...Railway artillery - Personal Page of GENE SLOVER

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(This necessitates starting with half a rail length at the point of
tangency.) (c) On crooked lines or wherever tangents are not
predominant, staggered joints should be used throughout the entire
length.
TRACK LAYING.
524. Before beginning the track laying it is necessary to check for
the stakes that may have been disturbed during the excavating.
These stakes.will serve as guides for distributing the ties and the rails,
and after the ballasting has been completed they will serve as guides
for the exact placing of the track. Following are brief rules for the
laying and assembling of the track components:
(a) Ties: The ties are properly spaced by means of a gauge and
are aligned approximately through the use of the rail notches as
guides.
(b) Rails: As noted in the preceding paragraphs, spaces should be
left at the joints for expansion, and care should be exercised to avoid
any considerable displacing of the ties.
(c) Joining of the rails: The connecting or fish plates are placed
at the rail joints and bolted tight.
(d) Adjustment of ties: After the rails are bolted together the
exact positions of the ties may be marked off on them with chalk,
and the ties adjusted to this marking by hand or with bars.
(e) Spiking or wedging: As soon 88 the ties are adjusted the
rails may be spiked to them, using a gauge to keep the rails the
proper distance from each other, if T rails are being used. If
rail chairs are provided, these chairs will have been previously spiked
to the ties at proper distances apart and the rails need only be wedged
into them. .
if) Firing track: For this' section of a track T rails of a heavy
weight and from 11 to 12 meters in length are always used. No
particular attention need be paid to the locating of the joints. Particular
attention must be paid, however, to the locating of the ties
with respect to the holes in the structural steel sliding beams.
525. TuRNOUTS.-A turnout is composed of three parts. These
are (1) A switch, which is the operating section; (2) a junction,
which carries two ordinary tracks; and (3) a crossing with a frog or
guard rails. A crossing may be defined in two ways-that is, either
by the angle between the two tracks which it cuts, for example, 5
degrees and 30 minutes, 7 degrees and 30 minutes, which are angles
in use on the Est Railway, or by the tangent of the angle between
the two axes.
526. STUDY OF TuRNoUTs.-In preparing for the placing of a switch,
the type having been determined, it is necessary to know the follow-
Digitized by Coogle