Rail spike

“ The comparative narrow flange places the spikes at great disadvantage in point of leverage for holding down, and this weakness is soon made manifest, particularly on curves, where additional crab bolts or other devices are rendered necessary to counteract the tendency of the rail to rock and tilt over sideways. When the head of the rail cannot be kept in its proper position, the gauge becomes widened, and an irregular sinuous motion takes place in the running of the train. ”

“ The causes which led to the disaster are anxiously investigated by ingenious men, new appliances are invented, new precautions are imposed, a greater and more watchful care is inculcated. And hence it has resulted that each year, and in obvious consequence of each fresh catastrophe, travel by rail has become safer and safer, until it has been said, and with no inconsiderable degree of truth too, that the very safest place into which a man can put himself is the inside of a first-class railroad carriage on a train in full motion. ”

“ The action of long rigid wheel-base vehicles passing [Pg 54] round sharp curves is detrimental to all the parts brought into contact. Not only is there the constant tendency to mount the rails, and spread the gauge, but the tiny shreds of steel scattered all along close to the rail—particles ground off the rails, or off the wheel-tyres, or both—testify to useless wear, unnecessary friction, and great waste of motive-power. ”

“ In a line that is well signalled—and it may be taken for fact that there is no railway in the kingdom upon which there are not at present efficient signals—accidents are not the result of delays, although there is a very general belief in the minds of the public that it is otherwise. In two recent instances, accidents of a calamitous nature have been the result of a rail being taken up and not replaced before a train has come upon the spot ”

“ The Wiper's Story HOW McGRATH GOT AN ENGINE
This came about through there being whiskers on the rails. It may not be generally understood that whiskers grow on steel rails; curious as it seems, they do. Moreover, on steel rails they are dangerous, and, at times, exceedingly dangerous.
Do not infer that all steel rails grow whiskers; nor is it, as one might suppose, only the old rails that sport them. The youngest rail on the curve may boast as stout a beard as the oldest rail on the tangent, and one just as gray. They flourish, too, in spite of orders ”

“ But the train had not gone very far before the speed of the locomotive began to slacken. The fire in the furnace refused to burn, and the steam was low. While the engineer was trying to discover what was wrong, Andrews ordered the men to cut the telegraph wire and tear up a rail from the track. By the time the rail had been torn up and the wire cut, the engineer had discovered that the dampers of the fire box were closed. With these open, the boiler began to make steam again, and the locomotive was soon rattling over the rails once more. ”

“ A slight unevenness in the rails, or a sharp flange on the wheel may supply all that is wanting to cause the engine to leave the track, and the probability that such risks are more common than is supposed, is far from satisfactory. The great weight of the engine doubtless tends to keep it on the track, but the rapid [Pg 312] wear of the tyres, and of the inside of the rail-heads clearly demonstrate the enormous amount of friction and abrasion that takes place. ”

“ He explained to me that a train at a very high rate of speed throws the most of its weight on the outside rail of a curve, which is always made a little higher than the other. Had an outside rail been broken the destruction of their train would have been inevitable, but the break was on the inside. With that rapid decision which the better class of railroad men learn to exercise, he signalled to the engineer, "Faster; faster yet!" There was a sharp jolt, and the locomotive and the cars attached were on the other side of the obstruction with their speed not even abated. ”

“ Putting my foot against the main line rail, I grasped the switch rail and throwing all my strength into the effort, jerked it-over to the main line, but would it stay until the train passed over? I felt sure it would not. I looked about for something to hold it. Part of a broken pin was the only thing in sight. The headlight of the express shone in my face, and something seemed to say, "This is your trial, do something quick." I threw myself prone on the ground, my head near the rails, and held the broken pin between the end of the siding rail and the main line. ”

“ To make accidents from this cause, if not impossible at least highly improbable, it is only necessary to make the ties and flooring of all bridges between the tracks and for three feet on either side of them sufficiently strong to sustain the whole weight of a train off the track and in motion, while a third rail, or strong truss of wood, securely fastened, should be laid down midway between the rails throughout the entire length of the bridge and its approaches. ”

“ Wheels, axles, bridges, and rails have all been strengthened to carry their increased loads; but, strange to say, the splices which hold in place the ends of the rails, and which are really short-span bridges, are now the weakest part of a railway. The angle-bar splice has but one-third of the strength of the rail, and its strength cannot be increased, owing to its want of depth. Joints go down under every passing wheel, and the ends of the rails wear out long before the rest. ”

“ December 26, 1865—Night freight train loses one car, which is left on road in darkness. Next passenger train strikes it at full speed, smashing it and damaging the engine.
When one reflects that the locomotives suffered major damage not only in these publicized accidents but minor damage in numerous smaller mishaps, of which we have no record, plus the exceptionally hard wear inflicted by snow storms such as those of 1856 and 1857, it is no wonder that the engines were largely worn out. ”

“ The cost for repairs, therefore, of express cars, would be somewhat greater than for any others.
431 COST AND MAINTENANCE OF WAY AND WORKS. As the speed is increased, the relative effect of grade and curves is lessened, but the absolute danger of passing curves is increased. Express trains require larger radius of curvature, or greater elevation of exterior rail than others, which extra elevation causes an unnecessary resistance to all other trains. The rails to resist large and heavy wheels must be heavier and more firmly fastened. ”

“ Whenever the right proportion is departed from, as it nearly always is, (and perhaps necessarily in some cases,) upon railroads, the wheels will rub against one rail or the other. Thus on any road where the speed on the same curve, or the radii of curvature under the same speed, differ, there must be loss of power, and dragging or pushing against the rails.
67. We are obliged to elevate the outer rail (see chapter XIII.) , for the fastest trains, and the slower trains on such roads will therefore always drag against the inner rails. ”

“ What they found and failed to find, is well known to thousands of railroad men. It has become a part of the history of the road and of the West. There in the bed of the narrow stream, they found the outfit cars all in a heap. The stream—only eight or ten inches of clear water—was rippling through and around the wreck; but the locomotive was gone, and so was her driver, and so was the Dane. The men stared at one another, and when the fireman told them that the crazy inventor was on the engine, they were seized with a strange terror, and they all turned and scrambled up the bank. ”

“ At that time the cars, instead of being drawn by the locomotive around Capitol Hill as now, at Albany, were drawn to the summit of the hill by cables worked by stationary engines, and there attached to the locomotive. The rail used at that time on all the above mentioned roads which were in New York, were strap rails. It was soon found, however, that these rails became loosened at their butts, and being underrun [Pg 467] by the wheels peeled up, often running through the car floors and in some cases fatally injuring passengers. ”

“ As these leave the rolling-mills they are usually slightly curved, and the process of straightening them in situ, however skilfully carried out, inevitably leaves a certain amount of waviness. When the speed is high, a condition of things soon arises whereby the irregular impulses produced by the uneven rail surfaces establishes a rocking movement of the rails and the road-bed, converting both into an elastic instead of a rigid support. ”

“ Many a time only the keen watchfulness of an engine-driver, or his assistant, the fireman, saved a train from dashing into some gravel heap, beneath which the rails were buried, or from plunging into some yawning opening from which a culvert or small bridge had been washed out. Nor with all this watchfulness did the trains always get through in safety. Sometimes a bit of track, that looked all right, would suddenly sink beneath the weight of a passing train into a quagmire that had been formed beneath it, and then would follow the pitiful scenes of a railroad wreck. ”

“ Some engineers are advocates for a hard steel rail, and claim for it greater durability and longer wear; but even supposing such hard rail should possess a slight superiority over the soft rail, it is well to consider whether such assumed advantage is not obtained at the risk of incurring greater liability to fracture. It must be borne in mind that a rail, once placed in the road, is exposed to all the changes of temperature from heat to frost, and has frequently to sustain increased strains arising from loose sleepers, where the gravel or ballast has been disturbed during heavy rains. ”

“ Their common defects are brittleness and imperfect points. In spiking track, the most important points to be attended to are the proper spacing of the ties and driving the spikes in such a manner that the ties shall be held in place at right angles to the track and the rails in true gauge; to insure the latter, the track gauge should always be used when spiking the gauge side, the rail being held to proper position by a lining bar. ”

“ The two great dangers of telescoping and oscillation were directly due to this system of car construction and of train coupling,—and telescoping and oscillation were probably the cause of one-half at least of the loss of life and the injuries to persons incident to the first thirty years of American railroad experience. The badly built and loosely connected coaches of every train going at any considerable rate of speed used then to swing and roll about and hammer against each other after a fashion which made the infrequent occurrence of serious disaster the only fair subject for surprise. ”

“ Although the track was clear and straight, the driver kept a constant lookout, for he had no air, and the way the train was rolling it would be difficult for the trainmen to get to the brakes, and when they did get to them they were apt to be out of repair. Occasionally they crossed deep, narrow gullies on wooden bridges that shook as the engine struck them. These waterless streams in the West are treacherous. It is not enough to say that they are dry one hour and bank-full the next; for they will often fill to overflowing in a single minute. ”

“ Rails must be made more uniform in quality, and must be free from the imputation of fracture under regular wear. Notwithstanding the great improvements made in the preparation of the steel, and in the rolling, there are still far too many steel rails which break under traffic to allow rail-makers to rest satisfied with their work. Something is still wanting in the manufacture to effectually remove this disposition to fracture. The safe rail, the rail of the future, must be one that may bend and may wear, but will never break under ordinary use in the road. ”

“ It is not advisable to attempt to spring a 14 lb. rail round a sharper curve than five chains, or an 18 lb. rail beyond ten chains radius.
The result of attempting too much springing is that the rails, under the traffic and changes of temperature, work outwards at the joints and make “dog legs” more or less serious. Where the ballast is of a loose dry nature very little, if anything, can be done with springing. I have enlarged upon this subject of rail-laying because it is of prime importance to a good road, and a matter that, on narrow-gauge lines, does not receive the attention it requires. ”

“ The impact of the locomotive is then apt to break the rail, very much on the same principle that is taken advantage of in breaking them up for the manufacture of smaller objects. A nick is made somewhere, and the workman then strikes a blow with a hammer at a point between the nick and the place where the rail is supported. ”

“ Using a [Pg 125] length of rail as a lever, this was quickly done, and in a surprisingly brief space of time the rails of a half-mile of road would be lying on blazing piles of ties. As a general rule, the rails were laid on the fire, and the heating of the middle portion would cause them to bend by their own weight, thus rendering them useless. When there was time, the men twisted the hot rails around trees or telegraph poles, or wreathed them together in fantastic shapes. We worked nearly all night. ”