Why are the trains still running in my town after 148 years?

Question

First train arrived in my town Nov 21st in the year 1859. Yes! 1859. So how can the train bed (For tracks) hold up that long? Rain....snow....Cold..Hot weather....and the trains still roar through on these tracks at 50+ miles per hour. ( Area....Mt Clemens Michigan. Amazing! after all these years.

Answer 1

maybe it's too bckward

Answer 2

Rail road companies have crews "gandy dancers" that go out periodically and repair damaged or rotted rail road ties, and replace the ballast (gravel) under the tracks, it is just like the crews that repair America's highways, but you probably don't notice the track crews, because you usually only see a short section of track at a time.

Answer 3

Railroad tracks are actually multilayered structures.  Starting from the top, you have the "head" of the rail.  It is a few inches wide to distribute the weight of the wheels that ride on it.  This weight is conducted through the rail's web (the tall skinny part) to the base.  The rail's base is very wide so it can distribute the weight onto the steel tieplate.  The tieplate (rectanglar steel plate under the rail the spikes go into) is even wider so it can distribute weight onto the railroad tie (the big pieces of wood.)  The ties rest on top of crushed rock called ballast.  The rock does two things. First, it makes water drain away from the wooden ties so they don't rot, and second it prevents the track above from sinking into the ground.  Under the ballast is the substrate, which was raised above ground level to further shed water from the tracks.  Think of railroad tracks as a pyramid, the the narrow head of the rail on top and it all gets wider as you go lower towards the ballast, to distribute the weight over a larger area.

Don't forget that regular maintainance is done on RR tracks.  Every few years a big machine comes along and pulls the ties/track out of the ballast and adds more rock to it.  Every now and then the rails and ties are replaced.  This depends on how much traffic (weight) the rail line gets.  There are some branch lines that still have rail from 1915 (rail is dated and you can see the dates on the web of the rail about every 20 feet.)  This kind of rail is the older jointed rail, which has joints in it.  This kind of rail was replaced starting in the 1960s by welded rail, which has no joints and is very strong.  BTW, rail is rated by it's weight per yard.  Thus, typical rail being used on a mainline weighs 136 pounds for a 36 inch section.

The railroad tracks you see that were built in 1859 would have been rebuilt from the ground up at least several times.  There is no way any of it is original, except maybe some ballast at the bottom somewhere.  The important thing for the railroads is the right of way, the actual land the track is on.  Once they have that, they can keep replacing the rails, ties, ballast over and over again.  It is expensive though.  It costs one million dollars per mile to completely put down new railroad tracks.  That adds up!

You can tell how old the rails are in your town by looking for the dates, usually on the inside, on the webs.  Make sure no trains are coming of course.  Best way is to do this at a road crossing so you don't have to get on the tracks themselves, which are actually private property.  Even if the rail says it was made in, say, 1938, the tracks would have been rebuilt and reballasted several times since then.

Kent in SD

Kent in SD

Answer 4

When you look at the geology of the area you live in, you realize that the underlying bedrock is very close to the surface because of the glacial scouring that created the entire Great Lakes basin. This makes for a very stable underlayment for the rail bed. This factor combined with the methodology used in roadbed building in 1859, which used at least four feet of gravel under the cross ties resulted in a roadbed that has withstood the rigors of time.

Here, near where I live, in Temecula California the roadbed did not last more than five years, and was replaced four times in the twenty years it was used.  The are was not geologically sound and the tracks were built in a riverbed and were washed out by the spring floods.

So the old saying goes, build your house on rock, not sand.

Answer 5

I'm pretty d**n sure they used ensuring strong material to keep the structure sturdy ;).

Answer 6

Tracks can still be there for 1 of 2 main reasons. Either A. the tracks have been very well maintained, or B. they've replaced the tracks at sometime or another. The ties are most likely not the original ones from the mid-1800's, railroads periodicly replace ties as they get old. As for the rails (which too are most likely not the original ones), if you want to find out how old they are, go down to the tracks sometime & look closly at the side of the rail. There should be a date along with some other info like manufactuer & stuff on there. MAKE SURE THERE AREN'T ANY TRAINS NEARBY WHEN YOU DO THIS. Getting that close to a moving train IS NOT a good idea.

Here's some pictures I took that show the stucture of the track mentioned in a previous answer:

http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/sho...

http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/sho...

http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/sho...

http://www.railroadforums.com/photos/sho...

Answer 7

Well, train beds do require maintanence, and I imagine that very little is original.  The ballast rock is designed to hold up indefinately, provide astounding drainage, and is not very apt to weathering.

Most tracks are raised several feet to aid in the drainage.  It keeps the ties and tracks from rotting and rusting.

It is very neat though, how trains have been around so long.  I just worked on a bridge that was built in 1910 - before welding!  The whole bridge is hot-riveted together.

Answer 8

they are maintained

Answer 9

Well because they work on it all the time might be a reason why. Just like taking care of your car, if you change the oil, give it a tune up .. routine maintenance you know ... it will last quite a long time.

Answer 10

It's the same land. They keep upgrading the track.  

The first railroads in Michigan (not Mt. Clemens but say Blissfield and Tecumseh) were laid on strap rail.  That's wooden RAILS with a strip of steel laid on top of the wood, for the wheels to roll on.  They quickly got replaced with all-steel "T" rail of the general shape used today.  

By 1859 I'm sure they were using "T" rail for new construction, and the rails have been changed out several times since then, usually heavier sections each time.  

And the ties have been replaced many times.  Ties last 20-40 years in track, depending on conditions.  I seem to recall the Mt. Clemens branch had some drainage issues visible by pumping mud around the joints, which shortens tie life.

Speeds haven't increased much in the last 70 years or so, but the heaviness of the rail sure has!  T-rail started out at 40-50 pounds (per yard) then to 80-100, and nowadays standard sizes are 112-140.

I believe there's a nice little museum at the Mt. Clemens depot that can show you much of this,

http://www.michigantransitmuseum.org/

Or journey to the railway museum in Clinton, Mi. where they actually have some of the strap rail.

http://www.southernmichiganrailroad.org/

Answer 11

Tracks are replaced every 5 to 10 years.

Answer 12

RR tracks are constantly being upgraded and maintained. Most track maintenance operations can be done between trains, and are completely paid for by the RR company.  Compare that with the cost to the taxpayer of upgrading a mile of interstate highway. The fact is RR tracks will be there for a long time to come. It is the most fuel efficient and "green" way to move freight across land.