CSX Replacing Railroad Ties on the CE&D sub
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- The T1 track gang descends upon the CE&D sub replacing cross ties between Princeton and Vincennes, IN. This video shows the process involved in replacing the ties and getting the track back to running condition. These guys were GOOD! I was like a choreographed ballet on rails.
8-25-15
Imagine being the guy who has to fix anything that goes wrong with the machines ! This was a great video to watch
A fascinating process. I have to admit that the vibrating gravel compactor at the end of the video was the most interesting.
This it's very coordinated. Team work
Amazing technology, saves so much labor and time.
We used to work just 30' north of the north rail line going thru the Phoenix switching yard (opposite of the tower).
We got to see this 1st hand just a few feet away along with new rails. Welding, grinding & those long ass rail carriers! Check out all that stuff, just amazing!
& we were working on upgrades for the Abrahms tank program!🇺🇸😁👍
Abrams.
In 1969 I worked for Norfolk & Western Railway out of Moberly, Missouri. I was on what they called an “extra tie gang” we took out old ties and put in new ones, but unlike this video we had 28 laborers on the ground & 10 machine operators. One machine sawed out the ties & pushed them out of the way, a crane would line ties up and another machine had a hook & a cable & a man would hook onto the end of the tie & the machine operator would push a foot pedal & the cable would reel in the tie under the rail, & the laborer would guide the hook, cable & tie into the slot & go on to the next one. Then the laborers would put the plates on the ties under the rails & the spiker machine would spike them. If the spiker messed up the spiking there was a crew of four guys walking behind the spiker and they would spike the ties by hand. The tamper machine would come at the end & tamp the gravel under the ties. There were other machines in the middle of this doing various things with laborers up ahead pulling spikes by hand with long crowbars. Laborers were all up & down the track doing various jobs, and helping the machine operators do whatever they need done. It was like a beehive taking out old ties & putting in new ones, & I tell you the tie gang guys busted ass getting the job done. That was 54 years ago though, & in this video I didn’t see one laborer on that track, the machines did everything that it took us 28 laborers & 10 antique machines to do. What progress, it made me sad for the old days when I busted my ass 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, for a measly $150.00 a week on that railroad! 😞
Hey Mike...! I worked for N&W out of the Pittsburgh Rook yard too back in the day around 1975 on the track gang and as you mentioned... That Job kicked my ass big time and is what made me go back to school. I worked for 3 years with them and we always got laid off around winter time because the ground was frozen and we couldn't work then. I started out walking behind the spike machine and had to pull the spikes out with a claw bar that the spike machine bent trying to insert a spike in to the tie. Then there were two guys that would (like you said) spike the tie by hand... After I worked that job for awhile, they gave me the job of inserting the plate under the rail. We used a rail lifter to lift the rail then while the rail was up in the air I slid the plate under the rail on the tie. Almost got my hands crushed using that machine. The guy I was working with on the other side of the rail lifter moved the wrong lever that clamped the rails to lift them up. Long story short the clamped rails both came slamming down on the ties. Luck for me my hands were pushing the plate under the rail but were on the sides of the plate and instead of the rail crushing my hands to the tie, it push them into the ballast... One day as a highball was flying by, we were on the side of the tracks keeping an eye on the train looking for any issues. Well another long story short the train derailed right where a coworker and I were standing. We had to hightail it into a field of Jagger bushes... That was one hell of a job to say the least... Glad you're ok and survived long enough to tell your story...!
@@-ray-h Hey Ray, it’s good to hear from an old fellow crosstie dog! lol. I watched this video and couldn’t believe how far they’ve come in modern technology replacing railroad ties. In my day (1969) we had a gang with tie tongs, tamping bars, claw bars, picks, shovels, lining bars, rail tongs, & spiking mauls, to do most of the work that the machines didn’t do. Back then the machines only did the basics, it was up to the tie gang to fix the machines mistakes & complete the cleaning up & hard work. When a machine broke down, the tie gang had to do that machines job BY HAND, & our machines back then broke down a lot ‘cause they were old, not brand new ones like in the video. Man Ray, my first job was working the rail lifter, it was a small machine that two men could push on & off the track, it had a small (go cart) engine on it, that operated the claws that came down to lift up the rails, but we weren’t allowed to lift up the rails more than a couple of inches, just enough to slide the plate under, but still some fingers got pinched. lol. Then I worked my way up to machine operator’s helper, then finally a regular machine operator, being a machine operator, they sent us to the yards to work at different stuff during the winter months, but they laid off the laborers, then in the spring they formed up the gang & we did it all again. It was ass bust in’ work, but I loved it, what I didn’t love was the sore back I’d have for the rest of my life due to over work & pinched nerves. Well Ray, thanks for taking me down memory lane, go easy brother.
🚂🤘✌️👍
Awesome video...! I used to work on a track gang N&W out of Pittsburgh Rook yard... Thanks for showing us this one...!
I currently work on the tie gang replacing ties out of Rook yard to the east. Small world.
I worked on a tie gang 40 years ago for a summer and what amazes me is how little things have actually changed. A little more automation with some machines more productive but not that much. I do have to say though the production here is pretty impressive.
Watch out for those boxcar doors!
You can tell from the trackage used here that this is a freight railroad. Otherwise they'd be using concrete ties which last eons of time longer and are more costly then these pollution laden creosoted wooden ties. They're building a new one mile long siding on the Puget Sound and Pacific (PSAP) railroad's Elma Sub about 2 miles south of Elma right beside highway US-12. First they logged their right of way, then came in and leveled everything and right now today they're laying rail and using the same kind of ties as the picture here. Only difference is that the Elma PSAP project has nice neat bound stacks with about a dozen to 15 ties in each stack. And it's impressive to look down the line and see how many ties are already on site. I have no idea what a new railroad tie costs these days but if they're like anything else they are VERY expensive. Anyway it's kind of cool to see their progress and what they're doing especially now where it's getting towards the end of the project.
I`ve been working on the railroad all the livelong day............ Wow they used to do by hand in the olden days. Cool video
Argentina should have these! We're replacing our railway infraestructure with concrete infraestructure, and this is more than needed!
Who cares
impressive as Fk. Mind-blowing this was all done by hand years ago.
Evolution changes everything 💪
Great view, slow motion, etc! Thumbs up 👍
CSX seems to have the track gangs working all over the place. I was surprised to see them on the route of the Cardinal while they have so much work to do down in SC. CSX did get the line back open around Florence SC last Sat after being shutdown by Hurricane Joaquin. Always fun to watch the tie gangs work.
That is because CSX has subdivisions all over the place. (Look at greater Washington, DC and Baltimore - four subdivisions in Maryland alone; RUclipsr B&O Railroad covers CSX's MOW teams in the Maryland subdivisions. Two of the subdivisions are Chessie System and Greater Baltimore - the latter is mostly - but not all - ex-B&O. A third is Bowie (an oddball ex-B&O sub that is my age), while a fourth is Pope's Creek - a subsidiary that is now entirely based on electric power despite being in the core of Maryland tobacco turf and connects only to Bowie - also ex-B&O. And I may not have even got all the CSX subs in Maryland - and i haven't even touched Viriginia or DC itself.
Really amazing pieces of equipment 👍
I came to watch on youtube because they are fixing the railway across my window and found it pretty entertaining.
outstanding video. "I've been working on the railroad" ain't what it used to be.
Thanks for this! They've been working on our local railroad
Awesome video, tie replacements are sure fun to watch!
I used to haul oversized loads out of Tamper in Columbia, SC in the 80’s but I never got to see any of their equipment work. It’s been over a quarter of a century ago but I didn’t see anything that I recognized although I’m sure that different brands look similar. I thought that they’d still need a flunky or two to do manual work but it looks like I’d be wrong. Far different from the primarily manual labor that was done on the Soo Line through my hometown in the 60’s. They did change over to ribbon rail in the early 70’s there but I was too busy chasing young women to remember what equipment they were using.
Pretty cool to watch! Nice job on the slow-mo parts too. Great editing. I can only imagine the amount of people and labor it took before the machines
4 teams of six would be my guess
this was like watching Mighty Machines from 1994 all over again without the voices. Idk if the U.S. had that show, but that is what it was like seeing this.
Excellent video my friend!
NICE! I always wondered about how all those specialized machines where utilized. Thank you.
All these machines look amazing . Track in nycta is done by hand . Claw bars mauls and hammers .
I Could Spend A Day watching This Live.
Wow excellent video my dear friend. I like it so much. Amazing footage. Greetings from Vietnam 🙏🙏👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️
Great video. It was mesmerizing.
Awesome video friend, greetings from Guadalajara, Mexico :)
A lot different than in the late 70s early 80s. I remember the spike pullers were small walk behind bare minimum. The tie plate machine was the same with Wisconsin engines. Started with tie saws then tie shears.
Just passed a CSX crew yesterday working on the tracks in Estill, SC.
Great video! Congratulations!
I have seen center beam cars loaded with wood ties. I’ve also seen what happens when hot welding slag is put on them from track repair.i remember walking the tracks & one of them was gone & only ash & sut was there.😦
I grew up next to what was then, ATSF Railway near Houston, TX. Back then, they just left those old cross ties laying by the track. You could just go out and pick them up for free!
My Father was a plate layer in the UK in the Late 1940s when everything was done with pick / shovel and hard manual labour.
Comparisons with this would be something his generation could never have envisaged !
PGH
John Henry I have some bad news...
Driving the Last Spike by Genesis comes to mind watching this video.
I ran tie crane on the BN for years. Lover it.
Excellent except not captioned explaining each machine function like another one of these videos. The next to last machine is vibrating the ties to get gravel under the new ties while laser leveling the track to the right height. Thanks for sharing, very interesting.
That's a ballast tamper.
Agreed. I didn’t have a clue what and why they were doing it. Captions would be great.
@C Q There is no laser leveling or lining for that matter with this Plasser. Plasser uses a taught wire, potentiometer system, (well computer too) from that front buggy to a buggy back at the rear of the machine. There is a wire running on each side of the machine for each rail and there should be one running down the center of the track for the liner mechanism to align the track. Harsco is an American company that makes tamping machines too but they operate on a completely different principle (light rather than wire) to Plassers. Plasser & Theurer is an AUSTRIAN company. I am not sure if they manufacture machines in the USA or if they are just assembled in America. You can buy a Laser option for both makes BUT the laser is for a greater correction in the alignment of the track compared to what both Plasser and Harsco can do alone. That part used to be made by Laser Alignment but i heard they were taken over--not sure if they are still sold under the same name. I see others confused on other videos about the laser option.
Reminds of you on Terminator movie where machines take over. It would have taken over 200 men months to do this job by hand a hundred years ago.
I sawn of these convoys at work 3 years ago just 100klicks outside Winnipeg. I ha NO CLUE these things even existed...
Would have liked to see the completed project up close and in detail. I know there's issues with trespassing and all. I'm really liking that stone grooming machine.
I shall do that next time! This part of the line is due for new ties this year or next.
The "stone grooming" machine is called a ballast regulator.
Many contracts in manufacturing process of completing the form of electromagnetic charges for discharging in rails too recollections current wheels every third boxcar. John.
They did the same thing here in Colorado Springs downtown area awhile back.
Fascinating to watch..some of the guys were cute too!
Are you a male or female?
female
@@bnsfbandit9807 lol
nice video and great catch of the csx crew working on the track's.
Awesome video!
Hard job sitting in ac all day
I have not seen these machine's
In a long time in Michigan
I've been workin on the railroad, all the live long day...
4 years of tie crane operator
Thomas Murphy Sounds awful. Easy money though.
Not as much of a "gang" as it used to be... I lived beside the CP main line for years and used to watch them go by, all those workers with their different tasks. Like so many other industries lots of jobs have been eliminated by mechanization.
Thanks for posting.
For the better...this is some back breaking labor. Do you really want to destroy your body for some one else? I don't
@@billywayne6104 it really is I been doing it for 3yrs
Matt Beale Absolutely right, even though it really is intriguing to watch tracks being laid in the 1900s.
Matt Beale unless you own your own business you are doing it for someone else.
it was so full of csx rail replacement machines
Pull the ties out from UNDER a railroad that's seen eleventy-seven gazillion tons of overhead weight for decades. Do a few hundred per day while you're at it...No problem.
Well done, human engineers and inventors.
Interesting order of operations 👍
Amazing!
Good work
I was left dazed and confused in awe with drool mouth wide ajar then I woke up and uncrossed my shutters 😜
John Henry could have beat all those machines. He was a steel driving man.
At auction sales refit ,for track here ,quickly i like small machines,air parts not heavy hydraulic,but heavy duty need big. Steel yeah. John.
Nice video!
nice video I love that job I work for union pacific RR I operate the Tko machine that put the new ties in
Javier Valdez I
tee n' ehh I'm sure he means TRIPP.
Javier Valdez ,prove it
Javier Valdez how much does this job pay
Let me tell ya, that whole lot better than by hand. I worked the railroad way back . On a crew of 60 guys. I was a young kickin' man. We Spike by hand hammer, dug the tie in or out. And tamp the tie by hand shovel.
All by your body muscles. The only good out of it was the pay, and my body strength that I builded up.
And yeah you got the older guys complaining about ache and injury.
I was young and loving it. But I got taken in Vietnam war.. and the dam csx won't pay me my retirement pay.
How f**k up is that !.
They're doing ties on the ce&d again this year, OP.
Doesn’t Europe have a huge machine that does all of these steps (from the numerous machines) all at one time? From moving the fill grave, removing the old ties, laying new track, installing new ties and refilling the gravel…one machine? I know that America is all about jobs and positive job numbers and unions but, if there is something better, why not go for it. Like when the first tunnel borer came here…amazing. 🤔
Yes, but this here is America. It's barely above 3rd World infrastructure levels. 😂
Well ... that was satisfying.
To keep railroads safe, they must be maintained at regular intervals.
Only through steady ingenuity and effort can we create a comfortable environment with express delivery.
線路を安全であり続けるには､適度な周期で保守しなければなりません
地道な工夫と努力があってこそ､速くて快適な環境となるのです
AT 19:53, THE MACHINE IS A TAMPER THAT LEVELS THE TRACK BY TAMPING STONE UNDER THE TIES
OK COOL
April 1st-31st 2019 Work being done here in Bend,Or
Jim Pollard very nice place!
That's amazing to watch. But why does the RR leave the old toes by the tracks?
A contractor comes and picks up the old ties and hauls them off. I think there is a power plant in Michigan that can burn old ties. Some might go to a Lowe’s type store for sale to landscapers to use as a border.
@@Grainexpress ok thanks
I Worked On A Mechanized Tie Gang & A Rail Gang, in the 70's & 80'sBut That Is All New Type Equipment, If I Had Equipment Like That I Would Be Rail Roading Today
Kinda like farming. If some of these young farmers had to work out in open station tractors all day just to get 80 acres done they would probably quit. ;)
Thanks for sharing.....cool stuff
Wonder what decision has the good and bad ties on the same side of line.
Access?
in a cost saving move, EHH has ordered RR ties to be replaced with used oxygen bottles.
😂
I live in Michigan i see the csx machines all the time. I know where the headquarters is . In Jacksonville Florida
Great video. What's the function of the GRM3000 machine at the end of it?
It lifts and surfaces the track so it is level by forcing ballast under the ties, or if you are doing curves, it puts elevation on one rail depending if it is a left or right hand curve. It is also aligning the track every time it lifts the track. It says Plasser American on it but Plasser & Theurer is an Austrian company. I am not sure if the machines are being manufactured in the USA as well. Precision German style engineering. LOL
Tamper/track liner high production
I hope they're going to the ND & W line soon. I'm surprised they're using wood instead of concrete, though.
Wood ties , it turns out, hold up much longer than concrete ties do.
As Robert says, the whole concrete ties will save the day bit was overdone. Long-term tests revealed that the porous nature of concrete is it's undoing on the RR. Still, a wooden tie was running about $70~ a pop last I asked, so none of it is cheap.
Pulling the the track up to remove the ties is a bad idea as it doesn't seat all the way back down because the ballast is getting under it.
I bet that front trip machine operator and lead tamper i super good buddies with the trip operator lifting the hell out off the track😂😂
вот это я понимаю механизация, Thumb up :)
ruclips.net/video/POaGOuVH1z4/видео.html
Good 👍
보선 작업 모든 과정 장비 로 하니
인력 절감 빠른 능률이 장점 입니다 !
Curious as to why the machine sliding the ties back in, is skipping a bunch of slots that need ties and just going by them. Doesn't seem very efficient for another machine to come back and do the same process all over again?
One machine can't keep up installing ties to cover the amount of track they can cover in one day.
This is probably the coolest maintenance line I've ever seen. Gotta make it fast and efficient!
Someone should comment on what every vehicle is and what it does, because I have no clue really of how they operate.
If you watch the whole video, you can get the gist of how they all operate, and you should be able to pick out which is which, but in this video, there is a…
-Spike driver
-Spike puller
-Tie exchanger
-Hi-rail excavator
-Ballast regulator
-Ballast tamper
-Tie Crane
-Plate inserter
And maybe one or two I forgot.
On some of the close ups, I could see that tie clips were in place with the older ties. However, I didn't see them being installed with the new ties. After the machine went by that was driving the spikes, the next process was spreading and tamping the ballast. Did I miss the installation of the tie clips, or were they not added to the new ties?
Anti-creepers, creepers for short. I doubt a machine could install them, I could be wrong.
There are machines made to onstall rail anchors.
This is pretty sweet. I didn't notice a machine bringing ties in. Are the ties laying next to the track new and they already knew which needed replacing, or do they figure it out as they go?
Yeah, if you showed every machine for every step, you'd have a couple of hours of video!
One standout to me was the 'grooming' of the ballast under the tracks, i was expecting the last 'unit' finishing everything to be the landscaping one plantin' bushes and flowers 💐
🤔😲👏🤝🛠😅😉
You all are neatnicks!👍😉😅
Yeah, i know how critical the 'footing', ballast, ties, rails, SPIKES, plates etc. etc. are. This is called 'levity'........Google it if necessary.
Planning starts the year before. On a heavy used line like the CE&D sub ties are normally on a 5 to 6 yr replacement cycle. There's a truck that marks ties being replaced. Theres also a machine that unloads tie.
Put a piece of tape over the microphone. Helps with the wind...
Why not all the ties??? What no concrete??
It's America, so it's all about doing the minimum required as cheaply as humanly possible. 😂
What is the distance between the sleepers?
Imagine doing this job by hand.....
I don't understand. Why aren't they replacing all of the ties, instead of every 5 or 10th one? They all look like crap.
Hydraulics are amazing
Do the excavators with grapples come back after they level the track and pick up the bad ties? That machine that puts the plates in looks tough.
There is a big truck that comes and picks up all the old ties and piles them up at designated locations along the line. Later the ties are hauled away to the end user(whomever that might be) leaving the Right of Way all clean from the track work.
Another way I saw old ties picked up was a work train came through with a loco pulling a special railcar that had a crane on it. Behind it were gondolas that the crane would roll on top of and load the old ties into. The crane could load however many gondolas were needed to contain the old ties. This works where trackside access is limited or non existent.
Die befestigen die Gleise mit Nägel, wie vor 200 Jahren???
Dafür gibt es doch schon seit einer Ewigkeit Schrauben.
What did you do with the old ties when you pulled them out there?
A contractor picks them up and takes them somewhere. I heard a power plant in MI can burn them.
Похоже путь не сильно эксплуатируется, если рельсы не меняют, а только шпалы.
What Other Lines Do This?
All the Class 1 railroads have track gangs. Work where needed.
Where's John Henry when you need him?
In a song where he belongs. Hopefully never to return.
is this video from 19 century? The rest of the civilized world use only concrete rail ties
Fancy machines. They missed guite a few. It might save labor cost but the quality is missing. Been there, did that.
Question? How come only some RR ties are replaced? What do they do with the old ties?
Mike G Someone walks the line first marking the bad ties. Here about every 5 years the y come through replacing ties. Keeps the track in Class 1 category good for 60 mph.
It’s about time to do it again next year. Not real sure what they do with the old ties. Some are sold for landscaping or so I was told.
Grainexpress thank you for the response.