Operating

Don't model big projects.  For big projects they stop operation (curfew) to work on the track and don't run trains for 4-6-8 hours.  That would be big rail, tie or bridge projects.  What that translates to model operation is not operating.

You can model a single gang doing minor maintenance with either a gang protection order (modern, post 1960's) or flagmen (pre-1960's)  In either case you can put a gang (two or more workers) and tools, some ties, etc near a spot and put out flagmen  on either side several feet away.  Two options a manned or unmanned gang. 

If you have somebody that likes to watch trains and doesn't want to run trains (great for people recovering from knee or hip surgery)  you park them there as the track foreman.  When a train approaches the train has to contact the foreman and then the foreman can tell the train one of three things:

1. Everybody's in the clear, normal speed.
2. Everybody's in the clear proceed at a reduced speed.
3. We aren't clear stop and wait until we are ready (then 1 or 2 above).

If you don't want to have anybody there (un-maned) then you put a die at the spot with instructions to roll the die and take action based on the result.

1. Roll a 1 or 2 :  Everybody's in the clear, normal speed.
2. Roll a 3, 4, 5 :  Everybody's in the clear proceed at 10 mph.
3. Roll a 6 :   They aren't clear,  stop and wait 10 min, then proceed at 10 mph.

Another option that adds activity is to model the OPENING of a curfew.  A gang works from 8a to 3p.  Your op session starts at 3 pm.  You have all the trains that should have run on first shift staked up on the main track and in sidings short of the work area.  At 3 pm you start crewing up the trains and run both first shift and second shift's trains in one session.  Or at least you try. 

The other option falls in the NOMR category (not on my railroad) is the support option, you don't actually model the work, you model moving extra trains of material (rail, ties, ballast, bridge material, fill) to and from the work area on an adjoining territory.  You don't actually model the work, you model the additional supply of materials.  

Lastly is another NOMR option, the detour option.  Your railroad (or another railroad) has a curfew for work on a parallel line.  The other line detours some trains over your line to go around the curfew.  This option lets you run additional trains or other railroad's trains but you don't have to stop anything for maintenance work yourself.

Former M.O.W. employee

When I began what is now a 27 year railroad career working on 3 different railroads, culminating in working today as a locomotive engineer on Union Pacific Railroad, my first year was spent in the M.O.W. department of the Canadian Pacific/Soo Line railroad in Minnesota and North Dakota. In those early days, we would work on the tracks sometimes without any protection from on coming trains at all, however no hyrail vehicle or track equipment was on or fouling the main track, and a "look out" person would watch for trains and warn the workers to clear the main track for train traffic, a practice still used today in certain situations. 

When it is necessary for hyrail vehicles or other track equipment to operate and work on the main track or controlled sidings, it is done with form "B" protection of the workers and equipment, yellow/red flags 2 miles in adavnce and a red flag at the entrance to the form B, and the train crews have in their possession, written notice of where the form B is located, and the name of the employee in charge of the form B and workers. Train crews must contact the employee in charge for his permission to enter into his form B limits, or stop short of the limits if he cannot be contacted, to prevent collisions between trains and track equipment. 

The written notice is in the form of track warrant for bulletins that lists all such notices of Form A, (slow orders) Form B (protection of employees and equipment), and form C (other conditions such as grade crossings not working properly, non railroad workers near the tracks, and other miscellaneous conditions). This is not to be confused with track warrants that convey authority for trains or maintenance of way equipment to operate on the main track in track warrant territory. 

When I first hired out in the early 1990's, track inspectors using hyrail trucks or speeder cars to inspect track, would sometimes set their vehicles on the track and run without any track warrant authority or flag protection, in track warrant territories not unlike 50 years before that time, and would simply rely on the printed train line up, or time table train schedule back in Timetable and Train Orders era. This has since been discontinued due to safety concerns, and a few collisions or close calls, (been there, done that) and now all track equipment or hyrail trucks have to get their own track warrant for authority to operate on the main track same as trains.

As far as including it into model railroad operations, you could put up small red flags near the track with a yellow red flag 2 scale miles in advance of the red flag, and trains would have to stop short of the red flag and talk to the person in charge of it before proceeding, any M.O.W. on the track would have to clear up in a siding or other track off the main track before the train is allowed to proceed. As on the prototype railroads, your train crews would need some sort of written notice of the track work being done including the location of it in thier train orders.

I can't tell you when the flag protection in the form of the flags beside the tracks was actually put into practice, because it's been standard operating procedure for my entire time of working on railroads, so perhaps someone with more historical knowledge can better answer that for you. Jim

Consolidated Code of Operating Rules

For specifics find a Copy of the Consolidated Code of Operating Rules, or a Railroad specific Rulebook for the railroad you model. Before GCOR railroads often had different approaches even railroads that regularly interchanged or even had joint operations would have different rules. 

The basic information provided is a great place to start, but as stated most large projects would require complete shutdowns or reroutes. A fun project would be to have not regularly operated trains operate over a section of railroad due to a large project somewhere else. 

For operating interest you could take a siding or section of double track out of service and require operators to call the flagger for permission to enter the work limits on either side. A work train could also arrive and enter the out of service track and deliver supplies. When offloaded the train could then head back to the yard for more supplies. If the line is not signaled in both direction the train running against the current of traffic will have to get orders, run at the specified speed and may need to even stop at designated locations to provide protection (crossings etc.) 

If you could draw up a plan I believe the hive mind here could give you something to work with. 

Form Y / Form B

The gang protection orders (form Y in the old 1968 UCOR) first show up in the 1960’s.  In those days they used plain yellow boards flagging distance out from the work area and red boards may or may not have been displayed. If they were the train had to stop before entering the limits.  In the 1980’s railroads transitioned to using “yellow-red” boards to distinguish them from speed restriction boards.  In the mid 1980’s when the GCOR was cut over it went from “train order Form Y” to “track bulletin Form B”.   It was the same basic concept, excepylt by then the approach distance was set at 2 miles. 
 

Form Y and Form B were formatted forms that were a grid.  They also had to be planned .  The dispatch offices required foreman to submit their requests for Form Y/B the evening before they did the work.   Since a crew could be on duty for 12 hours, the crew had to be given the Form Y/B 12 hrs before the order started.  If the Form B went in effect at 8am, the dispatcher had to start issuing the Form B to crews on duty after 8 pm the night before.  So a form B wasn’t something a maintenance gang could just jump up and do. 

Back when I started on the railroad I was in the Engineering dept. and I did hy-rail on a general line up.  It is scary when you get close to the line up time and I knew guys who got their by rails run over when they pushed the time too far.

Steam era there is no Form

Steam era there is no Form Y/B.  Crews worked under traffic or flagged.  Back in those days there were fewer large gangs, most of the work was done by small local gangs (section gangs).  They would change out one or two ties at a time and if a train showed up they would get out of the way and let the trains go by, then they go back to work.  If they were making the track unsafe ( replacing a rail) the would just flag.  

That's interesting. I'll come

That's interesting. I'll come back to those.

I expected some other sorts of answers (in addition), for the modern era. Stuff like a Sperry rail detector, which seems operationally like a very slow train?

Also those remarkable Rube Goldberg looking machines that replace ties, spikes and ballast - although do those counts as "major projects"? I've seen that train go by a couple of times, seemingly at about 1-2mph. A slow walk, but definitely still moving. As someone not involved, I would have thought that this would occupy a track for a while, but could easily be moved into a siding to let traffic through. (In fact, NS's seems to end up on a siding right down the road from me for a day or two perhaps twice a year.) Seemingly they would want to take the track for an hour or two at a time.

Sperry's are rare

Sperry detectors are actually fairly rare, as they tend to traverse lines only a few times a year.

More common are high-railers. I lived next to the CN/IC for a few years. On most weekday mornings, a northbound and southbound set of Amtrak trains would run thru my town at about 10 AM, followed by a few freights. Then the line would be cleared for several hours (4+) as the high-railer rolled up and down the line. High railers are very common, and most people don't realize how often they come through.

The tie gangs, tampers, and ballast cleaners are all major projects, and they come through once every few years. I caught those up on the CN line as well.

This set (and I missed catching about 3/4's of their operation) had just replaced a number of ties along the line, and were sweeping ballast back towards the track. This was the only set I saw in 3 years along the line.

I also caught a rail grinder, which is also another rarity.

Gangs

Depending on how big the gang is it can take a half hour to an hour to "cut in" and "cut out" a large gang.  That's why they have curfews because they lose so much production getting the gangs on and off the track, if they clear too many times, they don't get any production.  A section gang only removes a couple ties at a time, so the track isn't made "unsafe" and train can pass at normal speeds.  They can clear up in a few minutes.  On the other hand a mechanized gang might take out 100 ties at a time and make the track "unsafe".  That means the gang has to replace the ties, the track has to be tamped and lined, then because the track has been "disturbed" the train speed has to be reduced.  After all the trackwork is done, then the gang has to run to a clearing point at 10 mph.  Its a long involved process.  After the train passes, the gang has to run back out, then resume work, which means each piece has to complete several hundred feet of production before the next piece can start.  The spike pullers have to pull a couple hundred feet of spikes then the tie remover has to remove a couple hundred feet of ties,  Then the tie inserters can start inserting ties, next the spikers can spike the ties, then the ballast regulators, and lastly the tampers..  Once they resume work it can be a half hour to an hour before the tamper starts production because of the travel time and them waiting for all the other machines to start work.  

Why have a big gang then?  Because once they are cut in they can replace a thousand ties over a mile or two a day while a section gang can get maybe a half dozen a day.

Normally a tie or rail gang gets 4-6 hours at least on the track and on double track they might leave a gang cut in on one track continually for weeks.  The biggy is the P-811 track renewal machine where the front of the machine rides on old track and the rear of the machine rides on 100% new track, new rail, all new ties.  That is cut in for 8-10 hours a day on single track and weeks straight on multiple track.

A welder can do "shots", little segments of an hour or two and a single tamper might get by with an hour or two at a time.

The rail detector cars are necessary evil.  They have to have a curfew too because whoever the owns the detector car doesn't want it run over and often they have to back up and retest an area or they have to get out and hand test an area.  But the real problem with a detector car is that its purpose is to find rail defects.  And it does.  That means there has to be one or two gangs following the detector cars to change out defective rails or else there will be bunches of 10 mph speed restrictions following the car.  Track geometry cars are almost as back but don't generate as severe speed restrictions.  More are in the 25 or 45 mph range, but they can be miles long.  While nobody likes the detector cars, its better that they find the defects than a train.

In the summer time, on important lines, every afternoon between 2 and 4  (the heat of the day) there will be track patrols inspecting the track for signs of stress in the rail due to expansion from the heat.  They are very high priority and dispatchers will hold trains to run track patrols if they have to.  If they find a place that is starting to move, they will call out a gang and they will cut a piece out of the rail to take care of the expansion.

In the winter, the first couple of cold snaps (when the there is a temperature swing of 50-60 degrees or more) starting about 1am and lasting until about 6am the rails will start to break.  On some railroads, they will put signal maintainers and section gangs on the night shift in anticipation of this.  As the rails go snap crackle pop, the signal systems drop to red, the signal maintainers isolate where the rails are broken and patrol to find the broken rail, then a gang is sent to patch the rail.  Back in the day, if the break wasn't too bad (clean vertical break in tangent track), they would "walk" a train over a broken rail.  Not as much any more.  The worst night I ever had was over about route 5000 miles of main (three divisions), we had about 100 broken rails.  Normally, if the break is clean they will pull the rail ends back together, drill holes and put joint bars over the break.  If its a jagged break or large chunks of the rail are broken out, they will have to replace a rail (or half a rail).

In jointed rail there is also something called a "stripped joint" (not to be confused with a strip joint).  A stripped joint is when jointed rail contracts and one rail shears all the bolts out of a joint bar.  Also a bad thing.

At a later date, gangs will have to go back out and replace all the temporary fixes and patches.

Track geometry

In the modern era (post 2015) they have more sophisticated track geometry equipment.  Prior to that they had cars that were manned that traveled around and measured the track geometry (gauge, crosslevel (track tips side to side), line (track is straight or a smooth curve) and surface (track is vertically smooth).

Starting in the mid 2010's railroads installed detector sensors on locomotives.  This had a couple advantages.  It would test under load (track fully weighted), it could test 24x7, it didn't require attendants and it would test as the engine moved around the system.  In addition the railroads made their systems compatible, and the data was sent to the AAR (actually Railinc) and then sent back to the railroad owning the track.  That way if a NS engine was on the UP or vice versa it could still test track.  They also had special MofW boxcars that had a foot or two of concrete poured on the floor of the car and then sensors added to the trucks.  it was powered by solar cells or axle generators.  The MofW could bill the car to various locations to test the track as they needed to.  It also tested 24x7 at track speed.

The problem is these are totally transparent to the operation.  Other than maybe some lettering and that the cars never were spotted at industries, nobody knew the engines or cars were there.

One of the last projects I had before I retired was writing protocols between the MofW and dispatch office for handling defects when these engines found a defect.

Mobile Chicanes

Hi all,

How about introducing a few "mobile chicanes" ie getting the per-way equipment to where it is needed (at the other end of the layout? 

How this works on the prototype locally: 

1. Self-propelled equipment like tampers, ballast regulators, tie extractors etc can move at restricted transit speed of 80kph (45mph) maximum under their own power - As a model they would appear as a "low-speed" convoy of self propelled equipment. This convoy of powered single units has to be fitted in around everything else. Because of the effect this can have on higher-speed timetabled trains, these moves are often short-range (let's say less than 50 miles) and are usually done at night when more of the "other stuff" isn't running. For DCC chipped self-propelled per-way units this would involve low-speed, line-of-sight operating rules - "You are good to go, just don't bump into the one in front". (Here's your mobile chicane)
2. This equipment can also be set up for transit at line speed under locomotive haulage for long-range moves (let's say 50 mile plus). You could use un-powered models of tampers (see the Kibri plastic kit range) or run them coupled up as a DCC consist for powered per-way models. This presents a nice chance to model "something different" instead of the more usual passenger or freight trains. At present I have 2 tampers and 2 ballast regulators parked in a loop at Unanderra for a major crossover replacement to be done this weekend. It's a pretty fair bet that they were hauled in by loco from somewhere else. I've personally seen the haul-away job being set up to go from Unanderra after a similar weekend shutdown. Here's a drop-off your unpowered tampers etc at XXX and get your light locomotive "back home" scenario.
3. Other larger-unit per-way equipment like ballast-cleaning trains fitted with conveyor fed hoppers, rail trains with long-length pre-welded rails and spoil trains are run as unique unit trains to get them from Point A to Point B. Some of these dedicated consists could also be restricted to lower than maximum track speed. Operationally these could leave staging and be terminated at a siding or loop out on the layout and be left for the next operation session to "get them home" to staging. Depending on where you park this pre-positioned per-way train, it could add some more complexity to a "routine" operations session (a temporary chicane??).  This would be be equivalent to a pre-positioning move for a major track maintenance outage that would happen between operating sessions.

Food for thought?

MOW vignette

Here at a local derelict yard (unused, but rail not yet reclaimed) in the late 90's I noted a track had been cut, with one section (maybe 100' in length?) elevated with dirt as a ramp, with the end at the cut point on a stack of ties at the level of a flatcar.  Later on, I noted a short string of flats with rails on their decks in the yard, and a few MOW units (typically associated with track laying or maintaining) scattered along the track.  Sure enough, CP had moved some maintenance equipment in on the line.  It was under RailLink management at the time, but CP still owned the ROW, and presumably the physical plant, with some responsibility for upkeep.  So that's another possibility for MOW-related traffic, and it doesn't impact the RR operation much, as it just requires loaded/empty flat cars and a nearby under-utilized track or two; wouldn't need to be in a yard, either, a house track would do.  Of course, the work actually being done with that equipment on the mainline would be done under restrictions as others have outlined, but as a static vignette, it wouldn't need to be disruptive.

Blair

Self-propelled equipment like

Not typically in the US, they are restricted to between 25 and 35 mph, so its much slower.  The moves are generally fairly short as suggested, it ties up the main track too long and there is too much of a chance of something breaking down, these machines are not designed for long runs.

Not typical  of US practice.  These machines have no way to "couple" to a locomotive and aren't designed to "couple" into a "train", one can tow another but there are no brake connections or slack and the connections aren't heavy duty to handle several coupled together.

The only way to move them at track speed is to load them on flatcars and move the flatcars as a train.

Suggested as a modelling option

Hi DaveH, all,

While the operations suggested in the "Mobile Chicanes?" post on the previous page might not be prototypical US practice, they could provide some additional "train" options for freelanced and Aussie-based layouts.

As far as drawbar strength goes, a typical per-way transit train consists of a locomotive and maybe 4 to 6 per-way units at the most. Smaller units like ballast regulators are simply through-piped for air. Bigger units like the tampers are fitted with air brakes. The locomotive provides sufficient braking mass for such a short train. However, if needed, additional air-braked wagons (say 4 flat cars or hoppers) could be added to the consist to provide additional braking capability while in transit under locomotive power.      

Just sayin'

If that's what they do in Australia, great.  But it never happens in the US and that's what my comments addressed. US MofW equipment isn't set up for it.  US equipment is either trucked or loaded on a flatcar.

Track inspection from Hi-Rail trucks

A somewhat normal move is a track foreman and helper doing track inspection from a Hi-Rail truck,

a one time a week requirment where Amtrak or Commuter Passenger services are run,done under

"track and time" Rules in GCOR 

For earlier times, using a M from(CR/PC book of rules{CT-400}) and a positive Block protecting the move

behind it or a train order holding all trains clear till the Hi -Rail was off the track.

This was also done to move a gang from a staging siding to work location and return.

MoW flat car move

For those wondering how the MoW gear gets onto flat cars for long haul moves, check the flowing Virtualrailfan special from 3 weeks ago: