CSX Tie Replacment in VRE service area

CSX will be replacing ties from April 18th – May 5th. The work will be done outside of service hours, but speed restrictions will slow our trains from the area just north of Crystal City to Alexandria.

These tie replacements are part of regular track maintenance designed to keep the railroad in constant working order. CSX will make sure that VRE service will run as smoothly as possible during these upgrades.

Concrete ties or more wooden ones?

Davis

strench707 wrote:Concrete ties or more wooden ones?

Davis

Almost certainly wooden ones. CSX replaces ties on the MARC Brunswick (Met. Sub) and Camden (Cap. Sub) Lines every so often and they always replace them with wooden ties. Just last year they were replacing ties in the Greenbelt area, which I remember since they left the new ones right in front of the Greenbelt platform on the ROW for weeks and they gave of these very strong fumes which I'm sure are poisonous.

Yeah, they're wooden. They are just replacing individual ties that they have marked over the last couple of months. The replacement is currently underway.

The new sections of 3rd track they are laying in that area have concrete ties, however.

So why would the new track get concrete ties and the other tracks not get concrete ties when refurbished?

Davis

strench707 wrote:So why would the new track get concrete ties and the other tracks not get concrete ties when refurbished?

Davis

My guess would be because they are only replacing some of the ties, and not all of them, and there may be an issue interleaving wood and concrete ties. CSX probably does not want to spend the money and replace all the ties with concrete ones. Of course, in a couple years they will probably end up replacing the wood ties that did not get replaced this go around.

TallEddie_81 wrote:

strench707 wrote:So why would the new track get concrete ties and the other tracks not get concrete ties when refurbished?

Davis

My guess would be because they are only replacing some of the ties, and not all of them, and there may be an issue interleaving wood and concrete ties. CSX probably does not want to spend the money and replace all the ties with concrete ones. Of course, in a couple years they will probably end up replacing the wood ties that did not get replaced this go around.

That's my guess as well. It's literally replacing every other to every 10th tie or so. There are certainly stretches where they have more work to do, but generally it's just here and there. We have enough slow orders for track work as it is; certainly don't want to add to that by letting the tracks settle with the difference between concrete and wood.

I wish I could tell CSX about another spot they should be looking at just south of XR. Scary ties there. O_o