Subway tracks

[Big Sexy]

Heys guys, I'm working on a subway platform board for some .45 adventure.  Not that I shooting for super accuracy but how are real subway tracks mounted?  Are they on ties or are bolted to the concrete or what?  Never been on one myself    I've searched for subway pics but not alot on the tracks.  I might use plastic I-beam or I might just use model railroad track.  What scale track would I look for.  Thanks.  I'll shoot some game pics when its done.

[odd duck]

the ones I've seen are like railways wooden ties with a third rail ,you could rent "the taking of pelham 123" have'nt seen the remake but the original movie with walter Mattau give you plenty of scences with what your looking for

[Westfalia Chris]

Subways usually run on metre gauge (3ft3in), and have, as odd duck pointed out, a third rail that serves as a power supply. Mounting is on concrete sleepers, if I'm not mistaken, but that is of course a modern thing - I guess until the 1960s, you would have wooden sleepers. I know the three-rail configuration is especially prevalent on American systems, and I assume you want to model an American one. In Europe, some systems utilize tramway trains on subterranean lines (for example, Essen), and those usually have catenary power supply and pantographs on the car; sometimes, the power supply catenaries are mounted to the tunnel roof, but the third conducting rail is also used for the subterranean ones.

As for modelling, I think you could use HO or OO gauge rails, which would look the right size for metre gauge. The third rail could be added with plasticard or metal strip.

[Aaron]

I assume you mean the standars subterranean subway. In my city (Pittsburgh, PA) and some others the "subway" actually runs above ground for most of it's length. In fact it is called the "T" (for trolley) here. The underground sections here are mounted mainly on concrete sleepers as mentioned. Above ground there is a mix of concrete and timber sleepers and some mounted right into the road like this:



Note that our system used overhead power lines instead of the "third rail".

This is the best pic I can find of the concrete system. In some sections they look like standard sleepers/ties, but in the big stations the concrete runs along the rail instead of perpendicular. I think Our rail system was all above ground until the '60s or '70s though, so probably not much help for pulp gaming.

Yikes, I killed the second pic since it was messing up the margins. Since you want an undergraound station with a third rail here's a pic of the NY system.

[Big Sexy]

Thanks for the info and pics.  I guess I should have mentioned it was going to be an underground station.  I do want to have a third rail as I might work in some rules for it should the models happen to fall down into the tracks.  I going to go to the not so local model train store to see what they got and to give them blank looks when they start asking me technical questions.

[Cory]

As WestphaliaChris said, HO scale (OO is rare in the US) track works out to be close to the meter track scale wise, is common, and usually the cheapest option, so go with that.

Here's a paper subway car to get you started http://papercraft-world.blogspot.com/2007/06/subway-car-paper-model.html

[Michi]

I think it depends on the location where you want to set it up. I chose the London tube for my project. It runs on standard gauge 1435mm and has two additional power rails (!), one in the center and one beside the track.
Are you interested in this? http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=12378.0

[Big Sexy]

Michi those resin pieces are really cool but the action going to be taking place around the platform.  Lots of pillars and stuff.

[Michi]

Michi those resin pieces are really cool but the action going to be taking place around the platform.  Lots of pillars and stuff.

Alright...

[former user]

if You really want a subway, you will be missing Michi's tube sections 

about the tracks - as already stated by otrhers, same as with normal railway depending on where You have it, sometimes even changing on the same line. Also different wiring systems, usually in the centre or on the side, but always changing to the ceiling when the train comes into the station.

[archangel1]

...always changing to the ceiling when the train comes into the station.

Not here in Toronto, at least.  The third rail is up against the centre divider in those stations where platforms are against outside walls or vice versa for central platforms.

Apropos of nothing...Do you know why you seldom see rats in subways? Apparently because they often run with arched backs or lifted tails, they ended up contacting the third rail once too often.  So, they got smart.  Stay out of subways! Mice, on the other hand...

[Westfalia Chris]

...always changing to the ceiling when the train comes into the station.

Not here in Toronto, at least.  The third rail is up against the centre divider in those stations where platforms are against outside walls or vice versa for central platforms.

The London tube lines don't switch either, which would indeed be problematic since the cars don't have catenary pantographs. I think former user is referring to the (particularly German) practice of using tram cars on both daylight and subterranean segments.

I quote from "Electric Traction  - Motive Power and Energy Supply" (Munich, 2008):

"As long as they do not use jointly the main-line infrastructure with 1AC electrification, as in the Metro systems founded in the sixties and seventies in Munich, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, the Rhine-Ruhr Area in Germany or in Zurich/Switzerland, metro and underground services are operated with DC 750...1200 V, from a third rail beside the track (...). DC overhead operation is only found if the track of a DC main line is to be used jointly, as tunnel lines need a much smaller clearance gauge with third rail and are thus much cheaper to build at same vehicle cross-section as the main line vehicle."

I have to correct my above statement on the general use of metre gauge, though (ibid.):

"Generally, metro and underground coaches have standard gauge."

I'd say this is used where they share a network or network stretches with regular train traffic (such as the S-Bahn system in Germany called "metro" in the above quotes), but trams still are often metre-gauge, especially well-established networks dating back some decades, where re-gauging would be very expensive.

[former user]

I learned of the issue of the electric line not in Germany (actually in the 80ies, when my father deigned the interior of the the new Bucharest Metro), as a security issue - however some years ago
no phantograph involved there
maybe this has changed in the meantime

[Johnno]

I guess it depends on the look you are going for.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) uses wood sleepers on a gravel bed for exterior portions of the subway. Some of the newer stations have poured concrete floors and concrete sleepers.

The third rail is situated away from the platform. Probably so if one falls accidentally into the tracks they won't get zapped

[Michi]

Subways I am familiar with:

London tube, standard gauge, concrete with screwed on rails without sleepers in stations, ballast and wooden ties in the line tunnels (plus third and fourth rail)
Munich, standard gauge, rails on wooden sleepers in ballast, third rail
Nuremberg, same as Munich
New York, same as Munich, but without ballast
Berlin, same as Munich
Hamburg, same as Munich
Frankfurt, same as Munich, but overhead electricity without third rail