Windmill

skyhawk1 · May 1, 2020

Have never seen blades on a train, see a lot on trucks coming up I35 from the Texas plant that manufactures them. Did see a train carrying railroad track once from the Royal Gorge bridge. Couldn't tell what is was till we got down in the gorge on the highway. Right at 1 mile of track in one piece on the cars.

Foghorn · May 1, 2020

They set up a rail yard in El Reno where they unload the blades off the rail cars and truck them out to the sites.. tons of the blades stacked out there while they are building.

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dennishoddy · May 1, 2020

TerryMiller said:
Was just in Norman earlier to photograph the fly-over by the military planes, and as we left, we got held up by a train carrying a lot of blades for the windmills. Each blade spanned 2 1/2 flat cars, so they arranged them so that the tips of the blades overhung an otherwise empty flatcar between the other 4 cars. They were going north, so I have no idea where they are built nor where they might be going.

Probably to a lay down yard east of Enid. They are building a new wind farm there.

dennishoddy · May 1, 2020

skyhawk1 said:
Have never seen blades on a train, see a lot on trucks coming up I35 from the Texas plant that manufactures them. Did see a train carrying railroad track once from the Royal Gorge bridge. Couldn't tell what is was till we got down in the gorge on the highway. Right at 1 mile of track in one piece on the cars.

Called ribbon rail. It eliminates the clickity clack that the old shorter rails produced.

TerryMiller · May 1, 2020

skyhawk1 said:
Have never seen blades on a train, see a lot on trucks coming up I35 from the Texas plant that manufactures them. Did see a train carrying railroad track once from the Royal Gorge bridge. Couldn't tell what is was till we got down in the gorge on the highway. Right at 1 mile of track in one piece on the cars.

dennishoddy said:
Called ribbon rail. It eliminates the clickity clack that the old shorter rails produced.

If one wants to see some interesting equipment building railroad lines, go to YouTube and search for "Railroad Construction." They have some equipment out there that is like a mobile "factory line."

dennishoddy · May 1, 2020

TerryMiller said:
If one wants to see some interesting equipment building railroad lines, go to YouTube and search for "Railroad Construction." They have some equipment out there that is like a mobile "factory line."

My neighbor when we lived in town 30 years ago was on the crew that laid down the ribbon rails. That's how I knew what they were called.

SoonerP226 · May 1, 2020

Catt57 said:
Now how are the cows going to stay cool this summer?

Medi-pot.

SoonerP226 · May 1, 2020

dennishoddy said:
My neighbor when we lived in town 30 years ago was on the crew that laid down the ribbon rails. That's how I knew what they were called.

My uncle is retired from the BNSF, and his job had something to to with the maintenance of ribbon rail, but I don't recall what it was (although I do know that he could tell you the best burger joint within about ten miles of a BNSF line anywhere in Oklahoma). I know he drove a high-railer for his job.

Somewhere I have a nylon rail spacer that they used to use to set the gap between the rails (IIRC, they set the space between the rails, then put a form over the gap and used molten steel to weld them together), and the "anvil" my dad used for as long as I can remember was an 18" segment of rail that my uncle got for him. It's heavier than it looks, too.

TerryMiller · May 2, 2020

SoonerP226 said:
My uncle is retired from the BNSF, and his job had something to to with the maintenance of ribbon rail, but I don't recall what it was (although I do know that he could tell you the best burger joint within about ten miles of a BNSF line anywhere in Oklahoma). I know he drove a high-railer for his job.

Somewhere I have a nylon rail spacer that they used to use to set the gap between the rails (IIRC, they set the space between the rails, then put a form over the gap and used molten steel to weld them together), and the "anvil" my dad used for as long as I can remember was an 18" segment of rail that my uncle got for him. It's heavier than it looks, too.

I have one of those "anvils" as well, although shorter than 18". A discussion some time back here on OSA "almost" prompted me to give it away since I don't use it much. But so far, I've just not "weakened" enough yet.

DRC458 · May 2, 2020

That yard east of Enid has been there for several years, and it just keeps getting bigger. Initially, you could drive by it on Highway 412 and have no idea it was there - you couldn't see a thing from the highway. Now, it stretches almost to the highway. They're hauling components out of there all over northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas (at least).

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