ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

OMG! Crews are installing the gauntlet track hardware this morning! Kewitt guys. Looks like a spring switch on the merge end! Interesting - make ssense, for how infrequently it will be used, I guess. Will just mean no reversing over it (especially if a train is halfway across!). They're also on site near Columbia installing what I think is a crossover.

   

   

   

   

   

[Canard]

Columbia crossover:

   

   

The use of wooden ties makes me believe this is just temporary...

[taylortbb]

I wouldn't be sure it's temporary. I think there's some exceptions to the concrete ties requirements for switches. It's quite common to use wooden ties for switches because they can be drilled where necessary, whereas concrete ties need to be manufactured with the correct mounting points. For a switch every single tie need to be different, so the manufacturing would be difficult.

Personal speculation though, it's possible it's temporary.

[Canard]

I hear you on the practically of custom engineering every tie at a crossover or switch (I'm a mechanical designer), but that's what they've done for the gauntlet track switches (all those ties have a unique part number and are just slightly different). I'd really be surprised if the crossover ended up being wood in the end! I'll have to review and see what's done elsewhere; I don't remember ever seeing a predominantly concrete-tied system switch back to wood for crossovers in my travels.

[ijmorlan]

OMG! Crews are installing the gauntlet track hardware this morning! Kewitt guys. Looks like a spring switch on the merge end!  Interesting - make ssense, for how infrequently it will be used, I guess.  Will just mean no reversing over it (especially if a train is halfway across!).  They're also on site near Columbia installing what I think is a crossover.

Are you sure it’s a spring switch? That seems strange. I assume you mean the switch at the South end of the gauntlet section. It seems to me it has to spring to the freight position because freight traffic will go in both directions on that track. That means that southbound LRVs would have to push the switch aside every time they go by, every few minutes. And northbound LRVs on that track would be impossible (well, I suppose they could skip the station). Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, but LRT systems should be designed to make single-track operation possible in the event of one track being temporarily unusable for any reason.

Perhaps they just haven’t installed the switch machinery yet?

Thanks for the detailed photos. I still want to get out there and see for myself but your photos really make it feel real.

[Square]

Canard : Which station stop are those photos from? Thank you.

[Canard]

The more I think about it, the less likely I think that the final solution will be a spring switch.  I'm keying in on that interior plate that is bolted along the rail - my first reaction was that it was a spring switch at the "exit" side of the station/gauntlet (since why have switch gear there when it's not really required - save some $$$).  But it appears that the entrance side also has that same plate bolted along the inside. Actually - I know what that is... that's to permanently bolt the flexible portion of rail in position, because the switch gear might not be installed for another year or so. So they've just permanently lashed the rail in position for future use by freight.

A tip if you're looking to get to the R&T Station - since you can't park anywhere on the R&T Lots since they're all private/secure/whatever, if you go down Columbia and go into the University just West of the tracks, there's about 20 spots there with meters for $1/hour.  It's right next to the Laurel Trail, so you can park there and walk North/South along there and get a great view of what's going on in the area.  That's what I did this morning.

Here are a couple more photos of what the (tamped) track now looks like behind McCormic Arena, all nice and straight.  I have a regular "weekend run" that I do from North to South to stop in at all my favourite construction spots.  

   

   

   

   

[timio]

Paving was happening at the William/Caroline intersection today. The roadway was down to one lane with signsmen and a police officer waving people through the red lights from the cruiser.

[timio]

A tip if you're looking to get to the R&T Station - since you can't park anywhere on the R&T Lots since they're all private/secure/whatever, if you go down Columbia and go into the University just West of the tracks, there's about 20 spots there with meters for $1/hour.  It's right next to the Laurel Trail, so you can park there and walk North/South along there and get a great view of what's going on in the area.  That's what I did this morning.

Lot X is free on weekends (North of Optometry)

[Markster]

And no one cares anymore in the old BlackBerry parking lots on the north side of Columbia. They did away with parking passes and enforcement once they sold off the surplus buildings.

[chutten]

It's interesting to see how the various teams interface; ie, the roadworks people stop somewhere and that's where the track hardware people will pick up along that edge. I wonder if they ever have issues with alignment and so on.

Almost certainly they do have problems, but not as often as all that. According to my coworker who once worked for the City of St Thomas road works, putting in a long segment of curb is _really_ precise. They use a curb-laying machine that uses a stringline and drops the curb some exact measurement below it, accurate to however accurate the stringline is (which can be accurate to millimetres using standard survey equipment)

[Canard]

I remember reading the RFP documents and that the rails were to be precise to the theoretical centreline by a few millimetres. I think that's fantastic. As a mechanical designer I'm always so curious how other industries handle tolerances and so on, especially over vast distances of many kilometres. I think in another life, I would have really enjoyed civil engineering.

[timio]

Lots of new information in the latest Ion Construction update.

- Caroline from Father David Bauer to Allen will be open for traffic as of this week
- Allen from Caroline to King will begin construction the next day
- King from William to Allen will begin construction soon
- King from Union to Green will be paved soon
- Tracks will be welded along King near the hospital soon

[GtwoK]

As well, it appears the remainder of Borden should be curbed/paved within a few weeks time, same with Charles near Cameron, if I understand correctly? Would be great for the students there, finally. Can't wait to see work finally start on Erb / Caroline, probably the most headache-inducing construction that will occur, but wonderful to watch.

[Canard]

I think Erb/Caroline, Northfied/King North, and King/Victoria will be the most impressive intersection construction projects to watch out for. So much volume through all 3 of those (especially Northfield/King North).