I read it in a book somewhere, I think a CJFreezer tome. It seemed authoritative at the time. (196... :-)
"Continental Europe" is a big place, with many different track standards and I would hesitate to pick any one track configuration that would represent the total. Flat bottomed rail might be one commonality over most of Europe - regularly spaced sleepers another, but that's about it!
Regards, Greg.P.
Could you narrow that down to a specific date, railway, track loading, rail weight, sleeper size, rail fixing, ballast type .... No, I still won't have a definitive answer but the exercise could be interesting.
Regards, Greg.P.
Easy. Seven feet centres and only two of them for early GW.
Ken.
Dave banged on his/her/it's keyboard in uk.rec.models.rail and came up with this:
John Turner wrote: [...]
That's 'cuz they're honkin' big chunks of wood, is why.
:-)
And the timbers can be wider than 12" if the angularity of the chairs on the timber is such that the bolt holes would be too close to the edges - 14" is usually the next size up.
Jim.
"Wolf Kirchmeir" wrote
Ever tried lifting a sleeper? ;-)
John.
Never needed to. Usually a little nudge made her move.
-- Steve :o)
I have, they're about 200 lbs each when dry; but around here there are still a very few old "tie-hackers", gentlemen who used a broad-axe to hew the sleepers out of the log. I know some of them who used to carry a "switch tie" (a point sleeper) over each shoulder to load on the railway flat car! And that would be green wood, ie. still wet off the stump. Gotta respect those old fellas! Mike in north central British Columbia, Canada
wrote
LOL - when younger I used to struggle with a 56lb sack of coal! :-(
John.
Life expectancy was probably only about 23!
Now you struggle with a 6lb bag of coal?
=8^D
Greg.P.
"Greg Procter" wrote
No, we use gas or electric these days! ;-)
John.
Closer to 63, but often with the right big toe missing. Think about it :-) Mike in BC
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