Boatnerd Discussion Forum

by **Mr Link** » March 10, 2021, 7:04 pm

Found my old A&K Rail Handbook. It has four 105# rail sections listed, but none were shown as rolled by Algoma. I'd bet that Algoma produced product catalogs that show the dimensions of its Section 80 rail but I have not found any online.

I also did some further review of where the rail-carrying MV Pacific Spike has been traveling. In the past 2 years it has been going to the ports of Vancouver, BC, Squamish BC and Wilmington, NC in addition to Stockton CA. At Squamish, it is unloading shorter rails (probably 80 footers) that are sent to Canadian Pacific's rail welding facility in Winnipeg. I couldn't determine what it was loading or unloading at Vancouver and Wilmington, but I'd suspect rails or structural shapes. Norfolk Southern has a rail welding plant in Atlanta, so it might be getting rail through Wilmington.

by **Mac Mackay** » March 10, 2021, 5:37 pm

Canadian National buys its rail from Poland. It is landed in Halifax, and stored. It is then sent on special rail cars to Winnipeg to be welded then dispatched to work sites.

by **Guest** » March 10, 2021, 12:41 pm

Never been much into trains but have always been interested in model railroads. I was surprised to learn about how unrealistic the curved tracked sections of train layouts are in comparison to most curved sections of real railroad tracks. Doing the calculations one night I soon discovered that it was virtually impossible to model curved high-speed rail sections even in HO or N scale without having some serious acreage and pretty deep pockets. The unrealism in the scale of the track sections in train layouts never bothered me, however. I find to that radio control boats also appear unrealistic in speeds and turning radiuses so I assuming a similar discrepancy exists between scale models and real-life unless the models are engineered in a certain manner and have a large enough area of water to so operate. Its been nearly 40 years since I've been out of school but I seem to remember hearing the term that physics is not scalable and that is what probably applies here.

by **guest** » March 10, 2021, 9:25 am

talking about rails did you know there are approximately 3100 airroad ties (some people call them sleepers) in a mile of track

by **johnfrombrighton** » March 10, 2021, 4:16 am

Mr Link, Syd BC, Guest & guest

Thank you - very much - for all the assistance. Really appreciate all the info.

I can always count on learning a lot of interesting things whenever I visit this page.

by **Mr Link** » March 9, 2021, 10:46 pm

guest wrote:rail is no longer made in canada algoma steel made it in the 80s then sydney steel in cape breton but sydney steel rails were inferior and the whole mill shut down and was demolished

Railroad rails typically use specialty steels and particular heat treatment methods, so not a lot of rail is produced in the United States anymore either. Steel Dynamics at Columbia City IN and Cleveland Cliffs (former AM) Steelton, PA plants are the only two I'm aware of in the US. Much rail is imported, mostly from Japan and Europe. Union Pacific actually had a special ship built to import 480 foot long rails from Japan. By rolling the rails that long, only 2 welds are needed to form the industry standard 1/4 mile long lengths of continuously welded rail that are transported to trackside and then field-welded into lengths up to several miles long.

Here is some information on MV Pacific Spike: https://www.up.com/aboutup/community/in ... 7-2015.htm

by **Syd BC** » March 9, 2021, 9:31 pm

Yes John there are Boatnerd Railfans As a kid I had an N scale lay out Got away from it Then when I started sailing Well trains are usually the first thing you encounter when in port Coal docks grain elevators steel mills etc So my interest in trains was rekindled

by **guest** » March 9, 2021, 5:18 pm

rail is no longer made in canada algoma steel made it in the 80s then sydney steel in cape breton but sydney steel rails were inferior and the whole mill shut down and was demolished

by **Mr Link** » March 9, 2021, 4:43 pm

Yes, the section refers to the physical dimensions of the rail. Height, width, web height, moment of inertia, etc. Different railroads specified different dimensions. For instance 105# Dudley was very common in Michigan since it was a New York Central standard rail.

I have some older rail cross section books that might show what the dimensions were. But my book collection is spread out between a house and a cabin so it may be a couple of weeks before I can look at them. And I'm not sure my references cover Canadian-rolled rail.

Here is a modern chart, but it doesn't have Algoma rails. https://www.wabtec.com/uploads/outlined ... ection.pdf

by **guest** » March 9, 2021, 4:00 pm

ive seen steel rails in canada {mostly on the cpr} and it reads nippon 2018 and 3 bars the bars tell you which month the rail was made in this case by nippon steel march 2018

by **Guest** » March 9, 2021, 12:40 am

This most likely indicates the rail cross section type. Basically the critical dimensions of the rail. These varied from different RR's and different rail weights. I can't find a section 180 in any modern references. It's possible it was
something that is no longer used or a numbering system unique to Canada at the time.

by **johnfrombrighton** » March 8, 2021, 9:38 pm

I know this board is about Great Lakes boats, but ships are connected to trains, etc ... There may, hopefully, be boatnerds who are trainnerds.

This wknd was walking across a short rail (ex Pere Marquette, ex C & O, CSX) bridge, just north of Wallaceburg, Ontario. On the web of the rail noticed these markings:
ALGOMA CANADA - 105 LBS - SEC180- OH 1944 II.

So far have been able to decode as Manufacturer: Algoma Steel; Weight: 105 lbs/yd; OH: open hearth furnace; Date of manufacture: February 1944. The only things I can't decode is SEC180.

Anybody have any ideas on what SEC180 stands for?

Appreciate all assistance.

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