins, but at this time is re-
ceivin~ more and more the studious
attention of railroad officials.
y down grade followed by a curve
mo a hill climb presents conditions
most conducive to rail-crawling ana
kick"uts. An average freight train
Drawn Ivy a modern locomotive weighs
nearly loo tons. Coming from a
stretch of level track to a down grade
an engineer will put on his air that
he MAY pull his train taut and have
II well in hand when he strikes the
hill ON the farther side. With his
train unslacked and crowding upon
him he would not have it under con
troll in turning the curve and there
would he danger of leaving the rails
at a tangent and piling up in a
wreck.
Tho moment he sets the wheels of
his train with his air breaks, how
ever. every wheel begins dragging
upon the rails, and the enormous
weight of the train little by little
shoves the rails forward. jammine
them tightly together at the curve and
on the farther hill. Where only a
single track is used for trains passing
in either direction. this crawling i'm
a measure is counteracted. but prac-
tically it will be found that one di-
%rcction is weaker than the other and
there the crawling or creepage will
accumulate until the situation is
acute. Where trains pass only one
Way over a double track system the
trouble is greatly magnified.
Where traffic is heavy both ways
the rails by the downward push will
creep together in a sag between two
hills. Under the drive wheels of a
23o-ton locomotive the track. even on
d level stretch. is about five eighths
of an inc lower than it is under the
wheels of the CnN truck ahead. The
movement of the train. for this rea-