Here you can see a cross-section of a modern track structure and a wheel/axle set. The whole diagram is chopped in the middle because the real ones are 4 feet 8 1/2 inches across and I just didn't have the room. At the bottom, we have a wooden railway tie. On top of the tie is a steel tie plate. It is spiked into the tie with steel spikes. The heads of the spikes also hold the base of the rail on the tie plate so the rail is tilted slightly inwards. Resting on the rails is a steel wheelset. Steel on steel is low friction, but also consider how little contact area there is between the two steel surfaces. Some references say the contact area under ideal circumstances is about the size of the toenail on your big toe.

If the track curves to the LEFT, centrifugal force will push a railcar and its load to the RIGHT. The wheelset will slide to the RIGHT and the flange on the right wheel may make squeally noises as it grinds against the inside of the right rail.

(We do get some friction here and when calculating train rolling resistance, it is referred to as "wheelage". On the Schreiber Division there is plenty of both wheelage and squealage.)

Unless we are going too fast and the one inch flange climbs over the rail, or the spikes come loose and we "spread the rails", this technology has just gotten us safely around another Schreiber Division curve - just as it has for the last 120 years. To see the technology as it was in 1885, just take out the tie plate and make the rail smaller. Oh, and don't treat the tie with creosote.

Otherwise, it's mostly smooth sailing as our shiny steel wheels roll along on our shiny steel rails in a straight line
... until we get to a hill ...


On a hazy summer day, let's say we find ourselves rolling westbound along with an 8000 ton train at a legal track speed of 50 miles per hour on the mainline (at the left). We are approaching the lake-level ghost town of Jackfish. Until the 1950s, coal came here by ship from Pennsylvania to fuel the steam locomotives on the Schreiber Division. Straight ahead are large, beautiful bays of Lake Superior (Jackfish and Tunnel Bays) which formed a natural harbour from the storms of Lake Superior. To the right is today's passing track and farther right were once the "New Yards" where 600,000 tons of coal could be stored in piles up to 35 feet high for the winter months. On the horizon is the sea of rolling granite hills which made railway building and settlement so difficult up here.

... so ... if we're going to roll 8000 tons down a fairly steep hill at 50 mph on a nearly frictionless guidance system ... don't you think we should have thought of a way to slow it down before we got this far?!

Don't worry, someone's got a plan to slow the train with compressed air. Feel better now?


Unlike airline pilots and ship masters, railway engineers usually NEVER SEE the entire train they will operate.
Here (simplified) are the procedures we followed in the 1970s (day and night) when taking over a train:

• The engineer signed in, checked special "slow orders", and looked at a computer-generated consist (CON sist) listing the cars and showing their weights.
• The train pulled in for the crew change.
• We got on the engine and did a brake test with the outgoing tailend crew - who were still way back in the van.
• Our tailend crew (conductor and trainman) stood on opposite sides of the track, watched the train pull by as they looked for mechanical defects, and then swung onto the van as it rolled by. "All aboard, extra 5736 west. Highball!"
• As we got rolling, the engineer drew on his running experience, his decades of experience on the railway line, and his evolving "feel" of that day's train and its locomotives, to figure out how to safely get the train over 100+ miles of track such as that which you see above. There is no steering, but there is still lots to do.

Drivers of large trucks can stop quickly because rubber tires grab the asphalt pretty well. If they hit the brakes, they can usually see where they will be stopping. Considering the photo above, we'll be going through a number of curves and rock cuts before we are safely stopped. There is a big right turn to avoid those picturesque bays which are dead ahead.

From a 1915 publication, here is a profile of the railway line on the "East End". The altitudes above sea level are shown in feet. Lake Superior is about 602 feet above sea level. The vertical lines divide the railway line into 10 mile-long sections.


Remember the picture from above? It shows us going down the little hill immediately to the right of "Jackfish" in this diagram. You can imagine how many hills and curves are stored in the brain of an experienced locomotive engineer.

So, to sum up:

• Railways provide an almost frictionless, self-steering way to efficiently transport heavy loads.
• Before you get a train rolling, you must have a plan for stopping it.
• Your train exerts tremendous lateral forces on 1 inch wheel flanges and little steel spikes driven into wooden ties when it goes around curves.
• An engineer must anticipate all the Newtonian forces that will play out on the railway line ahead - with a train which may be full of surprises.