Talk:Baulk road

A fact from Baulk road appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 28 June 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Isambard Kingdom Brunel used light rails and heavy timber baulks for the Great Western Railway's baulk road track because existing technology could not produce strong rails?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/June.

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Longitudinal[edit]

It seems (my opinion) that historical the term "Baulk Road" was mostly confined to the GWR region, or SW england, or broad gauge tracks. There are several examples of a very similar design in use c.1830-40 on standard gauge railways. In the contemporary literature it is usually refered to "track with longitudinal sleepers with cross ties" - a good example is Whishaw's book of 1842 [1] or [2]

I have covered these briefly at Ladder track.

Depending on what the intended scope of this article is it might be worth mentioning the other examples. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.174.82 (talk) 18:22, 7 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Slab track[edit]

Modern railways are also mounted on concrete slabs which place both rails on a single slab. This might be considered to a baulk track taken to its logical extent.

Where slab tracks meet ballasted track, a transition is needed to smooth the change in stiffness of the two components. See Glenbrook Tunnel for an example. Wimbledon32 (talk) 23:09, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, and it's covered at Ballastless track so is out of scope for this article. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:05, 25 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

A baulk implies a timber beam or similar, in other words a separate support to each rail. A slab track has a single support for both rails so is not a baulk. Geof Sheppard (talk) 08:07, 25 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Similarities & Differences[edit]

Baulk Track and Slab track are similar in that the rails are continuously supported, compared to ordinary track where the rails have to "bridge" the gaps between the sleepers.
There is an article called Slab track.
Because of the similarities between BT and SK, both articles should at least have a mention of the other.
If not done already, make the cross references.
DELETE this remark/opinion: Baulk track was invented in the 1830s when reinforced concrete was not readily available, if at all. Wimbledon32 (talk) 03:44, 26 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Then links may be added to the "See also" sections, per WP:SEEALSO; but Wikipedia is not the place to write your own analyses of what might have happened if the pioneers had access to modern methods. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:03, 26 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]