On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 4:16 PM, Mal Rowemal.rowe@...
[TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:

>

>

> I took a ride down Lygon St this morning. <snip>

>

> Richard Youl will not be surprised, but probably disappointed, to hear

> that the rail joints are not silent.

>

> The sound is not bad, but there's no reason that brand new welded joints

> should not be silent.

>


May we hope that in a week or two, when the surface polish that shows
exactly where the wheels roll on the rail surface has begun to be visible,
you'll be able to alight and take a good look at a few of these joints?

The older thermit-welded joints we often praise (such as on the Bourke St
lines and the Mont Albert route between Balwyn and Kew) had the weld
surfaces ground by the MMTB track grinders nos. 1 & 2; these were designed
to get the machined surface to match the untouched rail surface precisely.
They worked lengthwise along the rail surface, not across it.

Years of skill acquired by the operators probably helped too; previous work
in the 1930s (e.g in Royal Parade/Sydney Rd and through North Melbourne)
showed few joint failures before the general level of wear made relaying
necessary.

Hal Cain