Railway Engineering and Maintenance Volume 15, No. 8 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 Excerpt: ... one further feature. The distance between the interior faces of the two bent-up portions of the plate on the two sides is slightly greater than the width of the rail base. This excess width, % to XA in., is taken up by inserting a flat strip of steel that fills the space snugly. When installing tie plates of this kind on a curve the plates for both the inside and outside rails are installed with these strips of metal on the gage side of the rail. As the outer rail of the track becomes flange worn, thereby increasing the gage distance, these strips of metal on the tie plates of one rail, and later on the other rail, can be transferred to the outer side, thereby decreasing the gage distance by an amount equal to the width of the strip. Thus means are afforded for adjusting the gage without disturbing the tie plate or the track spikes. This device has been subjected to two service tests under heavy traffic conditions. One of these covers the application of the plates to alternate ties on a 17 deg. curve on one of the approach tracks to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul station at Milwaukee. While this installation is not sufficiently complete to illustrate the holding power of the appliance, it has demonstrated the ability of the fastenings to remain intact after 18 months of service under exceedingly heavy traffic. The other installation is complete for all of the ties on two rail lengths of a three degree curve on the east bound one per cent down grade track of the Chicago & North Western at Layton Park, this being a portion of the Milwaukee-Madison line of that road which also serves as a link in the belt line around the city of Milwaukee over which about 100 trains pass daily. The tie plates were installed on September 17, 1918, and are in effecti...