Railway Ballast Cleaning Machine on a high-speed railway line

The RMW 1500 high capacity ballast cleaning machine from the manufacturer Plasser & Theurer was used in June 2019 on the high-speed railway line Hannover-Göttingen. The 150 meter long machine can clean up to 1,500 m³ of ballast per hour. The ballast is removed with a 35 cm high excavating chain. The clearing width can be set between 4.05 and 5.5 meters. The track bed cleaning machine was followed by a high output railway track laying machine, which renewed rails and sleepers: • Railway Track Laying M...
This video was mastered and uploaded in #HDR / #HDR10.
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[@MrUtubeobia]

How long did it take to design and build this complex machine. What a marvel of engineering.

[@douglasgallardojr4759]

My thoughts exactly! It levitates the sleepers while riding on the rail!

[@a.n.7863]

I immediately thought of that show “Modern Marvels” upon coming across this video.

[@dopplerfox]

I thought that thumbnail showed some horrific rail accident, but this is some impressive engineering!

[@buizelmeme6288]

Same!

[@drankfrebin]

Yes as well

[@Laluan]

Same 🤣

[@mercuriallimit]

It is well captured and edited too! First time seeing this, quite amazing actually

[@nacnud_]

Now, more human time into projects like this, less into destruction. Amazing stuff!

[@humbleopinion1499]

Great video - I guess many of us never realize the maintenance that goes into a railway track.

[@davidbrady5618]

Recently finished a project involving tons of rocks and it was such damn hard work. So watching this machine scoop them up from underneath an active track like they are peanuts is mind bending.

[@danieljones2924]

The saying "I wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire" has now been replaced with "I wouldn't give you sleeping pills if a ballast cleaning machine went past your house"

[@Chadmiral]

Lol

[@davebowman6497]

After the ballast cleaner comes the tamper, a machine that adjusts the track and compacts the ballast around the sleepers. That's even louder.. (I once lived at a place where a tamper was working more than 500 meters away at night. Sleepless from the noise, so I thought I might as well go watch it. Impressive. And LOUD! 😊) Several videos of that on KZbin. Search for eg how to make perfect levelled railroad tracks".

[@k3w1b3an5]

The combination of size, power and complexity boggles my mind.

[@kdwaynec]

Glad I found this again. I was trying to explain to my son how this worked. It still blows my mind how 'flimsy' the tracks are once the ballast is removed.

[@stopbunsen]

Looks really impressive! It just looks like it has so many moving parts. It would require a lot of maintenance itself

[@alphajava761]

Can you image the time waiting at a rail crossing for this thing to go by.

[@byzanttine]

To say this is an engineering marvel would be an understatement.

[@ShipsYouShouldKnow]

Es ist doch immer wieder faszinierend zu sehen, was es für Maschinen gibt. Tolle und interessante Aufnahmen mal wieder von Dir ... klasse Film 👍 Gruß Carsten

[@inselvideo]

Sehr interessante Technik hast Du da wieder gefilmt. Beeindruckend was da für ein Aufwand getrieben wird und wie lang auch diese Maschine ist. Die Bildqualität ist toll, hab es auch in HDR geschaut. Tolle Farben und auch die Schattenbereiche haben eine schöne Durchzeichnung. Klasse gemacht! Daumen hoch! Gruss inselvideo!

[@ARockRaider]

Very Interesting! I never knew but am not surprised that intermodal hoppers are a thing. What does surprise me is that there aren't water systems to keep all that dust down!

[@javeedsultan8484]

Would image it has the capability to suppress dust some how, especially in built up areas, Not sure using water would be practical,, even if you recycle it you would still need a lot

[@douglasgallardojr4759]

They wouldn't be able to sort out the detritus effectively/efficiently if the ballast were wet.

[@TheWizardGamez]

@@javeedsultan8484 how would you recycle it? He’s talking about airborne dust. The water is lost to the air. Unless you got a condenser it’s already an accounted loss. Besides it’s not even going to be that much water. Anyways, the machine was probably just complex enough that they said “Fuck it, we already made a train that can ride hovering rails,”

[@mrbig9595]

Uk fleet has dust suppression

[@TheAutisticCapricorn811]

Aaow man, this is such a fascinating railroading process. This reminds me of that super neat story called "Ballast" in the Small Railway Engines book of the Railway Series. I just love how real live railroading job experiences are put into stories. I'm hearing a nice narration of this video in relation of a railroad line being constructed or reconstructed, all in my head.

[@HarukiYamamoto]

WOW! That's not a machine. It's a factory on wheels.

[@ianthomson5382]

This is up there with Tunnel Boring Machines as among the most awesome machines I have ever seen ..

[@kepler186f4]

To borrow a line from Volkswagen.... "the finest of German technology. This is far beyond anything America needs.

[@zenflowerpeace4384]

Wow! I never knew all it takes to maintain and run the trains efficiently!

[@naterbaternaterbater]

For sure! Train and car wheels need to be turned on a lathe to reshape them. The rails need to be ground back to a proper shape. The rocks (shown in this video) need to be cleaned of debris and gunk. Ties need to be released. When a train derails, it's an automatic 1 million dollar fine plus cost of labor to undo the derailment (plus loss of productivity) Maintenance is extremely important!

[@EtzEchad]

What a huge machine! There must be a way to get load it with new ballast since they are offloading a lot of the old, but the video didn't show it. How do they ensure that the ballast gets under the ties?

[@yiply42]

I think at 2:14 it shows at least some of the ballast being replaced and it looks like there are little brushes that push it off of the ties around 2:00

[@Pystro]

@@yiply42 I bet it recycles enough of the ballast to allow the sleepers to rest on top of that, and the ballast for above the bottom face of the sleepers can be put in by the rail laying machine.

[@hermask815]

Now that’s a reason to wear a ffp2 mask.

[@douglasgallardojr4759]

YES

[@MachineHeadDissent]

Fascinating how that works!!...🤙😎🤘

[@asdsdjfasdjxajiosdqw8791]

European infrastructure is decades ahead of the US.

[@dennisyoung4631]

Which needs addressing, given that Rail is going to become a much bigger issue in the coming years…

[@coolcat-nq4mj]

US road infrastructure is decades ahead of Europe's

[@asdsdjfasdjxajiosdqw8791]

@@coolcat-nq4mj Lol, is that what you tell yourself?

[@rickakashockshockey9151]

Yes, but a lot smaller area.

[@acidset]

@@rickakashockshockey9151 that's no excuse, if anything the bigger the population (and also the area) the greater the need for infrastructure

[@stevenjordan9497]

UNREAL.

[@arboristo4407]

Incredibly amazing system. Couple centuries of ingenuity rail is the way.❤️👍🤠

[@farmerdave7965]

The undercutter is my favorite machine.

[@TheGuruNetOn]

The Incredibles : "I am the Underminer!! I'm beneath you, but nothing is beneath me!!"

[@Unimedien]

Klasse Video von dem Einsatz dieser Bahnbautechnik. Daumen hoch. Gruß Unimedien.

[@pfridell8424]

Wow! I am truly impressed!! What was it doing with the rocks that it put in the railway cars? I would love to see one of these babies live.

[@douglasgallardojr4759]

The rocks are called ballast and this machine is replacing and/or cleaning it. The ballast being loaded into the other railway cars is probably going to be cleaned and reused.

[@noahpettit557]

Ah thanks. So the machine on the rails is not actually cleaning the stones themselves but replacing with fresh ballast?

[@mrmofo36]

this woulda been great in a bond movie

[@lindaterrell5535]

Holy guacamole, it’s a whole factory!

[@johnnycee5179]

It's just unbelievable the amount of work needed to maintain tracks.

[@FallOfTheLiving]

here i was thinking it was cleaning on the loco itself and replacing with the same stock with additional ballast to sure it up. Instead they process it offsite? or do they dispose of it

[@TheSRBgamer63]

What a simple looking machine .....

[@steveclark5357]

this is just freaking amazing

[@J3scribe]

Not technically "cleaning" ballast, but replacing it, which is just as impressive. New ballast is fed from the long string of hoppers ahead of the ballast shredder. There is some storage of old ballast behind. The dirty ballast is being off-loaded onto the hopper train on the adjacent rail line at 3:40. There's a cool segment at 2:38 where you see the conveyor system replacing old versus new aggregate. The conveyor for the older stone is wider because it's dirtier, hence larger. This video is cool AF. In the USA, Herzog and Loram have automated this process to the point where operators don't have to wear PPE to protect themselves from harmful particulates. 4:25 They work in environmentally controlled workspaces on the train.

[@carlislehendersonthethird7799]

Not exactly. This is definitely cleaning and reusing the ballast. That’s what the shaker units are for. I worked for years on one of these. They use a combination of new and recycled ballast.

[@fredflintstoner596]

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view!" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?"

[@ear2thestreet]

Sehr tolle Aufnahmen. Die Herrschaften haben wirklich einen brutalen Job...Staub und Lärm bis zum Umfallen.

[@terry_willis]

Richtig

[@hans983]

Rolling Stones

[@Misha29ify]

One of the most fascinating things I have seen

[@orionharmon6017]

Railroad rocks are called railroad ballast, I never knew that I was trying to figure out that how rocks like that are made but these railroad cleaning machines right here are insane putting new railroad ballast into the rails. We have railroad machines like that makes new rails and ballast, Norfolk Southern, Conrail, Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific, CSX, Amtrak and others they all have railroad machines like that making new rails, ties/sleepers and ballast for them.

[@frizky._]

ballast not ballest

[@orionharmon6017]

@@frizky._ Oh well excuse me that confuses me sometimes.

[@frizky._]

@@orionharmon6017 it's ok

[@orionharmon6017]

@@frizky._ But thanks for letting me know that by the way;) 👍🏽

[@frizky._]

@@orionharmon6017 you're welcome

[@googoo-gjoob]

just what a RR loves to see.... MOW on *both tracks*

[@veramae4098]

Why such a long line of machines? Are they cleaning the ballast over and over again, or do different machines do different actions, or ... what else?

[@EliasProbst]

Most of the length is taken up by wagons providing fresh ballast and wagons for dumping the old dirty one. They serve as a buffer until the train on the parallel tracks comes along, refills the fresh ones and takes away the dirty ones.

[@timkis64]

the complexity of the maintenence machines the rail companies have is mind boggling.im sure the cost of them is equally mind boggling.

[@hanskostka6788]

Does this only exist in Germany or do other countries also clean their "Schotter" ?

[@JohnWalker-rt6ue]

Is the ballast cleaned on site, or is it taken elsewhere, and replaced by clean ballast?

[@ricmiddletown7685]

its sorted and classified as it moves, the small is removed, the dust is removed by vibration and extra is available on other cars. the small and debris is removed. it truly is amazing machinery

[@DrTWG]

Thumb looked like a mass accident/derailment. Very impressive machine . This is 2+2=4 Engineering .

[@batman_2004]

Amazing beautiful machine.

[@noahpettit557]

Are the stones being cleaned on the fly by the machine or are they being replaced with fresh ballast ?

[@HD1080ide]

Both. Stones that can be reused are cleaned. Stones that are too small for example are replaced with fresh ballast.

[@Chris.Davies]

I guess expecting a high-speed version of this. Set playback speed to 2x. :)

[@rogerhislip5269]

I saw one in Wyoming years ago. The noise is as bad as being next to a jet taking off

[@ausbare140]

Great video I would like to know or see how the ballast is cleaned on a single line track.

[@Pystro]

No high speed rail would be single track. But I don't see why it wouldn't be possible as long as your right of way is wide enough for trucks to drive up next to the machine. Or the belt could possibly be modified to load a single rail car in front of the front end. Then you'd need a single shunting locomotive which has to haul those single cars to the next switch where you can couple them together for the rest of the trip over the rail system.

[@legotechnictrains8999]

Oh baby!

[@johnnycee5179]

Wow, what a machine

[@spaceboy5293]

this is nuts

[@ahillmann]

I wonder what detergent they are using to clean the ballast. I would like to use it to clean my dishes.

[@Wolfgodmak]

Rocks, rocks and more rocks

[@bradfordthompson8326]

To us it's exciting to see a country and a team to be innovative and design things to better each of our lifes.....Its extremely sad to see Hatred in this beautiful world that God put us in Hatred is just Non economic Production...

[@johnaugsburger6192]

Thanks

[@central3425]

Can't believe it goes under the ties like that

[@Cline3911]

Today, weez is learnin about rawks.

[@christianuhlemann5688]

Geiles Gerät, aber wenn die den Schotter verladen, im Dorf - lauft ! Bei uns war das halbe Dorf grau 😉😂

[@EvilBaggOBolts]

Everything in Germany is well maintained and engineered perfectly.

[@douglasgallardojr4759]

They've had a couple of chances to start over with new technology.

[@dlasky]

Why is no one asking or explaining why the fcking ballast need to be cleaned, they are rocks.

[@farmerdave7965]

We don't like dirty rocks.

[@BreakYourMark]

Dirty rocks get processed through the shame train

[@terry_willis]

Cleaning is needed because of Eur. Union regulations.

[@ronblack7870]

they need to remove undersized smoothed rocks and finer material. the ballast does wear out . when trains go over the rails the rails go up and down pounding the rocks. eventually they break down too small. it's not just a bunch of rocks. they keep the track bed stable.and dirt can cause water to pool as well.

[@dlasky]

@@ronblack7870 Thanks!

[@peterpetersen4619]

I didn't know that something like this was necessary. if someone had told me that the stones had to be cleaned and sorted and that there was such a complex and large machine, I would have thought them crazy.

[@johnny5805]

Are they replacing the ballast ? Or just cleaning it ? If just cleaning, what kind of stuff gets onto ballast that is so bad that they need to spend millions to clean it ?

[@MichaelT_123]

Poo&pee from toilets, wind blown sand sediments, plant roots, etc.

[@Laluan]

Awesome!

[@jonhelmer8591]

How much are they? I want one.

[@BLUESKY-zt1nv]

Where can i buy a second hand rail ballast cleaning machine from ..? how much would one cost in the UK ...?

[@bobsum1745]

Try on EBay.

[@fishbone08070]

Amazing..

[@tetracor]

Amazing !!!

[@pathankarimkhan2303]

What a machine 👌👌👌

[@timeforbeans]

This video makes me want to stat TUBTHUMPING 👯💃👯💃👯💃👯💃

[@SKF358]

Hard to tell what's happening to the track.

[@florianrose7493]

Auf welcher Webseite steht wo gerade das Gleisbett Repariert wird

[@chrisperrien7055]

Awesome machine, Nice if you owned it , rather running it,I can see, sucking up all that dust. If you owned that machine, you are sitting on a beach, not running it.

[@tsuchan]

Oh my word!

[@NitroModelsAndComics]

A before and after would have been nice.

[@douglasgallardojr4759]

It would look the same

[@kmranmustafa9489]

Good Man

[@MrChickenselects]

why exactly is it being cleaned

[@youtubeuser2195]

Please explain what actually is happening here?

[@johnr5252]

Why does the ballast need to be cleaned?

[@markoliver4194]

Rust

[@karlbjorkquist7489]

I want to also see a machine that cleans the Ballast Cleaning Machine.

[@douglasgallardojr4759]

That's called a human. 😄

[@wyskass861]

How much to rent for a day?

[@PogsYrana]

Apple: Macintosh Seiko! Pogs Yrana & Jeanne Garcia

[@NPClownumber81googolplex]

How unhealthy is it to breathe near that?

[@karenielsen4713]

Someone drew and designed this! Someone build it! WTF 😮

[@vaderbase]

Wieso wird der Schotter "gereinigt"?

[@davidanalyst671]

This really fascinates me. The only thing i don't get is that I saw them fill the railroad cars with the ballast. Why don't they just get one of those shaker machines and some sieves to get the aggregate right, then put it back?

[@lenchisholm6356]

They do! What goes off in the second train is the rubbish that went through the sieve. Older cleaners just dumped it off the side of the line with a swinging conveyor arm. You can see the conveyor belts returning the good stuff to the track.

[@ronblack7870]

undersize, oily rocks get rejected.ballast must be a certain size and angular so it locks together

[@shivaramjalapur]

Houses nearby should close all their windows and doors

[@Mahdi-wb9nw]

Cool

[@orange_cat]

Can I order one of those machines online? What's the shipping cost?

[@frizky._]

lol

[@joohny9322]

Jbzd pozdrawiam

[@pramodmehta1349]

ALL FUTURE RAIL TRACK SHOULD BE HIGH SPEED IF WE WANT TO BE SUPER POWER UP TO 2047........

[@phil700ag5]

Where is this?

[@mrbig9595]

All the uk machines are now stood down the routes cannot afford them

[@nkelly.9]

Meanwhile in Australia, we still have railway lines that are supported by wooden sleepers......

[@ausbare140]

Also different gauges in different areas of Australia plus a lot of single lines tracks.

[@MichaelT_123]

Wooden sleepers supply was the "fantastic" business opportunity for landowners clearing the land from red gum, iron bark and other tree species. The clearings were necessary for sheep to graze the continent to bare ground and desertificate the land in just a few generations of settlers. Now they complain about ... the climate change.

[@LiveLNXgaming]

nope. yup. there it its. the most insane vehicle/machine i have ever seen. Its a train, that cleans the rocks, under the track that it is riding on, and replaces them. what.

[@trailwayt9H337]

👍GREATE MECHINARY SYSTEM👍🌹

[@undefinedname1398]

That's only the 1500 model.

[@roachtoasties]

How often do they need to clean the rocks? If I steal a rock off the tracks, do I go to prison?

[@HD1080ide]

I think they do it as soon as the need arises.