RAILROAD SIGNALS of the U.S.

SLEEPERS

This section covers sleepers.    Sleepers are early railroad "ties" made from rock or marble.  They seem to be entirely an eastern phenomenon, mostly since the railroads were experimenting with track laying techniques when building railroads in the early 1830's - prior to the common use of wooden ties.  I know of four railroads (so far) that used sleepers:
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railway
the Columbia-Philadelphia Railroad
the Allegheny Portage Railroad

Probably the first use of sleepers was by the Baltimore and Ohio, on their original mainline from Baltimore to Ellicott Mills MD.  Several are on display at the B&O Railroad Museum in downtown Baltimore.

the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rwy

The original mainline for the Baltimore and Susquehanna (later the Northern Central and Pennsy) used them (at least) in the Timonium MD area.  They were installed in the 1833 time frame, as they were trying to go north out of Baltimore towards York and Harrisburg Pennsylvania. 

These sleepers were made from marble that came from a local quarry, located in Texas MD, a small community located between Timonium and Cockeysville MD.  FIY - Marble from this quarry was also used to construct the Washington Monument in Washington DC, and when the monument was refurbished in the late 1990's, they came back to the quarry to get more marble so it would match.  The sleepers were uncovered  en mass during the construction of the Light Rail system in the 89-90 timeframe, and again in 2005 when the northern end was double-tracked.  Several hundred of them could be seen adjacent to the single track as it approached Padonia Road from the south.  Several dozen more were uncovered at Industry Lane, less than a mile north of the Padonia Rd location.  How far north they go, I guess we will never know.  Yours truly made a valiant effort to have some removed and saved so they could be put on display somewhere, but met stiff resistance from both the Mass Transit Administration, and the State Historical Society.  One particularly ignorant thing the fellow at the MTA said, was "how do you know how to remove the stones without damaging them" (he was ridiculing my lack of expertise as an archeologist, and not knowing the proper methods for uncovering artifacts), and no more than two weeks later, the bulldozers clearing the R-O-W at Industry Lane came along and scraped the top of almost all of the sleepers.  So much for the state being a competent guardian of the stones.  One of the other arguments I was given was "why should we pull them out of the ground now, when in the future, they may develop more accurate methods of obtaining information on their history".  I've rarely heard so much government BS (to my "face") in my life!  Needless to say, they are now ALL covered up by the northbound track for the foreseeable future.  A few were still around to be saved in 1998.

The B&S sleepers were not consistently cut in size or shape.  They are rough cut, except for the "rail groove".  The sleepers are grooved with a slot to lay the rail in, and I suspect the rail was laid directly on the marble, and secured with either two or four bolts.  Judging from the fact that the grooves in the top of the sleepers are not the same depth, the sleepers were probably put in the ground, and then the groove would be cut to make the track lay as level as possible.

the Columbia-Philadelphia RR

The Columbia-Philadelphia Railroad was part of the railroad-canal system (map) trying to compete with the Erie canal.   Several hundred sleepers have been uncovered east of Columbia PA, adjacent to the Pennsy mainline between Philadelphia and Harrisburg.   Looking at pictures of the sleepers here, and at Portage, one can see a striking resemblance.   Unfortunately, I was not around to get pictures of them while they were still in the ground.

These sleepers average 24"x18" and vary between 16" thick to 24".  They are rough cut.  They appear to be made from local granite.  The top of the sleeper has a rectangular depression cut into it to allow a chair to be bolted to it with two bolts.  The rail would then rest on the chair.  The Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg has the only chair that was uncovered, along with one of only two pieces of rail that was found.

This picture shows the pile of sleepers, and in the background, the R-O-W was just to the right of the vans, roughly where the road currently is.... to the left is the ex-Pennsy mainline.

Three of the sleepers secured in the back of my truck.... don't try this at home.

              
Detail shots of a P&C sleeper... in the two photos to the right, one can see small groves where they cut the top to make it flat.

the Allegheny Portage RR

The Allegheny Portage Railroad, between Altoona and Johnstown PA used sleepers extensively.  The museum in Portage PA has an extremely well done exhibit, and has laid out several hundred feet of the sleepers on the ground to give the visitor an idea of how they were used.  A link to a page on the sleepers is here,  a link to the National Park Service website for the Allegheny Portage Railroad is here, and a link to a tutorial on the railroad is here. 

  The painting is nice, but the sleepers are too far apart!

(The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission)

   Close-up of the Allegheny Portage RR sleepers.
(Allegheny Portage National Historic Site)

New: 10-6-2006
Mod: 14-Mar-2010