Good shot. Congratulations on your first shot Mike.
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The rail itself seems to be seriously damaged at the joint - or is it just an optical illusion?
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It is no optical illusion. The track is indeed damaged - that's what alerted us to the broken tie plate. The line had been inspected the day before with no apparent fault. The inspector said that just 100 axles would have been enough to cause that damage and there had been at least two trains over the line, one of them a 112 car fully loaded coal train. The whole area has a number of rotten ties. The ties at this location are literally falling apart. The inspector has asked for new ties to be delivered but money is tight, despite the fact that CN is spending money to upgrade the line to deal with the increase in traffic it is experiencing. Paradoxically it is the ballast upgrade and tamper action that is causing some of the tie damage.
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