Rail track laying machines...

[/pine]

I found this quite interesting...

Ever seen a train lay its own track? [VIDEO]

 

[radman1]

That was impressive. Wonder how many times there is a "screw up" when laying the ties and rail?

 

[Bird]

I haven't seen anything quite that big, but for the last year or two I've seen a lot of things here in my area that were new to me. I didn't know they'd gone to concrete crossties until huge stockpiles of them starting showing up in the area. They're in the process of building a 21 mile new rail line, partly along an old existing railroad right-of-way and partly along a hiking/bike trail. So concrete ties and welded track were new to me as is much of the equipment they're using.

 

[kenmac]

Beats the heck out of the way they use to lay track. I guess they changed to concrete ties because of the chemicals used in the old ties getting into the ground ,water

 

[charlz]

Neat!

 

[Bird]

I guess they changed to concrete ties because of the chemicals used in the old ties getting into the ground ,water

That may be. I just guessed it was because they won't rot and have to be replaced as soon, plus they have "brackets?" in the concrete to attach the rails without using spikes, so the spacing is uniform to start with.