Track with a Twist – Building While Maintaining Service (The Babylon Train Wash Facility)

With just more than an hour ride to Penn Station in New York City from the Babylon Station, the Babylon Branch of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is the busiest of LIRR’s 11 branches. When it was time to build a new train wash facility on the yard lead track between the station and the Babylon Train Yard, a creative approach was needed to ensure the least disturbance to the daily rail operations to yard, as well as adjacent main line tracks. Taking the yard lead track out of service simply was not an option. This paper will present some of the unique design features and construction challenges involved in this project which included a key design feature of incorporating precast sectionalized track beds into the construction process to maintain daily rail traffic during construction with limited track outages. Other construction challenges to be discussed herein include restricted construction site access and limited laydown and staging space; easement issues with underground high voltage electrical lines; overhead power lines; high water table; environmental impact issues with adjacent wetlands and a stream; and the lack of an existing storm water management system. The purpose of this paper is to present rail system operators and designers with options and unique solutions to building a train wash facility while maintaining rail service with minimal impacts.