I would imagine that 98% of the interested parties reading this forum do not have a correct understanding what is a “failed” or a “legal supporting tie” so I will attempt to define the law of the FRA track standard for standard gauge track. These were developed by a Act of Congress after over a decade of review of give-and-take by everyone in the industry, government, etc, and cost million of dollars (and public hearings) to develop a approved law. Track standards for gages less than 4’8.5” was never considered or reviewed. There is no law stating measurement for narrow gage track and it is ignorant for anyone to say, “The FRA has been expanding their definition of what they have jurisdiction over”. They are a regulatory Federal Agency and not a law making body such as the Congress.
And when you read the follow description that was written into law of what constitutes a crosstie, and full understand what was finally approved, you will see that there is little reason to even consider going to congress to extend this law over narrow gage railroads.
$213.109 (c) (1): A tie must not be "broken through". That would be broken in the center where it sticks up, or broken under a rail and the end broken up, either end.
$213.109 (c) (2): "Split or otherwise impaired to the extent the crosstie will allow the ballast to work [up] through, or will not hold spikes or rail fasteners". [lag screws]. This means the tie can be split but if ballast is not working up through it, or if the spikes and lag screws cannot be pulled up by hand, the tie is a legal tie even if it looks like crap.
$213.109 (c) (3): The tie is failed if "So deteriorated that the tie plate or base of rail can move laterally more than ½ inch relative to the crosstie". If the plate movement is 7/16” sideway, on a curve for example, it is not a failed tie, but one to watch. Many readers would not expect to read that this much tolerance was what was into the law. But the real teaser is the following:
$213.109 (c) (4): The rail or the tie plate must be "Cut by the tie plate through more than 40 per cent of the tie’s thickness" to become a failed tie. It you consider most ties are 7”x 8” in main track, 40% of 7” is 2.8” deep depth. So if you see the spikes are sticking up 2” and the plate is cut 2 and one half inches deep, and you can’t lift the spikes by hand, you have a legal tie that needs not be removed or can be counted for the required number of ties per rail length. That is one bad looking tie but it is legal. The reason this developed in the law was that rail broken way down in ties like that were common on many light density lines all over the country and trains were running fine. The body of the side wood prevented the movement allowed as in $213.109c3 as above.
So now we go to how many ties are required per class of track. And I will tell you now that Class 2 and Class 3 are the same count with one stipulation that Class 3 must have a good tie center-line within 18” from the rail joint and Class 2 allows 24” from the rail joint. Very few railroad or contractors ever build or repair to class 2 instead of class 3 for the few ties needed to reach the couple inches better location at the rail joint.
$213.109 ( c) : For "each 39 foot segment of Class 1 track shall have 5 crossties: Class 2 and 3 track shall have 8 crossties; class 4 and 5 shall have 12 crossties; and class 6 shall have 14 crossties" which comply to the description as listed above. That 7 ties to 33’.
Therefore, in the interest in our study we will consider the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR, which I expect has 33’ rail such as a job I am presently working on in the east. The D&RGW’s Standard Plan called for 18 ties per 33’ rail with a spacing of 22” each. So if the rails were center staggered we would look for one good tie within 18” of each joint and if none are found to fall into the description above, we must mark those ties for improvement. Now we want to find any two good ties between these joint ties, and could use a hoe or other tool 66” long and if no good tie were within that distance from one of the good joint ties you would need to install one. If the tie at the joint was #1, you could have a combination of good ties at tie location 1,4,7,9,12,15,18. Or 1,3,6,8,10,13,16,18. Or another: 1,3,6,9,12,15,18. This would put 7 or 8 good ties in the track where 10 or 11 bad failed ties still exist and you have Class 3 track.
Note the law did not give any maximum distance in placement as legally all 6 ties of 7 [per 33’] could be at one end of the rail, other than "$213.109(b)(1) A sufficient number of crossties which in combination prove effective support that will hold: (i) gage…(ii) maintain surface…(iii) maintain alignment within the limits of prescribed in $213.55."
The above review for 33’ rail would have 320 joints per mile and if only one fifth were failed at joints and 1/10 in centers you could rebuilt a track to Class 3 with 128 ties per mile.
The next determination is how many years ahead do you want to tie your track to match the progress of deterioration. In example above, the 128 ties per mile to come up to Class 3 is for that count, but you might want to increase it a half fold or double to extend your life if you have the money now and not later.
I will stress again, there is no legal description of a narrow gauge railroad track tie for any Federal Agency to even look at a tie or gage of track to determine any condition. Although the wheels are of the same profile and width, whereby the ½ inch plate movement might be a good goal, there is nothing in writing for any Federal Officer to compare with to form any opinion about the safe dynamics with lighter wooden or metal narrow gauge cars of lower center of gravity, etc.
One thing which is recently clear about NG is the track gauge has the same 1-7/8 inch limit to the track being put out-of-service. Therefore: 37 7/8” gage is the limit of operation before o/o/s, except on curves where the ¼ gauge addition in gage for each 10-degreess is the same for NG as for SG.
Most people waste a lot of work and money without reading and applying the rules above and just sees what looks like a junk tie and take out good legal wood. If you need the claw bar to remove the spikes, you likely should leave that tie or review it further.
