Friday, August 14, 2009

Completing the crossings

The railroad crossings in and around Rensselaer were disrupted for a week as the tie-replacement crews came through Rensselaer in late July and early August. I have posted about the tie-replacement work here, here and here. Today I have a short video showing some of the steps in ripping up and then replacing the crossings.
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What you are seeing in the video:
Start: Ripping up the old crossing on Matheson Street.
:08 A section of new track. For some of the side tracks, CSX seems to have constructed a completely new section of track with the ties attached, and then lifted it into place. What you see in the video seems to be one of those new sections.
:11 A ballast regulator with a loader dumping ballast on the crossing.
:17 A ballast regulator in action
:25 Positioning the wooden ties alongside the rails.
:31 Clamping the wooden tie tightly next to the rail and drilling a hole for a fastening bolt/screw
:41 Drilling holes
:50 Placing the bolts/screws into the newly drilled holes.
:54 Closeup of the crossing before the bolts/screws have been tightened into place.
:56 A crossing after the CSX crew is finished but before the paving crew arrives. The paving crew did not seem to be CSX workers--it appeared that CSX had contracted that work out.
:59 Paving crew doing the rough work, building up the surface. This and following clips show the Franklin Street crossing.
1:05 The crossing with the foundation asphalt in place.
1:08 A series of clips showing the final, finishing layer of asphalt being put down.
1:30 A truck picking up the road-closed signs.
1:33 Three finished crossings.

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