Wow, that's a unique type of fracture. Thanks for sharing.
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| Posted by Brandon on December 24, 2012 | |
It sure is Frank!
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Looks like the weld held! Nice find - assume the railroad knows about this already.
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| Posted by Mike on December 24, 2012 | |
Well, the train crew should know that took the last train over this. Notice that the top of the rails are smashed down on the ends.
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| Posted by pjflstc on December 25, 2012 | |
I'd have to say the bed of both ties cause excessive deflection as a train rolls over the ties. Note the fracture is centered between those ties. The heat generated to fuse these two rails together slightly weakened the steel. Not an excessive amount of weakening, but combine it with excessive deflection and cold rail, you see the result.
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Signalled territory I presume? My two cents - with the overlapping horizontal break, a connection bond was still made at the over-lap which prevented a 'track light' on the Dispatcher panel...? Hence, trains rolling over it?
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As a signal maintainer, I've seen more than my fair share of broken rails over the past three decades. I believe this rail has been broken for several days or perhaps even longer considering the rust on the rail ends. The rail heads being beat down also indicates that a fair amount of tonnage has passed over this. It takes more than one or two trains to do this. If this track is signaled, I'd say the circuit was working or else it would have been detected much sooner. Most broken rails occur under a train, so when the train leaves the block, a track indication stays on behind it. But with a break like this, it can go undetected for a period of time. Just recently, I had a broken rail that looked exactly like this and the circuit held until one (or both) of the rails finally moved just enough to break the track circuit and cause a track indication and a false activation at a crossing. So, when the dispatcher called and said, "A track indication just came in out of the blue..." I suspected something strange, and sure enough, it was. The rust I found on the rail ends led me to believe the rail had been broken for at least of couple of days or maybe more. Brandon, if the railroad did not know about this, I do hope you called it in. Nice photo and thanks for sharing it with us!
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| Posted by Brandon on December 26, 2012 | |
Thank you all for your comments, I reported this broken rail as soon as it was found. UP MofW came out about an hour later and had it fixed a couple hours after the initial call.
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Brandon, I'm pleased to learn you reported this broken rail as soon as you found it! Your prompt action may have prevented a derailment, so please take a well deserved bow for being a responsible and proactive railfan. I don't know if the UP has your name and address, but if they do, I hope they are appreciative enough to send you a letter or something nice for your effort.
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Here Here ! Yes-- stuff like this should be called in and all us railfans have a duty to be responsible in notifying the RR of problems or suspicious activity. Thanks for posting and for this informative discussion here.
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