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Your close. Not many crazy answers this year I guess all the crazy people got locked up. Last year someone suggested they were used to remove dead bodies from the fornt of the train.

George
 
MGWSY won the contest. He's the only one that ever guessed what they are and found a link to the info.
We use to know them as ice breakers. There used to break off ice, dragging equipment or misaligned shoes and there hardware before a train enters third rail territory. More old wire fences got up up in them than anything which is good because the third rail comes down quite easily.

Congradulations MGSWY

NYC_George
 
Had this still hadnt been solved, I was going to ask if those rings had anything to do with the 2 devices. They kind of look like those helmets little lego guys wear.
 
I'd like to see the mow guys in highrails drag their feet over that thing! They do that sometimes to trip the defect detectors around here.
No reason, they just do it!
 
NYC_George said:
I'm not sure what you mean by highrails Rico.

George
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You knew what it was, it just slipped your mind :D

He might be referring to a speeder though, but RR usually dont use those anymore to the best of my knowledge
 
NYC_George said:
MGWSY won the contest. He's the only one that ever guessed what they are and found a link to the info.
We use to know them as ice breakers. There used to break off ice, dragging equipment or misaligned shoes and there hardware before a train enters third rail territory. More old wire fences got up up in them than anything which is good because the third rail comes down quite easily.

Congradulations MGSWY

NYC_George
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What the hell are you talking about, its obviously an alien landing site ! ;) :D :D
 
The NYC changed to third rail power on the lower portion of the line early in the 1900’s. Later duel powered loco’s like the FL-9 had shoe attached to draw current when operating in these areas. If the shoe assembly hit something or ice built up on the shoes when they were out of third territory it may of damaged the third rail on reentry. These breakers were installed to break anything off that was dragging.

George

FL9.jpg
 
Littlefoot is correct with that photo, and about speeders being a rarity these days.
Guys like to stick their foot down from the running boards and trip sensors as they pass by. No reason, just because.
Boy, if they ever did hit one of those ice breakers tho...Ouch! T
 
NYC_George said:
About 18 months ago I uploaded this photo and asked everyone to guess what they were used for. I got about 25 crazy answers back but no one ever guessed right. If your new and don’t already know the answer take a guess.

Their located about 2 miles north of the yard in Brewster, NY.

ib.jpg
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Well even being from NY/LI I had no idea what they were but my excuse is that the folks left when I was 9 months old in 1946 so I didn't get to much of a chance to gather all this knowledge. They probably weren't invented at that time?

All joking aside, the thing I noticed was the exorbident number of what look like rail spikes and yet the ties are little narrow things with hardly any room for ballast really weird looking compared to normal rail.

Does this type of situation have something to do with whatever your refering to as third rail? Are these things electrifed for some type of wipers along the web/base? First time I ever noticed anything like that. When I looked at them again in this same image they certainly aren't any electrical contacts, at least not in current use as they are not the least polished fom wiper contact and it seems they are the same on both sides of the rail, insides & out. And it appears the base of the rail is intentionally milled or routed out to accept these types of attaching clips/spikes? Totally new to me but interesting. I'll bet no body is modeling anything like that!




Thanks for the good sharp shot George.
Ps: Did you report the dead Hobo? God rest his soul.
 
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David I recall seeing these ice breakers for the first time around 1973 about 4 years after the Penn Central merger. The NH dual powered FL-9’s were started to be used on the New York Central going in and out of third rail territory. The shoes and the beams that held the shoe stuck out more than normal. Every once in a while they would hit something knocking the shoe out of wack, catch some garbage and drag it or pick up an extra amount of ice running out in the snow. I can recall radio chatter when something of this nature happened. I remember an engineer saying I’m stopped at the ice breakers north of Valhalla, some where along the way I picked up a wire fence and it just hit the ice breakers.
The curls are used on concrete ties. What there doing there is a mystery. My brother was a track boss and probably installed them. I’ll have to ask him.

NYC_George
 
From what I know about the lines those style spikes are used to hold the heavy rail they use, also for higher speeds that are allowed on the lines. Metro North also uses some of the hardest stone for ballast in the US not sure if that also has something to do with it.
 
NYC_George said:
The curls are used on concrete ties. What there doing there is a mystery. My brother was a track boss and probably installed them. I’ll have to ask him.

NYC_George
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The track clips are used on both concrete and wooden ties so you can see them anywhere. I guess its the railroads preference and the clips don't loosen up like spikes do over time.
 
The clips are only used in that one little stretch where the ice breakers are located no where else on the line where wooden ties are used.

NYC_George
 
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