Buddy just e mailed me this, I was impressed to see a trail lay its own track.
John T
Train laying its own track
John T
Train laying its own track
- Thread starter John T
- Start date
Bob M
Well-known Member
Hey John T -
A fascinating piece of machinery indeed! A bit of clarification however:
That outfit is actually installing new crossties and cleaning/tamping the ballast along an existing rail line. So technically it is NOT "laying its own track".
What's not clearly evident in the video is that as the train moves forward, existing rails are are lifted from the ties and laid temporarily either side the ballast. Next, the old ties are lifted/removed. The video now commences as the new ties are being placed.
Still that outfit a very clever bit of design and engineering. Thanks for sharing!
Your spark-chasing friend(!) Bob M
A fascinating piece of machinery indeed! A bit of clarification however:
That outfit is actually installing new crossties and cleaning/tamping the ballast along an existing rail line. So technically it is NOT "laying its own track".
What's not clearly evident in the video is that as the train moves forward, existing rails are are lifted from the ties and laid temporarily either side the ballast. Next, the old ties are lifted/removed. The video now commences as the new ties are being placed.
Still that outfit a very clever bit of design and engineering. Thanks for sharing!
Your spark-chasing friend(!) Bob M
TomA in CA
Member
Many years ago when I was in high school I remember seeing amachine that rode on the tracks and removed ties, shoved in new ones and tamped ballast. This would have been in the '50's. Sort of a mechanized Gandy Dancer.
Steve A W
Member
- Location
- Northwest Indiana
Mike M
Amtrack is stock piling concrete ties in My town getting ready to move towards high speed.
I'm between Detroit and Chicago.
Steve A W
Amtrack is stock piling concrete ties in My town getting ready to move towards high speed.
I'm between Detroit and Chicago.
Steve A W
showcrop
Well-known Member
That is impressive but not as impressive as the crew of eight dumb Irishmen and about eight hundred Chinese helpers who laid ten miles of track in one day for the Central Pacific Railroad back in 1869. They had to bring all the material to the rail head by horse drawn rail car, position the ties, and bend rails on site with hammers on the curves. At the end of he day a train tested the stretch running at top speed to prove the quality of the work. Today's railroad experts say that today's labor and machinery could not possibly beat the record.
Did I see old concrete cross ties coming out? At first it looked like wooden ones being stained, but I thought part of the video showed ties coming up. Its hard to pick out the rails off to the side, they kinda blend in. It would be great to see this in person, hard to imagine machinery like this doing what it does. I've seen old sections where the speed is reduced, wood ties, all the cars kind of wobble at certain places on the section, and you think of the weight imposed. I was waiting for a train to come in at a station in southern NJ and had placed a quarter on the rail. The locomotive pressed it oval and thin. You can barely tell what it was, just a few traces of G.W. and the eagle on the back. I had heard of someone doing this, so I tried it, still have it in a jar too LOL !
redforlife
Well-known Member
Union Pacific has used concrete ties on much of there track for quit a number of years. Probly close to 20 years where I am at. The only wood ties they use on the line by me is on non-ballasted bridges, and underneath railroad crossings. All else is cemtent. Even the switches. Its my understanding that railroad crossings are still wood ties because they can take more abuse if pumping occurs and crossings don't get tamped as much because of inconvenience.
Like others have said, it's simply picking up the old track, putting new cross ties down, while picking up the old ones, and then regrooming the ballast around them.
I have spent a lot of time at the Norfolk Southern repair shop in Charlotte, over the past 14 years doing portable line boring work for them on the machine frames that they are refurbishing. It never ceases to amaze me the kinds of equipment they have come up with to automate the whole track laying, and repair process.
Has anyone seen the trains set up to grind the rails? One of them came by the shop where Dad works a year or so back, and it was an impressive site. I don't know what they had driving it, but the amount of sparks flying off the grinders, and water flying to keep the tracks cool as they were ground, was amazing.
I have spent a lot of time at the Norfolk Southern repair shop in Charlotte, over the past 14 years doing portable line boring work for them on the machine frames that they are refurbishing. It never ceases to amaze me the kinds of equipment they have come up with to automate the whole track laying, and repair process.
Has anyone seen the trains set up to grind the rails? One of them came by the shop where Dad works a year or so back, and it was an impressive site. I don't know what they had driving it, but the amount of sparks flying off the grinders, and water flying to keep the tracks cool as they were ground, was amazing.
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