General railway discussions

[Urban Sky]

Are those speed limits in km/h or mph? Most rail in North America use mph.

If you share the road, you have to respect all speed limits applicable for road traffic, which is why it would only cause confusion if LRTs used anything else than whichever units of measure are used for road traffic speed limits…

 

[reaperexpress]

Are those speed limits in km/h or mph? Most rail in North America use mph.

 

[roger1818]

If you share the road, you have to respect all speed limits applicable for road traffic, which is why it would only cause confusion if LRTs used anything else than whichever units of measure are used for road traffic speed limits…

True, but the roads will have significantly higher speed limits than 10 and 15 km/h. If they are in mph, they would work out to 16 and 24 km/h respectively, which would still be below road speed. In the pictures shared by @reaperexpress, the only road speed sign I see is an orange 40 km/h for the corner, but orange speed signs are only suggestions, so the actual speed limit will most certainly be higher.

 

[Urban Sky]

True, but the roads will have significantly higher speed limits than 10 and 15 km/h. If they are in mph, they would work out to 16 and 24 km/h respectively, which would still be below road speed. In the pictures shared by @reaperexpress, the only road speed sign I see is an orange 40 km/h for the corner, but orange speed signs are only suggestions, so the actual speed limit will most certainly be higher.

Not sure what your point is. Mine was that it would be dangerous if train drivers would have to simultaneously handle speed restrictions in km/h and mph: „40 km/h or 30 mph - whichever is lower“

 

[reaperexpress]

True, but the roads will have significantly higher speed limits than 10 and 15 km/h. If they are in mph, they would work out to 16 and 24 km/h respectively, which would still be below road speed. In the pictures shared by @reaperexpress, the only road speed sign I see is an orange 40 km/h for the corner, but orange speed signs are only suggestions, so the actual speed limit will most certainly be higher.

All Canadian rapid transit railways use km/h regardless of whether they operate directly on the road. See for example the TTC subway, which predates metrication and actually needed to be converted from mph to km/h in the 70's. But if you want absolute proof that the ION signs are in km/h, here's a 70 sign.

From this video by Transmania Ontario on YouTube.

 

[lenaitch]

On a completely off-any-topic note, do any of the folks here know what the railways do with the used ties. Is there sufficient uptake to flog them all to landscapers and garden centres to sell to people who like to pay good money for ratty, heavy used lumber? I have heard to some operators, somewhere, send part of their inventory to high-temperature 'plasma' furnaces as typically found in co-generation electrical plants.

I asked because I saw a huge pile at CP Midhurst today.

Just curious.

 

[Northern Light]

On a completely off-any-topic note, do any of the folks here know what the railways do with the used ties. Is there sufficient uptake to flog them all to landscapers and garden centres to sell to people who like to pay good money for ratty, heavy used lumber? I have heard to some operators, somewhere, send part of their inventory to high-temperature 'plasma' furnaces as typically found in co-generation electrical plants.

I asked because I saw a huge pile at CP Midhurst today.

Just curious.

From April 2017, this paper: https://pub-crd.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=22589

 

[Bordercollie]

Are those speed limits in km/h or mph? Most rail in North America use mph.

ION uses KMPH

 

[smallspy]

View attachment 415936

From April 2017, this paper: https://pub-crd.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=22589

In addition to this.....

Wooden ties are generally replaced on an as-needed, as judged by visual inspections. If you ever see some random wooden ties on a stretch of track marked with an orange or yellow paint blob, those ones have been identified for replacement. And the numbers of ties capable of being salvaged for a second life in landscaping are usually quite low - in the range of 10-15% I believe - as one of the predominant failure modes is drying and splitting.

Dan

 

[Northern Light]

In addition to this.....

Wooden ties are generally replaced on an as-needed, as judged by visual inspections. If you ever see some random wooden ties on a stretch of track marked with an orange or yellow paint blob, those ones have been identified for replacement. And the numbers of ties capable of being salvaged for a second life in landscaping are usually quite low - in the range of 10-15% I believe - as one of the predominant failure modes is drying and splitting.

Dan

Thanks for that Dan.

I have to say, when I found that report, I was surprised it was done at all any more. I thought the issues w/creosote made the ties impermissible for most uses in landscape these days. I remember
in elementary school we had planters made of old ties when I was very little (70s) by the mid-80s these were gone, as apparently the black oozing substances that came out of the planters on hot days were not
considered safe for a playground.

Suffice to say, while I don't work in landscaping, people here know I do have exposure to that industry, and I haven't see ties used even once in the last 10 years, but I guess its a thing just not done by contractors I know.

 

[lenaitch]

Thanks for that Dan.

I have to say, when I found that report, I was surprised it was done at all any more. I thought the issues w/creosote made the ties impermissible for most uses in landscape these days. I remember
in elementary school we had planters made of old ties when I was very little (70s) by the mid-80s these were gone, as apparently the black oozing substances that came out of the planters on hot days were not
considered safe for a playground.

Suffice to say, while I don't work in landscaping, people here know I do have exposure to that industry, and I haven't see ties used even once in the last 10 years, but I guess its a thing just not done by contractors I know.

I highly doubt you would find them in a public, commercial or institutional setting anymore, at least up here. Heck, governments have pretty much determined that playgrounds aren't safe in playgrounds anymore. If you making a planter or raised garden, you could line it with poly like many do when using PT lumber.

I will guess that any that go to landscaping are for private property. I have used them a couple of times in the past. In addition to being already well used, they are heavy, dirty and murder on blades and bits.

When I lived in n/w Ontario, the town's railyard had a creosote 'plant'; basically a big open-top vat where contractor-cut ties were dumped for a good soaking. At least they had the common sense to put it downwind of the townsite.

Another aside tidbit, it seems they used to record the date when ties were changed out. We used to live near a branchline that had small 'date spikes' driven into the ties. The range seemed to be late 30s-40s. I don't know if that was an indication when the line was serviced or an indication when that was a practice until somebody decided it wasn't. I have a small collection.

 

[KevinT]

The thing I don't understand is that the bus is faster to get to Conestoga mall than the train. How does that make sense?

The iXpress bus was faster off peak, whereas on peak was an absolute slog. You couldn't always get on it either. ION is never faster or slower, it just is.

Could ION be faster? Absolutely. There are fanciful slow crawl zones on the line like one southbound in Waterloo Park approaching the freight crossover and another southbound over the creek bridge approaching Hayward that make no sense, didn't exist before ATP was enabled (and so weren't mandated by TC regs), but that simply aren't being fixed. :-(

 

[kalis0490]

The iXpress bus was faster off peak, whereas on peak was an absolute slog. You couldn't always get on it either. ION is never faster or slower, it just is.

Could ION be faster? Absolutely. There are fanciful slow crawl zones on the line like one southbound in Waterloo Park approaching the freight crossover and another southbound over the creek bridge approaching Hayward that make no sense, didn't exist before ATP was enabled (and so weren't mandated by TC regs), but that simply aren't being fixed. :-(

agree with Kevin, - There has been a lot of discussion on Waterloo Region Connected (sister site of UT) about why ion is slow and the main reason agreed upon was (rather than the number of 90deg turns being the primary cause of slowness) the slow operation. Even in 70 km/h zones , drivers don't reach more than 60 km/h. Also the ion is very conservative in turning. Turns are mandated to be at 15 km/h - even the ttc streetcar is faster. Heck , Ive seen 60 year old Tatras turn faster.

 

[T3G]

Heck , Ive seen 60 year old Tatras turn faster.

In fairness, just because they can, does not necessarily mean they should. High floors have a greater degree of flexibility because of the full swivelling motion of the trucks, but if a driver powers up midway through a turn, it makes for a massively uncomfortable ride even so.

I'm not sure how fast the TTC streetcars turn, but I'd be shocked if it's faster than 15 km/h. At the ride quality offered by Flexitys, I'd want a seatbelt!

 

[nfitz]

At the ride quality offered by Flexitys, I'd want a seatbelt!

The Outlooks do have a heck of a kick when they corner at any speed other than crawling - especially in the back of the back segment. Once recently, I wasn't holding on, and was doing something with my hands, and I landed in a seat on the opposite side of the aisle! I expect GRT is more sensitive to passenger injuries than TTC.