Train that lays it's own track video

Now this is quite interesting to say the least. It pulls up and out the existing track, pulls out the wood ties, then replaces them with concrete ties and puts the track back down. It's a 5+ minute video, so dial up beware.
Train Video

Thanks for posting that!

That is incredible!

now that is incredible thanks for the video
RICK.

It makes me wonder how many men lost a job laying track but how many were employed to build that equipment.

There laying track with one of these machines where I live. Boy is it fast. The Video explained alot that I was seeing. The concrete RR ties is what had me stumped.

They've layed in two 20mile tracks in less than 3mths.


T_Bone

That's interesting TBone. Here is a copy of the message in the email that came with the link I posted earlier:

I wonder what all those laborers who laid the first cross country tracks would think if they could only see this!

This is what is happening from Chicago to St. Louis for the high speed rail. They are now working around Springfield.

This is amazing to watch. They won't let you close enough to watch.

They just did this operation through Sherman for the high speed rail.

People were stopping along the highway taking pictures.

For those who live in the Springfield area and have seen all the machines running up and down the tracks, here is a link to a video that shows you how the concrete ties and rail are put in place. The road bed was raised 13 inches to accommodate the new high speed rail line between St. Louis, MO. and Chicago, IL. There are only two of these track laying machines in the world, one here and one in Europe

So as I recall TBone, you live in the southwest desert area, so maybe there are more than just 2 of these machines, or they finished in the St. Louis / Chicago area and moved down your way? Would there be a need for a high speed train near you? Where would it go, Vegas....or LA or someplace like that? Just curious.

It's major E&W track for the South. They say when there done a train will pass by every 15min. There are no overpasses here so what the hell is traffic is gonna do ??? OVerpasses are not planned until 2013???

They don't have some of the machines in the video or have them when I'm not there. I live 20 miles from the track building but have too pass there on a major N&S hiway. There is only one other road and it's 60 miles per trip further around that way, so people should be really pi$$ed before there done.

I'm 45miles SW of Phoenix.

T_Bone

Lot fewer man hours to build & maintain the equipment.

That's one of a myriad of reasons Keynesian stimulus / "shovel ready" doesn't work anymore.

We don't build roads with lots of manual labor anymore, and we can't build 'em to todays standards substituting manpower for machines if we wanted to.

Same idea, different trade is welding and submarines near me (Electric Boat). They developed a robot to make some of the more difficult/awkard to reach welds.

It being a machine can safely hold a much stronger arc then a human...so the Navy redesigned welds (basically from square to being on an angle so a greater surface area got fused together) to make stronger hulls.

Today's subs you CAN'T go back to using a human welder...they're designed using welds only a machine can make.

We could go back to spending like Reagan and only employ a fraction of welders, draftsmen, and many others whose jobs have become techonologically obsolete.

I saw an 'oval B' on one of the machines, I'd say this is Belgian National railways project, some of the warnings are in dutch too. not many people considered gandy dancer work a good railroad job, never mind a lifelong career. One of the few jobs worst than farming! Machines like this-well, that did jobs like this, in slow motion, started replacing track gangs in the late 40's, no one minded at all. T-bone, don't worry, double tracking the Sunset route started in the boomin' early 2000's, now there is not enough business to worry about getting hit at a crossing. This was for an LA to New Orleans container route. What they didn't say was it was for Chinese stuff to get to Europe faster than going into the southern hemisphere by ship. The Canadian National main is busy doing that too, people are dreaming if they think mile long container trains every hour are local goods. When the modernized Panama canal is done, this will all be for boring online traffic only. The modern double track will come in handy, but I don't think trains will be going by like under a Christmas tree.

Hey Tony,

They already had one track so now we'll have 3.

A place for a huge amount of trains on track at the same time is Rock Springs, Wy. There must be a train on the track every 15min running in the SAME direction. You can see them really easy on the South side of I-70 as your driving by. In some places the tracks must be about 500ft below the interstate. I've never seen anything like it before in the West.

There's one track for East and one track for West bound and many 8? track pull outs.

T_Bone

Thanks for the link, sure a lot different today than it was back in the day.

That is impressive but very slow compared to the track laying of the Union Pacific Railroad just before they linked up with the Central Pacific Railroad at promontory Point Utah in 1869. They had everything prepared and strategized in advance, but the crew laid 12 miles of track in one 10 hour day. Railroad people have said ever since that they don't expect that the record can ever be broken.

Yeah its pretty neat until it breaks down! I was employed by the company (Plasser)that produces these, and many other MOW machines as a service rep. I actually left, when they informed me that I would be going to Austria for 6 months for training on some new machines. Went to work for CSX doing the same thing, still have to work on them, but I dont have to go to Austria to do it.

That's 10 miles in 12 hours. Just as impressive though.
Untitled URL Link

Question for those of you who have seen this work. How does it get the new tie in place? They redid the track through my town recently and had a machine that pushed them out the side and pushed new ones in from the side as well. This video doesn't seem to show that. Does it spin them in place between the tracks or something?