Track work. Laying ties, ballast, and tamping.

[JCitron]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kErujlih0zE&feature=related

This is cool. The Plasser unit puts the ties down, flips them over, and then later on tamps the ballast into place.

John

 

[pfx]

I know what all the Plasser machines do but I've never seen them do it. Brilliant video.

 

[Euphod]

Thanks John, this was fun to watch.

 

[bl4882]

Excellent video. BTW, does this machine sing while it works? :hehe:

Seriously, looking at something like this made me think about the backbreaking labor that building and maintaining a railroad once entailed. Not that it is an easy job now, far from it, but I thought about all the men that must have ended up in constant pain from all of the wear and tear from the labor (my grandfather started as a gandy dancer for the Espee in the 19teens and worked his way up to steamfitter, retiring in the '50s and dying not long after from emphysema probably caused by all the asbestos he was exposed to in the shops).

Bernie

 

[captainkman]

Wow, interesting!

Why is it called a Plasser, and what does it mean?

Someone built a lego one that could lay the lego tracks but couldn't join them. Still, it was good.

Now if only....

 

[airtime]

I have seen these machines in action in Britain, with the WCML being redone, the gravel trains are massive and very long, along with the rail and sleeper wagons...

I have to say the video was fasinating to watch, but when I saw them in real life, blimey they are noisy, and you can feel the shudder under the ground when the gravel is being placed under the track.

The only thing I did notice, they never worked on over bridges with these machines, as the train weighed too much, that it could put pressure on the bridge, that it could force the under bridge to collapse. So they would race the train over to the other side of the bridge and start again, track laying.

Brilliant video, who-ever filmed it, must have been there for ages watching the track laying process.

Joe Airtime

 

[pfx]

Wow, interesting!

Why is it called a Plasser, and what does it mean?

Plasser is just the name of the manufacturer. The full name is Plasser & Theurer http://www.plasser.co.uk/

 

[BobCass]

John: A very interesting video..Thank you for showing it to us..:wave:

 

[captainkman]

Plasser is just the name of the manufacturer. The full name is Plasser & Theurer http://www.plasser.co.uk/

Thanks for clearing that up.