Northern Region Rail-Laying Gang SCL 1979-1981. It is so sad to see how they've mechanized the process to put more folk out of work since I laid Ribbon-Rail. We had manual Spike Pullers, Manual Rail-Lifter, Manual Cribber, Manual Tie Sprayer-Then a Burro Crane and Gauger tacked the Track down. Only the Spike Drivers, Crane and Anchor Machines were "Sit-Down" Jobs. "It was long ago. It was far away. It was so much better than it is today." .....RVM45
You are right 1fm , I have done 40 years on Britains Railways we still have a mish mash of gear including old manual signal boxes on some lines,wooden sleepers (ties) , rail spikes, 4,6 hole fish plates (rail joints), most main line and heavily used lines now have computer controled signalling, continuous welded rail etc Many small re-railing jobs are done by hand with no on track machines at all its still hammers, spanners and shacks with a bit of muscle behind them
good lord compared to todays rail laying operations Conrail seemed to be still stuck in a time warp right up to the end with old equipment like this still in use.
onrr1726 I don't understand why people think this is antiquated. This method of dual rail laying is still in use today. See my comments below about "all in one" machines.
Conrail did things a lot different and still used a lot of older equipment compared to other roads at the time nobody is criticizing over the quality of work they did just pointing out that they did not seem to invest a lot of money in newer equipment. I grew up along the line between Syracuse, and Buffalo. I remember when they used to own front end loaders built by Trojan in the mid 70's that came from the old factory in Batavia, NY, A friend of mine hired out with Penn Central as a signal maintainer driving a 1968 Dodge Cargo Van he drove it till CSX gave him a new truck in 1998! I remember 10 wheel Chevy Dump Trucks. Ford Back Hoes. Cranes built by Pettibone and Galion. Most if not all there MW trucks had Michigan or Indiana license plates. I also recall seeing some Blue Conrail trucks they were rare but they were out there in small numbers.
Thank you for this interesting video. Can someone please explain the term "Low Grade Line"? Which line was it? Why was it called that? Was there a High Grade Line? How did the Low Grade Line differ from the High Grade Line? Cheers.
In this case, the Blandon Low Grade was a bypass of the original East Penn branch up Temple Hill that had a grade of 1.1 percent and required pushers. The Blandon Low Grade was 0.6 percent or almost half as steep. This was on the former Reading. The PRR also had several lines known as low grades. They were lines with lesser gradients than the originally constructed routes.
I think its the other wy round mate. Oh, and i work for network rail btw so know a thing or two about this shit! We may use alot of concrete sleeprs now but our axle weight and loading gauge is lame compared with the U.S! Also the rail weight we install on mainlines the americans put into sidings! (113 pound per yard).
If you think europe dont use shacks and dollys to relay you are very much mistaken the fancy auto track laying stuff is only any good on big jobs its not worth setting up a track layer for just a few chain of track so its still don manualy in many cases, including Britain
The only place that Amtrak can effectively do this, though, is the Northesast. They don't own any other track, so otherwise it's up to freight railroads, which are mostly sticking with wood.
Well, there was one guy on one of the anchor machines that got really hot when I was doing the video. He jumped off his machine and turned his back and started giving me the finger. I just passed him by and continued to video the rest of the gang.
I felt pretty comfortable doing this on my "home turf" so to speak. I usually got the shots first, and worried about permission later. And quite frankly, the union would have had no say in this regardless, as we routinely did safety training videos and such all the time without having to ask permission. That said, this didn't get posted on the internet until long after anybody who cared would worry about it.
Northern Region Rail-Laying Gang SCL 1979-1981.
It is so sad to see how they've mechanized the process to put more folk out of work since I laid Ribbon-Rail.
We had manual Spike Pullers, Manual Rail-Lifter, Manual Cribber, Manual Tie Sprayer-Then a Burro Crane and Gauger tacked the Track down. Only the Spike Drivers, Crane and Anchor Machines were "Sit-Down" Jobs.
"It was long ago. It was far away. It was so much better than it is today."
.....RVM45
Now that was neat! Thanks for sharing it with us.
You are right 1fm , I have done 40 years on Britains Railways we still have a mish mash of gear including old manual signal boxes on some lines,wooden sleepers (ties) , rail spikes, 4,6 hole fish plates (rail joints), most main line and heavily used lines now have computer controled signalling, continuous welded rail etc
Many small re-railing jobs are done by hand with no on track machines at all its still hammers, spanners and shacks with a bit of muscle behind them
that 4-53 Detroit sounds healthy in the little crane!
The RCO trackchange out machine was all in one machine that .It can do the whole operation in one pass .But it won't do heavy rail
good lord compared to todays rail laying operations Conrail seemed to be still stuck in a time warp right up to the end with old equipment like this still in use.
onrr1726 I don't understand why people think this is antiquated. This method of dual rail laying is still in use today. See my comments below about "all in one" machines.
Conrail did things a lot different and still used a lot of older equipment compared to other roads at the time nobody is criticizing over the quality of work they did just pointing out that they did not seem to invest a lot of money in newer equipment. I grew up along the line between Syracuse, and Buffalo. I remember when they used to own front end loaders built by Trojan in the mid 70's that came from the old factory in Batavia, NY, A friend of mine hired out with Penn Central as a signal maintainer driving a 1968 Dodge Cargo Van he drove it till CSX gave him a new truck in 1998! I remember 10 wheel Chevy Dump Trucks. Ford Back Hoes. Cranes built by Pettibone and Galion. Most if not all there MW trucks had Michigan or Indiana license plates. I also recall seeing some Blue Conrail trucks they were rare but they were out there in small numbers.
Thank you for this interesting video.
Can someone please explain the term "Low Grade Line"? Which line was it? Why was it called that? Was there a High Grade Line? How did the Low Grade Line differ from the High Grade Line?
Cheers.
In this case, the Blandon Low Grade was a bypass of the original East Penn branch up Temple Hill that had a grade of 1.1 percent and required pushers. The Blandon Low Grade was 0.6 percent or almost half as steep. This was on the former Reading. The PRR also had several lines known as low grades. They were lines with lesser gradients than the originally constructed routes.
fmnut
Excellent, thank you. Now I know.
Very interesting video. Thank you. Lame to a Kraut lover or not, I think it's great watching Americans do things the American way.
Yeah, you got that right! Us brits are way behind when it comes to the loading gauge and axle weights. Max in the UK is 25 ton on one axle- pitiful.
Formidable38 ho un
I have never seen or heard of a cummons. I have seen and heard a Cummins Diesel engine however.
I wonder how your back feels after a few days of this?
I think its the other wy round mate. Oh, and i work for network rail btw so know a thing or two about this shit! We may use alot of concrete sleeprs now but our axle weight and loading gauge is lame compared with the U.S! Also the rail weight we install on mainlines the americans put into sidings! (113 pound per yard).
If you think europe dont use shacks and dollys to relay you are very much mistaken the fancy auto track laying stuff is only any good on big jobs its not worth setting up a track layer for just a few chain of track so its still don manualy in many cases, including Britain
Was Danny Calvaresi part of this gang? I caught video of him down at Temple for this project.
He was the local foreman who got the track time for the rail gang. He was not actually part of the gang.
The only place that Amtrak can effectively do this, though, is the Northesast. They don't own any other track, so otherwise it's up to freight railroads, which are mostly sticking with wood.
Many higher paying jobs were created though designing, building, and maintaining machines to lay track.
Hey Rich, did you have permission from the workers union to be taking video of them while doing their work? lol.
Well, there was one guy on one of the anchor machines that got really hot when I was doing the video. He jumped off his machine and turned his back and started giving me the finger. I just passed him by and continued to video the rest of the gang.
I felt pretty comfortable doing this on my "home turf" so to speak. I usually got the shots first, and worried about permission later. And quite frankly, the union would have had no say in this regardless, as we routinely did safety training videos and such all the time without having to ask permission. That said, this didn't get posted on the internet until long after anybody who cared would worry about it.
Silly Brit. Criticizing what you don't understand.