By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Over the past several years, representatives from NARSTCO have tried to convince Finger Lakes Railway Corp. President Mike Smith to purchase the supplier’s steel ties as viable wood-tie replacements.
Their arguments — that steel ties last longer and hold up better under duress than wood ties — have been compelling, Smith admits. Steel ties also are recyclable and designed to resist damage, corrosion and deterioration.
Owned by RailWorks Corp., NARSTCO has provided steel ties for three new tracks and seven turnouts that replaced wood ties in 2020, NARSTCO officials said. For example, the company supplied steel ties and turnouts last year to the Port Bienville Railroad, a short line located about 40 miles east of New Orleans.
Earlier this year, Finger Lakes Railway needed to replace wood ties and switches at its Geneva Yard in New York state that was inherited from Conrail. About 20 years old, the wood ties were starting to show deterioration.
Smith and his team decided to replace them with steel ties and turnouts supplied by NARTSCO instead of the usual wood variety based on long-term economics.
“I guess you could say their persistence was rewarded,” Smith said of the steel tie supplier.
Finger Lakes Railway officials considered such factors as daily track usage, traffic density, future maintenance costs and location — an active rail yard where heavy freight cars are classified. Although they’re more expensive than wood ties, steel ties have the potential to last 50-plus years versus a 20-year lifespan for wood ties.
Now, Finger Lakes Railway is one of the first New York state short lines to upgrade key infrastructure using steel ties.
“Steel ties are a new product to short lines. They are used to wood ties, so they stick with them for the most part,” says Smith.
Over three weekends in May and June, crews installed about 700 steel ties — including on a ladder track and switch lead — eight all-steel switches and several turnouts at the yard's east end. A ladder track is laid on longitudinal supports with transverse connectors that hold two rails at the proper gauge distance. Finger Lakes Railway Corp.Steel ties are ideal for heavier-than-normal-used track and where gauge needs to be maintained, he says. The Geneva Yard track is the heaviest-used portion of Finger Lakes Railway, which operates 167 miles of track in six New York counties and interchanges with CSX, Norfolk Southern Railway (in Geneva) and New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway.
The short line typically handles about 1.5 million nets tons of freight per year, and the yard track is pounded by about three times that weight, says Smith.
Over three weekends in May and June, crews installed about 700 steel ties — including on a ladder track and switch lead — eight all-steel switches and several turnouts at the east end of the yard. A ladder track is laid on longitudinal supports with transverse connectors that hold two rails at the proper gauge distance.
The Geneva Yard project was Class I-like in terms of preparation and employing the right equipment, Smith says.
The short line previously completed work at the west end — including the ladder track arrangement — so Finger Lakes Railway now is gaining car switching efficiencies at both ends of the yard, he says.
In late 2018, the short line obtained a $2.8 million state grant for coordinated yard improvements, including upgrades at Geneva Yard. Finger Lakes Railway plans to build more storage tracks in Geneva, and that work might start sometime later this year, Smith says.
Work at Geneva Yard has been ongoing for a number of years.
“We have put a lot of money and attention into it in terms of the design and how we use it,” says Smith.
