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Post by joshuanickel on Dec 3, 2013 15:38:00 GMT -8
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 4, 2013 14:02:30 GMT -8
Palm Station plaza rebars keep rising. There will be equipment rooms and a retaining wall there: Now, it looks like we know what these rebars sticking from the Venice Blvd abutment are for. It looks like there is going to be yet another concrete bracket at the bridge foot. It's unbelievable how many layers of structure there is:
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 4, 2013 15:21:50 GMT -8
And at Military I saw no further track extension west but found these pieces of special trackwork for the crossovers west of Westwood. Special trackwork?? Everyone on this board knows by now that they are called frogs! (Rail frog is named after the bottom of horse's hoof.) Note the concrete ties for the frogs. This is different than Phase 1, where they used wooden ties. Metro required concrete ties for Phase 2, albeit being more expensive, because they are more reliable and have lower maintenance cost. I also noticed in the picture that the frogs destroyed one of the petroleum-pipeline markers.
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 4, 2013 16:08:34 GMT -8
I didn't realize but there will also be a single-train siding between Canfield Ave and Durango Ave west of Venice Blvd. This is in addition to the single-train pocket track between Jasmine Ave and Clarington Ave west of National/Palms Boulevards. There are then these crossovers between Military Ave and Westwood Blvd in the picture above. There are also crossovers near the end of line in Santa Monica. There are then crossovers in the Expo maintenance facility between Stewart St and Dorchester Ave west of Centinela Ave. These crossovers and sidings will help the operations when needed.
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Post by skater on Dec 4, 2013 17:57:52 GMT -8
I didn't realize but there will also be a single-train siding between Canfield Ave and Durango Ave west of Venice Blvd. This is in addition to the single-train pocket track between Jasmine Ave and Clarington Ave west of National/Palms Boulevards. There are then these crossovers between Military Ave and Westwood Blvd in the picture above. There are also crossovers near the end of line in Santa Monica. There are then crossovers in the Expo maintenance facility between Stewart St and Dorchester Ave west of Centinela Ave. These crossovers and sidings will help the operations when needed. so expo will have two new pocket tracks? gold line has 1 between south pasadena/highland park? red line has the one under macarthur park and i dont know about blue or green line. will foothill include a pocket track? is there a difference between a siding and a pocket track?
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 4, 2013 18:18:05 GMT -8
I didn't realize but there will also be a single-train siding between Canfield Ave and Durango Ave west of Venice Blvd. This is in addition to the single-train pocket track between Jasmine Ave and Clarington Ave west of National/Palms Boulevards. There are then these crossovers between Military Ave and Westwood Blvd in the picture above. There are also crossovers near the end of line in Santa Monica. There are then crossovers in the Expo maintenance facility between Stewart St and Dorchester Ave west of Centinela Ave. These crossovers and sidings will help the operations when needed. so expo will have two new pocket tracks? gold line has 1 between south pasadena/highland park? red line has the one under macarthur park and i dont know about blue or green line. will foothill include a pocket track? is there a difference between a siding and a pocket track? The Jasmine - Clarington pocket track is a siding but it's between the two mainline tracks, hence the name. It will be connected to the mainline tracks by double crossovers on both ends of the pocket track. The Canfield - Durango siding is on the north side of the two mainline tracks. There will also be a crossover between the two mainline tracks at Canfield and another one just east of Bagley, in addition to the two crossovers connecting the siding to the northern track at Canfield and Durango. So, the crossover at Canfield will be a triple crossover (at a single intersection point at Canfield, there is the mainline going straight, a siding crossover toward north, and a mainline crossover toward south). I don't know about the other lines.
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Post by joemagruder on Dec 4, 2013 20:05:06 GMT -8
I have often seen the term "special work" used to describe the switches and crossings used in streetcar track construction.
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 4, 2013 21:56:11 GMT -8
I have often seen the term "special work" used to describe the switches and crossings used in streetcar track construction. Yes, special trackwork is the general term describing any trackwork that is not plain track. What Darrell pictured are specifically known as frogs, again, as pretty much everyone on this board knows by now.
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Post by bobdavis on Dec 5, 2013 0:24:48 GMT -8
And to get even more technical, those are "spring frogs", which close the gap in the main-line rail until the switch is "reversed" and the wheel flanges of the car taking siding force the rail segments apart. These can be a problem with light cars such as track inspection "speeders" or even Birney streetcars in heritage operations.
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 5, 2013 0:37:04 GMT -8
See this map of the 11th Ave crossovers. Military Ave - Westwood Blvd crossovers will be virtually identical, except concrete ties are being used instead of wooden ties. Where a rail crosses another, there is a "frog". There are four frogs because there are two crossovers. There will be two frogs for the crossover just east of Military Ave (seen in Darrell's picture looking east to Military Ave) and there will be two frogs for the crossover just west of Westwood Blvd. Where a rail splits into two rails, there is a so-called "turnout". Frogs, turnouts, and diamonds (which are frogs arranged in a diamond shape, used where two rails cross two rails) are some of the most common special trackwork. The Jasmine Ave - Clarington Ave pocket track and the Canfield Ave - Durango Ave siding, where there are three tracks instead of two, will be more complicated than these simple crossovers, requiring diamonds and three-way turnouts.
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f ron
Full Member
Posts: 222
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Post by f ron on Dec 5, 2013 8:50:32 GMT -8
One step forward, two steps back. After laying down layers of ballast, and even some rail, workers for he past few days have been busily burrowing beneath and through their work. Just east of the Overland crossing something must not have been right with the underground conduits. There's a big hole beneath the tracks as a team works to make fixes. Gotta be tedious work sliding in and out through the ties while tiny pieces of ballast keep falling back in. It may be a while before rail work progresses. A considerable trench is about to be dug. Giant braces for trench work were being assembled this morning.
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Post by RMoses on Dec 5, 2013 10:30:17 GMT -8
Yep, with all the local infrastructure needed for the crossing, including gates, signals, sensors, etc. I thought they would have done the street work first to alleviate any issues like this.
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Post by bzcat on Dec 5, 2013 10:30:19 GMT -8
Due to Westwood Blvd not at the same level as the Expo crossing (Westwood Blvd will be re-graded and widened to be level with crossing later), the contractor had to build ramps on both sides of the crossing to allow cars to cross over the tracks. However, 2 weeks after the work was done, it looks like the heavy traffic has destroyed the soft ramp. I drove over the crossing this morning and it was significantly more rough than before and I actually bounced out of my car seat when my car hit what remained of the ramp.
I estimate the rail crossing is a good 2 inches higher than Westwood Blvd right now on the east side.
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 5, 2013 16:56:25 GMT -8
We desperately need another lawsuit. NFSR, please sue Expo. Ever since the CA Supreme Court ruled in favor of Expo, Skanska/Rados has slowed down tremendously. I hardly see any workers working along the line now, which is reminding me the Phase 1 contractor FFP. I don't expect us to ride this line anytime before toward 2017.
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Post by joshuanickel on Dec 5, 2013 17:19:11 GMT -8
We desperately need another lawsuit. NFSR, please sue Expo. Ever since the CA Supreme Court ruled in favor of Expo, Skanska/Rados has slowed down tremendously. I hardly see any workers working along the line now, which is reminding me the Phase 1 contractor FFP. I don't expect us to ride this line anytime before toward 2017. You should come on down to Santa Monica where there is work taking place all along different parts of the route: - Concrete formwork going up for the termius station
- TPSS work at Terminus
- Utility work between 7th and 9th Street
- Diggging Up the ROW between 9th and 11th
- Preparing 11th Street intersection for Rail Installation next week
- Curb , Gutter, and Sidewalk installation between 14th and 10th Street
- Traffic Signal Work all along Colorado
- OCS Foundation work
- Utility installation at 17th Street for Station
- Installation of conduit from ground level up to the bridge at Cloverfield
- Building formed out of concrete at 26th Street Station (Communication Building?)
- Moving Dirt at the Maintenance facility (Not Skanska. Different Contractor)
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Post by RMoses on Dec 5, 2013 17:26:40 GMT -8
We desperately need another lawsuit. NFSR, please sue Expo. Ever since the CA Supreme Court ruled in favor of Expo, Skanska/Rados has slowed down tremendously. I hardly see any workers working along the line now, which is reminding me the Phase 1 contractor FFP. I don't expect us to ride this line anytime before toward 2017. No backtracking like the POTUS, you stated "All this said, my current guess is June 20, 2015" and you get to stick to it. Remember when everyone thought all bridges would be done by 2013?
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Post by joshuanickel on Dec 5, 2013 22:09:10 GMT -8
We desperately need another lawsuit. NFSR, please sue Expo. Ever since the CA Supreme Court ruled in favor of Expo, Skanska/Rados has slowed down tremendously. I hardly see any workers working along the line now, which is reminding me the Phase 1 contractor FFP. I don't expect us to ride this line anytime before toward 2017. No backtracking like the POTUS, you stated "All this said, my current guess is June 20, 2015" and you get to stick to it. Remember when everyone thought all bridges would be done by 2013?If they didn't run in to trouble with the foundation of the Pico Blvd. column, there was a good chance that all of the bridges could have been completed. The Pico bridge is the last remaining bridge. All of the other bridges are done or close to being done. They have started to remove the framing from the Sepulveda bridge and Bundy should not be far behind.
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Post by darrell on Dec 5, 2013 23:32:16 GMT -8
And at Military I saw no further track extension west but found these pieces of special trackwork for the crossovers west of Westwood. Special trackwork?? Everyone on this board knows by now that they are called frogs! (Rail frog is named after the bottom of horse's hoof.) Note the concrete ties for the frogs. This is different than Phase 1, where they used wooden ties. Metro required concrete ties for Phase 2, albeit being more expensive, because they are more reliable and have lower maintenance cost. I also noticed in the picture that the frogs destroyed one of the petroleum-pipeline markers. Showing the face of the concrete ties in the background and the variety of attachments on them: Note the flanges with bolt holes on the sides of the frog rails and corresponding plates with bolts on the ties.
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 6, 2013 0:35:49 GMT -8
Note that these are so-called spring-rail frogs or spring frogs. The wing rail is movable and it's held against the point rail by springs and this way there is no gap for the trains traveling on the main line, reducing the noise and vibrations. Occasionally when there is a train on the diverging track, the wheel flanges push the wing rail against the springs (brown parts outside the wing rail in the picture above) and they open a gap, allowing the diverging train to also be able to go through the frog.
Note the rubber vibration dampers on the concrete ties.
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Post by davebowman on Dec 6, 2013 12:03:27 GMT -8
I hate to be a nitpicker, but one of my pet peeves is when people write "could of" instead of "could have," mistaking it for "could've." We need to learn to write good!
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 6, 2013 14:46:14 GMT -8
Note that these are so-called spring-rail frogs or spring frogs. The wing rail is movable and it's held against the point rail by springs and this way there is no gap for the trains traveling on the main line, reducing the noise and vibrations. Occasionally when there is a train on the diverging track, the wheel flanges push the wing rail against the springs (brown parts outside the wing rail in the picture above) and they open a gap, allowing the diverging train to also be able to go through the frog. Also note the rubber vibration dampers on the concrete ties. Notice that there is a groove for the wheel flange to fit in one of the lines (main line) of the "X" but there is no groove for the wheel flange to fit in in the other line (crossover line) because the springs (brown-colored) are pushing the wing rail against the point rail. Occasionally, when there is a train going through the crossover, its wheel flanges will open the groove by pushing the wing rail against the springs. Expo Line also uses spring frogs in East Culver City in order to reduce noise and vibrations in this residential area. One of them had been installed accidentally in the reverse direction and had to be replaced with a new one recently. However, I noticed that they used regular, plain frogs at Catalina Ave - Vermont Ave for example, where there are already grooves for the wheel flanges to fit in both lines, albeit trains going on the main line generating a clickety-clack sound because of the gap along the main line caused by the groove along the crossover line. A regular (nonspring) frog such as the ones used at Catalina Ave - Vermont Ave looks like the one in the picture below. As you see, the wheels need to go over a small gap when they pass through the frog: The following are the other common types of special trackwork. A rail diamond is basically four frogs arranged in a diamond shape, used when two rails cross two rails. There are two diamonds in the following picture and also note the guard rails outside the actual rails, which guide the wheels through the frogs properly by pushing on the wheel flanges: Rail turnouts are what switch the trains onto different tracks. They are used in crossovers (to switch the trains onto the crossover when needed) or when they need to switch the trains onto some other diverging line as necessary. These days they are usually motorized (unlike the manual one in the picture below) and also have automatic interlocks to prevent collisions, as you don't want to switch a train onto a track where there is another train, especially heading toward the other train:
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 6, 2013 14:54:31 GMT -8
Progress at Palms Station plaza. There will be a wall here and they will backfill between the wall and the freeway so that the abutment of the old bridge for the westbound track is effectively connected to the new small abutment further west (seen in the picture with rebars sticking out from). There are also equipment rooms behind the wall. Once this is done, they also need to make falsework for the east end of the platform between the old and new bridges. I am glad to learn that there is a lot of work taking place in Santa Monica. There is still a ton of work to be done! I wish they would build this much faster, as they build buildings. For some reason, they take their time with rail construction, which moves with glacier speed compared to building construction.
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Post by culvercitylocke on Dec 6, 2013 17:59:29 GMT -8
That Expo Line sized building would be several miles high!
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 6, 2013 18:10:58 GMT -8
That Expo Line sized building would be several miles high! Not necessarily. CityCenter Las Vegas cost $9 billion, four times the cost of the Expo Line. It was a much bigger project than the Expo Line and it's not several-mile-high.
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Post by darrell on Dec 6, 2013 19:47:22 GMT -8
Note that these are so-called spring-rail frogs or spring frogs. The wing rail is movable and it's held against the point rail by springs and this way there is no gap for the trains traveling on the main line, reducing the noise and vibrations. Occasionally when there is a train on the diverging track, the wheel flanges push the wing rail against the springs (brown parts outside the wing rail in the picture above) and they open a gap, allowing the diverging train to also be able to go through the frog. Also note the rubber vibration dampers on the concrete ties. Notice that there is a groove for the wheel flange to fit in one of the lines (main line) of the "X" but there is no groove for the wheel flange to fit in in the other line (crossover line) because the springs (brown-colored) are pushing the wing rail against the point rail. Occasionally, when there is a train going through the crossover, its wheel flanges will open the groove by pushing the wing rail against the springs. Changed for better resolution:Expo Line also uses spring frogs in East Culver City in order to reduce noise and vibrations in this residential area. One of them had been installed accidentally in the reverse direction and had to be replaced with a new one recently. However, I noticed that they used regular, plain frogs at Catalina Ave - Vermont Ave for example, where there are already grooves for the wheel flanges to fit in both lines, albeit trains going on the main line generating a clickety-clack sound because of the gap along the main line caused by the groove along the crossover line. A regular (nonspring) frog such as the ones used at Catalina Ave - Vermont Ave looks like the one in the picture below. As you see, the wheels need to go over a small gap when they pass through the frog: The following are the other common types of special trackwork. A rail diamond is basically four frogs arranged in a diamond shape, used when two rails cross two rails. There are two diamonds in the following picture and also note the guard rails outside the actual rails, which guide the wheels through the frogs properly by pushing on the wheel flanges: Rail turnouts are what switch the trains onto different tracks. They are used in crossovers (to switch the trains onto the crossover when needed) or when they need to switch the trains onto some other diverging line as necessary. These days they are usually motorized (unlike the manual one in the picture below) and also have automatic interlocks to prevent collisions, as you don't want to switch a train onto a track where there is another train, especially heading toward the other train:
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 7, 2013 0:08:13 GMT -8
Thank you Darrell for the high-resolution images!
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Post by darrell on Dec 7, 2013 16:58:57 GMT -8
Colorado work is moving toward the closure of 11th Street to install the first section of embedded track (photos early this afternoon): Median closure begins at 10th Street. Approaching 11th Street, with completed OCS pole footing. The crossing-to-be at 11th Street.
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Post by bobdavis on Dec 7, 2013 22:59:10 GMT -8
Regarding the slow pace of construction: Sometimes it seems like my "home road", the Foothill Extension is taking longer than it should, but we must remember that the project is spread out over several miles, unlike building construction, which is confined to a relatively few acres. As I've said before, it's not like building the Union Pacific back in the 1860s, when there was no choice but to start at one end and just keep laying one mile after another. Nowadays, we have heavy equipment that can go from one location to another without waiting for track to be built.
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Post by transitfan on Dec 9, 2013 12:27:34 GMT -8
I didn't realize but there will also be a single-train siding between Canfield Ave and Durango Ave west of Venice Blvd. This is in addition to the single-train pocket track between Jasmine Ave and Clarington Ave west of National/Palms Boulevards. There are then these crossovers between Military Ave and Westwood Blvd in the picture above. There are also crossovers near the end of line in Santa Monica. There are then crossovers in the Expo maintenance facility between Stewart St and Dorchester Ave west of Centinela Ave. These crossovers and sidings will help the operations when needed. so expo will have two new pocket tracks? gold line has 1 between south pasadena/highland park? red line has the one under macarthur park and i dont know about blue or green line. will foothill include a pocket track? is there a difference between a siding and a pocket track? The Blue Line has two pockets, one south of Imperial, the other north of Willow. The Green Line appears to only have one, east of Imperial (which also connects to the Blue Line/Green Line connector track).
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Post by Gokhan on Dec 9, 2013 22:28:59 GMT -8
A very unique set of photos is coming tomorrow, including many from the Forbidden Zone that we normally never access and some from an archaeological dig. For now, enjoy this sneak preview. Palms Overhead: Expo Phase 2 bike trail: Relics of the Pacific Electric Santa Monica Air Line:
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