Keeping the Ties Dry

     Replacing old decaying ties could be considered one of the most labor intensive projects for the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad.  All of the standard gauge railroads replace their ties by using machines that can remove an old tie and replace it with a new one by an operator just pressing a few buttons.  Unlike the standard gauge railroads, the B&W crew still does most of their tie replacements by hand with some assistance from a backhoe and a tie inserter. 


Spike Puller

     In order to replace a tie, there are several steps that need to occur.  First, they take out all the spikes which holds the tie to the rail using a spike puller.  Next, they dig out the dirt from around the tie with the backhoe and shovels so the tie can be removed easier.  After that is done, they use a tie inserter to pull the old tie out.  The dirt that has fallen into the space where the


The Backhoe

old tie was needs to then be removed by shovel so the new tie can sit flat.  When the area is cleaned out, the tie inserter can then push the new tie into its spot.  Finally when all of this is finish, new spikes can be put in with a spike maul and rock can be placed down to keep the tie from moving. 


Spike Maul

Tie Inserter

     All this work needs to be done on each of the ties that need replaced.  With more than a mile and a half of track that the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad runs on, you can imagine that they can potentially be a lot of ties that need replaced each year.  In order to keep this number down as much as possible, the crew tries to keep the tracks clear of leaves to prevent the water collected in the leaves from constantly keeping the ties wet.  To make the job of getting the leaves off the tracks easier, the B&W crew made a car which has a giant leaf blower on it.  An engine pulls the car around and someone can sit on the car or walk beside it and blow the leaves off the tracks.  Since several leaves have already fallen and there is always the potential for snow which would make leaf removal very challenging, the crew decided to blow leaves yesterday (11/1/14).  This was the main project to work on and it took several hours in order to make the tracks extremely clean.  


Blowing Leaves

 

The backhoe and blowing leaves photos were taken by Scott Bauer

The tie inserter picture was provided by Thomas Bauer

The spike maul photo was taken from danbury.org

The spike remover photo was taken from industrialrailway.com