Wooden keys still in use

[mmason16]

Wooden keys on bullhead track

After coming across some abandoned track along the old Staines West branch, I noticed that despite the heavy degradation of the wooden sleepers, the wooden keys still looked fairly intact.

Does anyone know whether wooden keys are still used anywhere on the operational network today?

Thanks.

 

[RichardAsh1981]

If you look at little used sidings you will find plenty of examples.
Yesterday I was at Bradford Interchange and the last panel of track before the buffers in the siding beyond Platform 4 (against the retaining wall) is bullhead rail and has wooden keys.

I seem to remember parts of the South West have extensive bullhead rail on concrete sleepers, and so wooden keys will be common there.

 

[mmason16]

If you look at little used sidings you will find plenty of examples.
Yesterday I was at Bradford Interchange and the last panel of track before the buffers in the siding beyond Platform 4 (against the retaining wall) is bullhead rail and has wooden keys.

I seem to remember parts of the South West have extensive bullhead rail on concrete sleepers, and so wooden keys will be common there.

Bullhead rail on concrete sleepers has always confused me, surely if the railway authority has gone to the effort of installing a concrete sleeper, they would install CWR as well?

Are wooden keys more likely on concrete sleepers than wooden?

 

[RichardAsh1981]

Bullhead rail on concrete sleepers has always confused me, surely if the railway authority has gone to the effort of installing a concrete sleeper, they would install CWR as well?

It depends when the concrete sleepers date from! I think these are pre-1948 and installed by the original Great Western Railway. Concrete sleepers are very long lasting.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Anyone got a pic of a 'wooden key'? Couldn't readily find one!

 

[swt_passenger]

Here you go, a photo of a piece of wood just as I imagined. I guess there’s a dimensioned drawing somewhere.

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-rail-chair-key-on-train-1343256026?dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Also, it looks as though the chair itself is a fairly standard type?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Here you go, a photo of a piece of wood just as I imagined.

Thanks. Looks a bit like a (largeish) wooden sanding block, but presumably 'keys' are made from some rot-resistant hardwood?

 

[Amlag]

At Plymouth the Down Through line still has some wood keys in use on the wooden slprs chaired BH track.

I noticed a year or so ago some wood keys in some of the wooden slprs chaired BH non platform lines at Birmingham New Street.

Two bolt (as opposed to 4 bolt) fishplates are now very rare on passenger lines.
In the South West they still survive in use in the platform lines at Maiden Newton, where speed is very slow and all trains have to stop there for token purposes.

 

[Acathater]

There are some wooden keys on the locomotive run round loop at Morecambe station.
The loop is rarely used now since the nuclear trains are all top-and-tailed

 

[Dave S 56F]

There are some wooden keys on the locomotive run round loop at Morecambe station.
The loop is rarely used now since the nuclear trains are all top-and-tailed

The Bentham line from settle jct to carnforth pandrol clips and jointed bullhead rail also sections of the furness line in cumbria and a short section in Halifax on the up line to Dryclough Jct.

 

[Mugby]

It depends when the concrete sleepers date from! I think these are pre-1948 and installed by the original Great Western Railway. Concrete sleepers are very long lasting.

They certainly are. Many concrete sleepers that were originally produced for bull head rails were later converted for flat bottom rails by the simple expedient
of swapping the baseplates. Some are still in use today on secondary lines.

 

[John Webb]

.....Concrete sleepers are very long lasting.

They certainly are. Many concrete sleepers that were originally produced for bull head rails were later converted for flat bottom rails by the simple expedient
of swapping the baseplates. Some are still in use today on secondary lines.

Concrete sleepers came into use mainly in WW2 when imported hardwood timber was unobtainable and British timber also limited. The Building Research Station at Garston, Herts., measured the forces on sleepers on a main line* in 1942 and then designed pre-stressed concrete sleepers as an alternative method of supporting the rails.

*My source doesn't tell me which line.

 

[McRhu]

There was an apocryphal (or maybe not) story about a party of campers derailing a train at Rhu by removing a few lengths of wooden keys for their camp fire. The keys seemed to loosen quite easily despite the inside face of the chair being serrated.

 

[YorkshireBear]

There was an apocryphal (or maybe not) story about a party of campers derailing a train at Rhu by removing a few lengths of wooden keys for their camp fire. The keys seemed to loosen quite easily despite the inside face of the chair being serrated.

Could have been after dry weather, we have wooden keys in check rails on KWVR and after long dry spells they remove much much easier.

 

[Dr_Paul]

Wooden keys can indeed dry out and shrink. I was working on the Cob on the Ffestiniog Railway back in the 1970s, checking the keys and oiling the fishplates, and several keys were loose and were replaced by new ones which were then wedged with a special sledge-hammer between the rail and chair. The loose ones had dried out and had shrunk to the degree that they could be moved with one's hand; a few had actually fallen out of the chair and were on the ballast.

 

[ajwffc]

I think there are wooden keys on the check rail on the Niddrie lines at Newcraighall North Jn.

 

[McRhu]

Yes - I remember dry weather (ie- the long, hot 70s summers) loosening keys. I had thought it was due to the expansion of the rails, but drying out/shrinkage sounds makes more sense. I wonder if there was ever such a thing as a keyless chair although that would obviously bring its own problems in laying and removing bullhead rails.