street track

Danke Schoen, René

The stuff from Swedrail is what I was looking for. Thanks. René

You are probably looking for Swedtram

. Since you are apparently living in the Netherlands, a German source would probably help you. Google.de found and , for example.

Regards,

George Werner Pflaum

I don't have the answer you want precisely. There is a firm called "Swedtram" and a German one called "Hartel" (sp?). The rail itself is called "bridgerail" in English. I have seen it made by combining code 100 running rail with a lighter code rail soldered sideways against the web to create a slot for flanges. You might find proper bridgerail in the Walthers catalogue (I only have a ten year old copy) but I can't comment on it's quality.

Regards, Greg.P.

Not in the English we use in England. We normally call it Tram rail, sometimes Girder rail. Bridge rail is the 'tophat' section used by the GWR on their Baulk road. And often used for crane rails and similar, also defined in BS105 of 1919

Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Keith Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

No. Bridge rail is something else.

Bridge rail has a cross section like a slice through the middle of a top hat, including the hollow part. It is continually supported by wooden baulks running under the rail. This track was used on the Great Western Railway's broad gauge routes in Britain.

I think streetcar/tramcar rails are sometimes called flange rail because it creates a protected flangeway in the road. Sometimes also called street rails.

You can see this at

shows a section of track under construction. You can see the groove in the top of the rail.

The centre slot is for a form of 3rd rail electric supply. Below the narrow slot is a conduit for the third rail. When the tramcar made the transition from overhead to third rail, a slider was attached to the tramcar which connected through the slot.

Another picture, of a turnout under construction, is at

shows the cross-section of the street rail.

Note that tramcar/streetcar wheels using this had a different profile than the standard railroad wheels, with a flatter tyre and shallower flange.

People have fabricated this using eg code 100 rail and soldering a smaller rail section at right angles, so the base of the smaller rail becomes the flange.

Streetcars used this but when regular track ran through the street, the prototype often used ordinary rail, with a second one just inside the running rail. As can be seen at road crossings. It meant they didn't have to ship anything special to the construction site.

Ok Keith and Christopher, I knew there was something wrong when I wrote that! Here in NZ the protected flangeway rail has been called bridgerail, but of course we never had a GWR in this country.

Regards, Greg.P.

Here is my technique for street trackage.

A guy in a trench coat walks up to you outside of a hobbyshop. "Hey buddy? You a model railroader? You want some turnouts? I've Shinohara #8s It's code seventy, the good stuff. Ican let you have them cheap if you buy a dozen."

Eric

Fellas, Looking up my BHP 'Steel Shapes and Sections' book, in that I find

102lb. Grooved Tramrail. Here in Melbourne this sort of rail is now not often seen on new tram lines, I don't think that it is now rolled in Australia, ordinary flatbottomed rail is laid in slab concrete with a clearance groove formed in the concrete. On curves a length of flat M.S., about 1 inch thick, is laid on edge inside the f.b. rail, method of attachment not sure, probably welded, to give the equivalent of a grooved rail. Regards, Bill.