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There's a Prototype for Everything!

Focalplane

Entry posted by Focalplane

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blog-0422408001426779020.jpgI am currently gapping the copper clad sleepers so that the two rails are isolated from each other. This leaves a small groove on the upper surface of each sleeper which is non-protoypical.

 

Or is it?

 

I remembered seeing termite proof steel sleepers on the Cape Gauge Chemin de Fer Congo Ocean in the mountains between Brazzaville and Pointe Noire. I was doing some geological fieldwork at the time (in 2013) and we had heard of a rock formation that had to be blasted through when the railway was built in the 1920s. Today this particular section has been bypassed but the locals told us that one train a week still passed along the old line.

 

I took a few photos and while focusing on the steel sleepers I noticed each one had a groove!

 

blogentry-20733-0-37531900-1426778643_thumb.jpg

 

The rock formation is in the distance on this photo:

 

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No doubt a passing train had a piece of substantial metal hanging loose and this must have caused the damage.

 

I plan to fill in the grooves on my track, but it is nice to know that I don't actually have to - the precedent has been established in far away Africa.

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Focalplane

Definitely a possibility. Derailments were common though things are improving with Asian investment, mainly aimed at stripping out natural resources like timber, phosphate, etc. There is even a new passenger train service. We didn't walk very far along the track.

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