This is going to be another “My Life With The Railroad” posts…you’ve been warned Aimee and Tracy.

BUT…it’s not going to be as wonkish as the other ones.

Norfolk Southern and CSX bought Conrail in the late 1990’s. Then there was a period of time when nothing changed as the details were worked out between NS and CSX about which lines each company got and how to start operations with assimilated Conrail.

In the spring/early summer of 1999 (I can’t remember the date) the actual merger took place in the sense that NS and CSX started operating Conrail.

There were problems from the beginning. Rail traffic came to a standstill on some major routes along the Great Lakes. There were stories of railcars being in transit for 60 days, never making it to their destination. Shippers were angry and local governments were angry.

Local governments were angry because old routes through their communities which once carried little or no traffic were activated again and were humming with activity. This caused traffic congestions at rail crossings and safety concerns.

In our office, teams of engineers were sent to the various problem areas across the system to see what could be done to relieve the traffic congestion. One place was Buffalo, NY. One of our engineers worked to get Bison Yard rebuilt and I was sent to examine what it would take to open up CP-Draw. (see here).

A part of the system heavily hit by the congestion was Toledo, Ohio. Toledo was a major stop along the Chicago Line and always had a large amount of rail traffic, but now NS and CSX were trying to open up lines long closed and consolidated. As mentioned above, this caused heartburn for local communities.

It got so bad in Northern Ohio, that one particular project, the reopening of the Toledo Belt Line, caused the local United States Congresswoman to get involved.

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur represents Ohio’s 9th District, which Toledo is part of. The higher ups in the company wanted to assure her that NS was doing all they could do to improve rail traffic while paying attention to safety. To that end, they sent my boss and me to meet with her to explain our actions.

Preparing for the meeting was exciting as I was able to draw up some exhibits and put down my thoughts on our projects. I was very proud of my Toledo project and knew it was going to help our company.

The meeting was set up and we flew to Toledo. Arriving at her local offices, we were escorted by members of her staff to the conference room. There we prepped her staff about what we were going to be talking about and we waited for the Congresswoman.

She came into the meeting room all business. You just knew she was someone important and she got right down to the business at hand.

My boss introduced the situation to her and briefly explained our long range plans in Toledo. Then it was my turn. I told her about my project and what it would do to help the situation. I showed her the exhibit drawings and explained how the project would help with traffic patterns. Then she asked me quite a few questions.

It was all over in 30 to 45 minutes. It was a blur.

I guess we alleviated her fears, because the project went forward and was completed before I left the railroad. It was fun designing the project and then watching it get built. The plus side being that I got to brief a United States Congresswoman!

Now for some geek-tastic info with pictures!!!!

The project was once called the Toledo Belt line, but over the years, it had fallen into disrepair. The line once ran for about 5 miles from a large yard on the east side of Toledo to the Chicago line, but the connection with the Chicago line had been closed decades ago. This made the line a dead end line running from the yard to the west. As a result, the only traffic on the line was local switching trains serving the industries along the line.

The plan was to upgrade the track to increase speed, hook up the sections of passing tracks to make the line a double track configuration, add crossover switches to facilitate movement between the two tracks and finally to rebuild the connection with the Chicago line.

The Connection Track - click for larger image

The first thing to do was get the connection track re-built. The curvature of the old fill section was to steep, so the design pushed the track south and extended the fill section. The tie in point on the Chicago line was under the road bridge at the top of the picture. Funny trivia: My design is a designed defect. Railroads use a vehicle called a geometry car that measures geometry and what not. If there is a problem with the geometry, the car flags the spot as a defect. The local Roadmaster/Track Supervisor is then given a list of defect in his territory to fix. The problem with my design is that it is a permanent defect. There is no way to fix it!

Here’s why: The track north of the bridge is in a curve. If you are standing on the track looking north, that is up in the picture, the mainline begins to curve to the left (west). Since it’s a high speed mainline, it takes a good bit of superelevation, which requires long spiral lengths. The switch for the connection track is located within the spiral.

This sets up three problems. The first is the cross level of the switch is off because the track is still in superelevation. The second is that it sets up a reverse curve situation with no tangent between the curves. The third is because you can’t make a switch curve (at least not very well), it sets up a flat spot in the curve.

Every time the geometry car passes over the switch, it flags those defects! I wonder how much the Track Supervisor curses my name?

Overall picture - click for larger

Here are a few of my pictures of the project.

Connection track under construction

The ballast has been dumped, but it has not been tamped and shaped. To do that, you use a tamper and a regulator. Both very interesting pieces of equipment.

Finished Product

This is at the connection with the Chicago Line. The switch with the permanent defect is located under the bridge.

Looking down from Chicago Line

This picture was taken from the Chicago Line looking west down the Belt Line.