Blue Paint

[NW Mailing List]

Maintenance of  Way Dept. has been marking several things in the past
months for what I believe they said was a GPS marking of nearly everything
along the R.O.W. They painted the end of the tie near the mile posts
yellow, the end of the tie over the center of a culvert and at each end of
bridges white, and a blue square on the ties in the gauge at the west end
of  insulated joints. I'm not sure what the blue on the rails at that
location are for (that is the Peavine which does go to Portsmouth). M.o.W.
uses different colors of paint on the rail to indicate where a curve
starts, where superelevation of the track starts or where they want to cut
the rail to replace curve worn rail. Red is used to mark any F.R.A defects
that need replaced (immediately). The signal dept. usually uses blue
markings to show where we are going to put track wires, locate underground
cables (near the track) or new insulated joint locations. As a side note,
our signal gang installed the new big crossing in that area a few years
back.

Larry Stanley
Lead Signalman, Signal Gang 677



> Subject: Blue Paint?

> Does any one know the significance of a patches of blue paint (approx

8-12") on the sides of the rails?  A friend of mine asked the question
after seeing the paint on NS rails near the south side of Milford, OH.  For
those of you familiar with the area it is on the track near the WalMart
along Roundbottom Road near Highway 50.  I believe this was part of the old
N&W that led to Portsmouth.  I have not been able to get down the the site
to see it for myself.  My friend thought that it may indicate that the
track was slated to be removed at that point.