Any of you engineers know how much it takes to bend railroad track?

[kebo]

FYI, rail is manufactured in many different weights/classes. The standard way of identifying rail is however much a 3ft section of it weighs will determine it's class/size. Much of North American freight rail is 138lb rail or 151lb rail. That means a 3ft section of it weighs 138lbs, or 151lbs respectively.

If you have some rail and want to know what size it is, see if you can match up the index number stamped into the web with the charts listing most common rail sizes below:

RAIL SPECIFICATIONS

Obviously, the strength of the rail that you sunk 5ft into the ground will vary based on the size. However, rail was not designed for that use, it's designed to bear extremely heavy weight loads in one plane only, and it has to be supported properly before it will do that. I think though if you add a couple guy wires to it, it should serve your purpose just fine. The zipline sounds and looks like a LOT of fun!

 

[rambler]

Yea, rr track is actually pretty soft bendable metal. It is designed to take a pounding, a lot of weight & wear, but be supprted every foot or less. It is not stiff at all, and will bend easily in an application like yours. Some have tried useing them for bridge supports, and that fails horribly too. They transfer the weight of the train from the the wheels above to the ties below; they don't support any weight on their own.

--->Paul

 

[Dargo]

Yea, rr track is actually pretty soft bendable metal. It is designed to take a pounding, a lot of weight & wear, but be supprted every foot or less. It is not stiff at all, and will bend easily in an application like yours. Some have tried useing them for bridge supports, and that fails horribly too. They transfer the weight of the train from the the wheels above to the ties below; they don't support any weight on their own.

--->Paul

I know that track stinks for structural use, but it seems different the way it's made. Clearly the surface where the wheels roll on it is hardened. It rings like a bell when struck with a hammer. Strike the bottom flat side and it is more of a dull thud. I suppose it has to be flexible as to not break and make curves yet hardened on top as to not wear out on an annual basis.

I did talk to a retired CSX engineer and he promised me that if I put a guy wire with a turnbuckle going down from the top at about a 30 degree angle that I'd have no problems.

 

[smiley]

Dargo,
Nice looking layout, soccer field and all. And I thought I had a big lawn, yours must take at least 3 weeks to mow with your "1982 19" Murray push mower (B&S industrial 8 hp engine!) custom deck, 6" plastic wheels with grade 2 1/2" bolts with 1" washers!"

 

[sawdust_maker]

I know that track stinks for structural use, but it seems different the way it's made. Clearly the surface where the wheels roll on it is hardened. It rings like a bell when struck with a hammer. Strike the bottom flat side and it is more of a dull thud. I suppose it has to be flexible as to not break and make curves yet hardened on top as to not wear out on an annual basis.

I'll bet this is because of work hardening. If so, this is not in the way it was made, but in the way it was used.

Roll a (heavy) train over a piece of track many, many, many times. The top surface will undergo plastic deformation, and along the way get hard.

John

 

[SuperCobra]

Interesting but impertinent.....during the civil war, in order to disable the rail ways ( supply lines), troops would take the rail sections loose from the tracks and place the center section of a rail in a "camp" fire. After a little heating, 6 men could bend the rail into a pretzel around a tree, rendering it unusable. Moral of this tidbit: RR rails aren't necessarily as stout as they appear to be.

I recall reading those were bonfires made from piles of ties rather than "campfires". Not sure if ties were treated back then but that would make a bigger fire.

 

[/pine]

with 32 eighty pound bags of concrete mix...

it's going to take a lot more than 32 80# bags....check the volume of a bag...it's probably about 2/3 or .65 cubic foot...it takes 27 cubic feet to make one yard...you will need somewhere between 40 and 45 80# bags to get one yard of concrete...

...also the compression strength of the average bagged concrete mix is barely 2000 lb mix... depending on how much water is used...it is highly recommended to add some portland to the clinker...

 

[Dargo]

it's going to take a lot more than 32 80# bags....check the volume of a bag...it's probably about 2/3 or .65 cubic foot...it takes 27 cubic feet to make one yard...you will need somewhere between 40 and 45 80# bags to get one yard of concrete...

...also the compression strength of the average bagged concrete mix is barely 2000 lb mix... depending on how much water is used...it is highly recommended to add some portland to the clinker...

You know, I was thinking how many wheelbarrow loads it took to haul 1 yard of concrete. Way back when I did my first barn I had all the help lined up, the day off, concrete ordered, beer bought and all. Then, as the first truck rolls up, the sky opened up and it poured all day. On a 50 yard pour inside my barn the 2nd truck got stuck in my yard and we had to wheelbarrow the rest of the concrete over 2X6 boards into the barn by hand. The driver was keeping count and, with a standard sized wheelbarrow, it takes 16 trips to haul 1 yard. Also, if the wheelbarrow starts to tip, playing superman to level it again doesn't work. It only results in a broken handle on a wheelbarrow.

After I dug it out when I was digging the hole for the anchor wire, it does appear as if the track is what bent. I pulled it back to level with my excavator but am going to wait a week before attaching the guy wire and turnbuckle to it. You must have sent mental waves to me too. I used the 5000 psi bag mix to fill the hole holding the anchor point. It will be a pain to mow around, but it should work. Work and arthritis in my hands and hips kept me from starting work on the launch platform yesterday. I hope to get started on it today.

When digging the anchor hole I used my PHD rather than excavator to keep down the amount of concrete needed. Unfortunately my cheap Leinbach PHD will only dig 3' deep with it's 12" auger. I still had to dig out an area with the excavator and then just punch in a 3' deeper hole. I guess I'll do the same for the 6X6X12 posts that will hold the launch platform. I've gotten so tired of changing the shear bolts that I went from the normal grade 2 to grade 5. (My ground is really hard clay) I still snapped a couple, but at least I was able to get the hole dug.

 

[lostcause]

i vaguely remember hearing or reading about someone cutting up old railroad track for scrap a while back, and i could swear they said all the had to do was use a torch and cut across the top of it, and then they could break it off (i'm thinking it was a sledgehammer to snap it - obviously over some sort of fulcrum) nobody else has mentioned this, so it makes me wonder what i was on at the time. i was thinking it was brittle other than the top of the rail.

 

[forgeblast]

A lot of farm anvils are made from them. i have a secton from the mine my grandfater worked in, i was going to use it as the center support of a root cellar, but i think i will do something different now.