There was a westbound load of ribbon rail went through here [CSX Indy – St Louis line] yesterday. I’m guessing it maybe headed down that way. inch
"Welded rails are made of sections about 1400 feet in length which are transported to the site of the laying operation" From this site.
Do you by chance have a photo at end of track? I am curious what they're using to skid the rail on out onto awaiting ties. Boxcab E50
Sorry, no. I waited around a while for something to happen but nothing did. I had to get to a board meeting at the museum so was not able to wait forever.
Wow abandoned line starting anew....I LIKE IT! Thanks for the photos Russ....Hopefully I can make it over to Cajon pass (15 mi. away) this week and get photos of BNSF's 3rd main progress.
I went out yesterday to take a look. Ties and rail are in place all the way to the east side of Beasley. A Ballast train was out as far as the Spur 10 overpass and some gondolas and hoppers were parked farther out. Ties were staged for placement out as far as the west side of Beasley. I put a bunch of new photos in an album I created with all my photos of this project. KCS Victoria Sub - RailImages.com
Here is a close up of the steel ties on the left. I have never seen these before. Maybe just a temporary siding?
Interesting. I wonder if they're comparing? Testing? Or temp as you've suggested? Maybe you can catch someone there, and have a friendly conversation? Boxcab E50
Okay, I had never heard of steel ties before (at least not in modern railroading) but a quick Google search turned up a few sources, including: http://www.ttsties.com/products/mainline/index.html .
I just checked the location of Beasley, Texas. That's a long way from Victoria. How long will this refurbishing be in progress? Maybe I can make a trip to Victoria when it gets closer. Also, what was the siding for? An industry, I hope.
Interesting progress. They use steel ties here for temporary tracks, so maybe they are bieing used here to allow equipement to be moved by rail to the end of the line before the concrete ones are properly emplaced and ballasted.
No industries near it. After watching them go through all kinds of maneuvers to get a ballast train turned around in Rosenberg, so they could back it down the line to rail end, I think it may be a temporary siding to bring the engines around to the other end of a train. That way they don't tie up the UP/BNSF interlocker in Rosenberg.
The "company line" is it will be finished next spring. They have one of the new switches active on the temporary siding and are using it to switch cars. More photos here. You can see the section of rails with the concrete ties dragged off to the left at the switch. I believe they will weld that back in when they take out the switch and the temporary siding. That will probably happen when they reach Kendleton and put in a wye at the site of their new intermodal yard that they are building on a huge tract of land.
I think they had the panels for the switches leaning on those racks. Each temporary switch breaks down into two sections that just fit inside the gondola.
Here is one half of a switch yet to be bolted to its other half. The gondolas were parked near by after being unloaded.