TRACK 101: How does track work? (Including many often-missed things!)

[@dougvalmore7389]

Very detailed & accurate look at railway track - but incomplete in one significant way. The contour of the wheel was mentioned regarding gauge tolerance, but there's another aspect. When vehicles go around a curve the outside wheels travel greater distance thus must turn faster. In automobiles/trucks/etc this is accomplished by special gearing called a "differential". But railways use solid axles. This is where the wheel contour (AND the rail contour) plays an ingenious role. Both rail head & wheel flange having a curved cross--section allows the solid axle to shift to the outside of the curve, riding on a slightly larger circumference, while the inside wheels likewise shift to a smaller circumference, allowing the outside wheels to travel a greater distance. Some metal-on-metal squeal often results but it is pure genius. A simple drawing (that I cannot do here) would help this explanation. BTW, PRIME-er (long "i") is paint or something that helps set off dynamite. The introductory book is, in American English, pronounced PRIM-er - short "i". Look it up if you doubt...

[@Hyce777]

Thanks for the comment Doug! Very, very important bit you mentioned there. Always a challenging thing to figure out just what the right amount of info is, but I think this would've been a good add. So, I'll pin this comment. Thanks :) And I am not surprised that I am messing up English. I am an engineer, after all...

[@dougvalmore7389]

@@Hyce777 I have often wondered (and so far been unable to discover) if some unnamed engineer thought this up & designed the wheels for this result; or if (more likely) it was just a discovered added advantage to solving the problem of a hard-transition flange & square rail head. The early days being strap iron on top of wood, the curves could well have been added long before increased speeds required it. Any insight on this question? Any thought of editing the video to add this info with a drawing?

[@Hyce777]

@@dougvalmore7389 I've not heard of the story of the dawn of the tapered profile either. Would love to find out. I've never edited an already posted video before? Not sure how that works. I'll look into it. If it's not possible, I am planning following on classes with other things I've come up with, tangentially related topics, etc. so I could include it there.

[@dougvalmore7389]

@@Hyce777 Not sure. I've seen many videos w/corrections/additions & assumed they were made after uploading... but we know the perils of assumptions. A search showed tutorials on KZbin Studio & how to trim stuff out, and even add cards, music & end screens, etc. But nothing specific to adding new material. Hope it works out...

[@ricgal50]

I thought your pronunciation of Prim-er was UK English. Anyway, it is not Canadian English so much. Prine-er is just fine for me.

[@pauldzim]

Frankly, I don't think trains are real. It's just impossible for those thin rails, wood planks, and gravel to hold up the massive weight of a locomotive and fully loaded rail cars. Plus it's impossible for a locomotive to pull a mile-long train of cars around a bend without the cars in the middle just popping off the tracks. Trains are no more real than birds are.

[@cliffcampbell8827]

Clearly you haven't heard of a little thing called: MAGIC!...and don't even get me started on aliens and lizard people disguised as humans then there's that mess known as the illuminati, etc.

[@adcraziness1501]

Well if the earth is flat then wouldn't the trains just always go in a straight line? There wouldn't be any curves.

[@hunterjeffries7326]

This is quite the debate

[@jamielacourse7578]

What's it like on your planet?

[@adcraziness1501]

@@jamielacourse7578 well it's not really a planet. I am from an oxygen nebula. We generate our own heat with fusion power and we have all the air we need for thousands of eons. Light years of oxygen. It's a Goldilocks Nebula, the perfect mix of Oxygen, Nitrogen, and other trace gases where humanoid life can exist. I live on a 32 cubic kilometer roughly oblong-shaped asteroid that grows our food on the outer layer and houses our family group in a series of tunnels and rooms. Like many of your ant species. It's been weird living on Earth and learning about the legend of trains and how so many believe they can exist. I mean really when was the last time you touched a speeding train? You haven't? Then how do you know they're real?

[@ajaxengineco]

Railroad track is a very dynamic thing - it has to be able to alter its shape according to conditions. Early railway people (talking 1820s) did not understand this - rails were cast iron, in 4ft lengths, anchored fast to stone blocks which were buried in the ground. And they wondered why rails kept breaking!

[@Samstrainsofficially]

Wooden rails were very common and very usable until the locomotive came along but like any tech breakthrough it takes a bit of time for stuff around it to catch up.

[@uhitskyle]

That's news to me! Thanks for dropping the knowledge!

[@kevanparker908]

Benjamin Outrams system of rails known as Plates commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fish_Belly_Rail,_Cromford_and_High_Peak_Railway._-_panoramio.jpg

[@beck645]

I just stumbled onto this video. Wow! You have a gift for teaching and speaking. You take complex things and make them so nearly anyone can grasp these complex ideas. I’ve been a teacher much of my life. You set a very high standard. Your use of correct terminology, the way you explain things and importantly the tone of your voice is just fantastic. I could listen to you all day and never get bored. Truly one of the finest teachers I have ever encountered. Tipping hat to you. Truly a spectacular presentation.

[@Hyce777]

Cheers, appreciate the compliments and glad you enjoyed the video!

[@rododonnell6856]

As a retired Australian Locomotive Engineman, I do enjoy your videos. Knowing all the advanced dynamics of rail track has not really been my part of the business. However I have always taken a great interest in studying all this. I appreciate your confirmation of a lot of things that I have worked out for myself over the years.

[@Hyce777]

Cheers mate, enjoy retirement :)

[@rododonnell6856]

@@Hyce777 Sure thing Hyce, I appreciate your videos and I find that you can explain very technical things to basically stupid people. Also it is easy to find a snippet or 2 in your spiels that can actually teach a genius like me just a little bit.

[@moddien1]

so cool to listen to someone who talks about something that he really understands and is his passion. Thank you Hyce!

[@BandanRRChannel]

As someone who works in track/rail design, this was a lot of fun to watch! I've seen thermite welding in the field, it's cool to see (well, very hot, actually). One correction for you, at 34:25. This is NOT a compound curve, this is just a curve with spirals. A compound curve has two or more distinct circular portions of different radius with no intermediate tangent. There's usually a spiral between them. For example, tangent -> spiral -> 1-degree curve -> spiral -> 3-degree curve -> spiral -> tangent. I've used these a couple times to change the alignment coming out of a curve to accommodate new trackwork. They're also fairly common in places like river canyons where a single curve of constant radius is near impossible to do without major grading work.

[@Hyce777]

This is what happens when the signal guy tries to teach track! Turns out I've not understood my track coworkers entirely... Lmao! Thanks for the clarification!

[@shanestoddard3469]

@@Hyce777 I am considerably older than you! I am actually retired, and so it has been a while since I was in the middle of things. I knew John Cippalone, the inventor of Electrocode! I am also the inventor of the Bridge Integrity and Alignment Surveillance System that went absolutely nowhere! I didn't know that old man HARMON sold out???

[@Hyce777]

@@shanestoddard3469 yup... Harmon got bought by GE transportation and I'm not sure where that exists anymore. Lol. It's all global companies anymore.

[@cvrnut09]

Keeps the mosquitos away if its a muggy, humid day

[@chugwaterjack4458]

Having worked on a UPRR engineering (read survey) crew, i can tell you that hand-calculating spirals, especially mid spirals in compound curves will make your head hurt. Our party chief always had everybody one the crew compute each curve, until we all had the same answer, and this was back in the days before any sort of electronic calculator - just tables, paper, and a hand-crank calculator, a glorified adding machine. And, it was great work!

[@johndonlan5956]

This is a fantastic video which explains beautifully what track is, how it's constructed, and safety considerations. You did a brilliant job of bringing it down to our level.

[@CanadianManeuvre]

Great video! Just one *very* minor correction about embedded track being installed without ties. It sounded like you were implying this was somewhat less precise, however this is actually our preferred method of embedded track installation (up here in Canada we call it "top-down" construction). We pour the concrete slab first, with troughs precisely wide enough to accommodate the rail section. A string of CWR is then suspended in the trough with an elastomeric grout to hold the rail in place. The rail installation is the "easy" part, and the quality of the concrete slab is actually far more difficult/critical. Also very much looking forward to a 201 video, and hoping you mention Green/Grass track! :)

[@Hyce777]

Take it from an expert folks! That makes a lot of sense. I'd only seen poorly equipped outfits make embedded track before. cheers :)

[@brucegennette1629]

Brunell used broad gauge track mounted on cut stone blocks aligned under the rails with metal ties spacing the blocks for the Great Western Railway in England 170 years ago. What goes around comes around ... bye.

[@arch9enius]

@@brucegennette1629 That's pretty much how the horse tramways that immediately predated the first steam railways did it. It was last used on theGrand Junction or the London and Birmingham ? Railway. Brunel did something very different -he used fairly flat bridge rail shaped' _n_ ' bolted to longitudal sleepers with cross ties in between . (' =i=i=i=i=' ) This way the shalllow iron rail was supported its entire length and a breakage would be less catastrophic . Hopefully .

[@trevorhaddox6884]

Creosote also comes from wood itself. It's that stuff that builds up in your fireplace chimney and catches fire if you don't clean it.

[@Mishn0]

Thermite, for the curious, is a compound of iron oxide powder (rust) and aluminum powder. When it's burned it reacts into aluminum oxide which is carried away in a cloud of dense, white smoke, and molten steel. The kind used for rail welding comes in pre-mixed kits with the correct additives to form the desired grades of steel in the correct parts of the weld. Softer more malleable steel in the foot and web and harder and longer wearing, but more brittle steel in the head. The workers install a form designed for the task on the rail join and put a thermite kit in the top. Set it off with a magnesium fuse and it burns at extremely high heat and dumps the molten steel in the gap between the rails. After it cools, the head of the rail is ground to shape and two pieces of rail are now one. As a side note, solid rocket boosters use aluminum powder for their fuel, so that's an indication of the heat and power involved. If you've seen a solid rocket engine like the strap on boosters of the Space Shuttle burn, the white smoke is almost entirely the aluminum oxide produced by its burning.

[@brucegennette1629]

Thermite has other things in it to make it work. Because very little air can get into the combustion chamber, oxygen must be supplied from weakly bonded oxide powder mixed in. There are also slag forming chemicals to scavage the excess aluminium (proper spelling, most modern metals are spelt -ium except in the US) and oxygen carrying metals plus alloying elements to produce the correct grade of steel. bye.

[@Mishn0]

@@brucegennette1629 Davy spelled it "Aluminum". But, America bad, Americans dumb, we get it. Carry on.

[@rdallas81]

Thats a video worthy comment.

[@rdallas81]

@@brucegennette1629 thanks Bruce!

[@kuhljager2429]

Im going to be kind a sad once you run out of 101 topics, these have been awesome to watch

[@Hyce777]

That's when the 201 series begins! Haha. Going to be plenty of things to teach, for a long time, I'd imagine.

[@georgesmith1411]

Having been a track man years ago in underground mines, there are differences. The “head” is called the “ball”. Track weights are 40, 60 and 85 pounds per yard. We had ties, but we had “steel ties” which were steel ties with clips to keep the track gauge in check. “Armour Ties” are steel ties bolted to wooden ties so that each tie kept gauge and provided support. We used “fish plates” to bolt sections of rail together. “Frogs” to enter a switch, turn rails to help the train enter a turn, “kicker plates” to kick the wheels over so the wheels would not “pick the switch” of the turn rails when entering a switch. In coal mines, 42 inch and 48 inch gauge was common. I can still re-rail cars with two 12 to 18 inches pieces of rail and a couple pieces of wood. Bethlehem Steel published a track book which I still have a copy of, covers all this.

[@Hyce777]

That's cool! Always fun to hear about the fun differences. Rerailing is a true art... Sounds like you've got it! Thanks for the comment.

[@HenrikLaurell]

Great job!! Been a train nerd since my teens, but not all knowledge sticks.. So good to be able to re-fill some gaps upstairs.. 😋👍

[@mattg5852]

I’ve been thinking about this over the last week or so hyce. Whalen you started your career into railroads and trains, did ever think that you’d A) help make a game about them and become a media/community contact for it. B) did you ever think you’d make videos to share your stories, your knowledge and your passion about railroads? And as always thank you for doing what you have been doing in sharing your stories, knowledge and passion about railroads and also music from time to time.

[@Hyce777]

Nope! I had no idea i was even going to go as deep down the career rabbit hole as i did. If you would've asked me in college I wouldve told you that the train stuff was a fleeting neat thing and i was going to go be an aerospace engineer. Lol. Even a few months ago, when I was more focusing on the music side of things on the channel, i didn't think folks would be interested at all. Very pleasantly surprised with how this is all turning out.

[@Reziac]

@@Hyce777 I live about 100 feet off a BNSF freight track, so good thing I like trains :) This was great info well presented (you've got a teacher living in your head) but I wish the channel was separated out into train-educational and game-related, given the former interests and the latter does not. I'm probably not alone.

[@Hyce777]

@@Reziac Understandable. I wish I had full time availability to just push out the 101 style videos, but they take a pretty significant amount of time to make, whereas the game stuff is pretty easy and keeps the "algorithm" trending in my favor, more or less. Should hopefully be a better balance moving forward once I get to Colorado.

[@Reziac]

@@Hyce777 Oh, I didn't mean that we need 101 vids every day; rather that those might do well to be their own channel, for those not interested in the game stuff (which becomes clutter in a busy feed). Anyway, look forward to future 101s, this was the best educational on the topic of the day that I've seen. Very clear and concise.

[@josephlong7420]

Your humor and eagerness to educate make what could be a rather dull subject, very enjoyable. Thank you.

[@c182SkylaneRG]

I hand-tamped asphalt patches at a summer job I had right out of High School. I understand your pain all too well. I went and bought one to patch my driveway when I bought a house a few years ago, and was sharply reminded of just how much those things suck.

[@brucegennette1629]

Nice. A couple of bits you may want to add ... * Rail chairs tilt the rails inward a few degrees to assist the camber of the wheels to self center axles. Not really required for low speed on narrow gauge, but essential for anything over 60kph, otherwise wheel track 'hunting' will put a flange hard enough into the side of the rail head to climb up and over it. Older switches transitioned to vertical and so had speed limits but modern practice uses special head profiles. * Below the ballast the sub bed between the rails is formed with a gentle slope to each side for positive drainage, otherwise whole sections of ballast can be pumped across a flat mud bed. This surely assisted your curve being more easily moved. Here, in eastern Australia we built 'pioneer' tracks with local stone or cinders as ballast, but ALWAYS with a large sub bed hump in the middle and drainage ditches each side. Many of these tracks are still in use on agricultural lines after more than 100 years, though the 15t per axle limit is still applied. * Tie spacing and rail section are interlinked via young's modulus. If short, soft iron rails are supported at 3' centers they will flex with as little as 2t per axle passing between the ties. Close spacing and stronger, bigger rails, esspecially with tall webs, can support many tons with minimal 'pumping' which is less detrimental to the ride quality and reduces tie 'walking'. * There is a difference between grade and gradient. Gradient is a changing height while grade is a height at a point along the gradient. Thus a track may have a 1% gradient while a level crossing meets the gradient at some particular 'grade' and a road over-bridge passes the track above grade. This is also used in roadway terminology, a highway can have some intersections 'at grade' requiring varying speed limits while a motorway has long on & off ramps with all crossings above or below grade so that speed never has to change while actually on the motorway. bye.

[@Kennymac8251]

I'm an old model railroader. At first glance I thought this would be very boring. WRONG! Really interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the video. Subscribed. Keep uploading please.

[@richardnelson317]

I liked the video it brought back the time 35+ years ago when I was designing my first layouts. As a train goes up a gradient or hill it is steeper at first when most of train is on mostly flat ground as the train gets farther up the hill the track flattens out to give more tractive effort as more train is on the hill. Also the spiral you talked about is called a translon it eases the track from straight to the curve radius

[@welshpete12]

Interesting , we use the same names for parts of a rail except we call the top of the rail , the crown . The metal in the crown hardens with use , so it decreases the wear . Old length of rail was 60 foot here . but now its 600 feet , with a weight of 113 lbs per yard . The old type we used was called Bull Head rail . That in section looked very much like a figure 8 . When it is relayed each rail is pulled off the end of a long train . It comes off and will act very much like rubber going all ways if it is let to do so . The ends of the rail are welded in place after fitted to the chairs with thermite .

[@jdgindustries2734]

Mainline railroad's deliver their CWR to the lay-site in ¼mile/402.336m* lengths by tail trains, dropped within a few feet of placement, and the train is pulled out from under it. I know as I've done this for a few of my employer's rail gangs. And yes. It does act like a wet noodle when taken as a full length stick. *5,280feet / 4 = 1,320ft × 12 = 15,840inches × 25.4 = 402,336mm ÷ 1,000 = 402.336m (just in case anyone questions how I got my numbers) obviously, the exact metric length is wholely dependant on the actual length of the stick

[@norbby42]

Watched this while laying track in Medieval Engineers. Thanks for the dive!

[@shanestoddard3469]

I laid down my HO Scale track using the exact method that is used for the big stuff----spirals and all! We could talk about reversal in the turning moment, or Neutral Rail Temperature! You and I could talk about this all day long!

[@jwrailve3615]

My favorite catches in terms of the rails themselves is abandoned sidings, the vegetation taking over and the rails being completely rusted, ties rottin broken missing, the grading has sank nearly entirely so it truly looks like nature is taking over. My favorite

[@antmicsmi]

Hi Hyce, liking your videos very interesting. As a British railway track engineer myself it is good to see you pointed out some of the differences between the US and UK. We use the gradient percentage in design and construction but good old fashioned ratios on the track signage.

[@Hyce777]

Oh interesting! I'd only ever heard of it from the operational side. That's quite cool!

[@marekeos]

It's 3am and I'm watching this and loving every second of it! Great vid. Learned more than I could've imagined!

[@MadMax-bq6pg]

Coming from zero knowledge this was totally fascinating. Cheers man, awesome.

[@yuckyool]

As a former railroader (UP & ATSF), this video is excellent . . . reminds me of John Armstrong's Simmons-Boardman classic, "The Railroad: What it is, What it does" with excellent extra bonus info on narrow & dual gauges.

[@Hyce777]

Cheers! I appreciate that :)

[@henrybest4057]

Thanks for mentioning some of the different terms used in the UK. Here are some others:- Super-elevation used to be called cant here. I don't know if it still is. The standard rail length between joints used to be 60' (before CWR). Spiral curved track is called a transitional curve, as its a transition from straight to the final radius. Rail joiners are called fishplates here (because the original cast iron sections of rail had a 'fish belly' shape). What the track and ballast is laid on is called the track bed, whether in a tunnel, on a bridge or raised on an embankment (a pile of earth and rocks used to raise the track above the surrounding land). The word grade is rarely by used by railways here. Gradient is the rate of rise or fall in the level of the track. Your 'grade crossing' is a 'level crossing' here. Most narrow gauge railways here run on 2' gauge track and some European countries had extensive 2' (600mm) gauge systems, some of which are partly preserved. I don't know of any 3' gauge track in the UK. Metre gauge (3' 3") was common in some European countries for tram [trolley] tracks. And you didn't mention anything about expansion gaps or expansion joints in CWR. Very important if you don't want your rails to buckle in hot weather.

[@kevanparker908]

Metre gauge common in Africa Kenya and Tanzanian Railways (The British built ones) Chinese now replacing them with Standard Gauge

[@henrybest4057]

@@kevanparker908 The original metre gauge railway in Tanzania was built by the Germans when it was German East Africa (before WWI). Later additions were made by the British.

[@caroleast9636]

3 foot gauge is used extensively in the Isle of Man. That’s for the main steam railway, the Manx Electric Railway and also the Douglas Bay Horse Trams.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

Standard rail lengths being 60' long is only true in the later years before CWR became commonplace. Sectional lengths increased in the period 1865 to 1915. The Settle and Carlisle line was laid using 24' rails weight 83lb/yard. By 1983 the Midland Railway 30' sections of 85lb/yard and by 1896 they were using 100lb/yard rails in 36' or 45' lengths. By 1915 most railways in the UK were using rails of between 90 and 95lb/yard and 45' long, only the LNWR and NER were using 60'section lengths.

[@ady8817]

Your lessons is sublime. Greetings from Romania.

[@felisconcolor1112]

For the past 15 years, my favorite hairstylist works a mere 150 yards north of my home - across the busiest rail line through the city. For the past 12 years, I have hopped into my car, driven out to the main thoroughfare, and circled around the track to visit her place of business. I have long felt, while I was just one person walking across the tracks, I was affecting the bedding in minute but perceptible ways. This happened once I realized I could predict when the rail maintenance teams would be visiting my locale simply by the sound of the unit trains which rolled past my house.

[@Hyce777]

Only in a very minute way! They do need to be maintained regularly anyways. I'd wager the several million pound train counts for more :D

[@Sno_opy_ten_14_29]

Thanks so much for this video. Track is more complicated then I ever thought.

[@philpots48]

Loved your explanation. Going from NYC to Charleston, SC in the late 50s, I have fond memories of the clickety-clack sound of the train. In December 2021 I took the Amtrak's Ethan Alan Express train to NY-Penn Station and the ride from Rutland VT to the border of NY State was on unwelded track and what a pleasure it was to hear that sound again.

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

The holes in the joiner bars (fishplates in the UK) would be elongated in the longitudinal direction to allow thermal expansion. CWR needs expansion joints. In the UK there is a gap of 3/8" between lengths of sectional track to deal with thermal expansion. There are some British track maintenance films from the 1930s/1950s on YT for those who are interested.

[@jimtadlock1082]

Very interesting overview of things I never knew about railroads.

[@weylinwest9505]

Can't wait to see Klown's tutorial on the track-spline building, especially with that curve-lead-up piece.

[@666Wizardsleeve]

Great video, thank you. However, welders aren’t just leaving graffiti tags next to their welds; it is done for accountability. If there is a question about a weld, or concerns about weld integrity, the welder’s name is right there. Please keep up the great work.

[@Hyce777]

I always figured that would've been a paperwork thing and the rest was for pride, but fair enough! Cheers :)

[@666Wizardsleeve]

@@Hyce777 I guess the problem with the "paperwork thing" is that there are such a vast number of welds, often on one "shutdown", within a short geographical distance, on the same dates, with a number of qualified welders, it would be very easy to say "that wasn't mine". However, with this requirement, there is absolutley no question - no welder with any pride in his/her work would let some other numb-nuts sign off on their job and vice-versa.

[@ronsmith3905]

Really enjoyed the video. One thing I was interested in that was not covered was "tie spacing". I know it's different for British from American track, curious about narrow gauge now as well. Anyway, noticed it wasn't covered, just wondered why. Great video, thanks for posting. Cheers!!

[@Hyce777]

I am not actually sure! It seems to vary. I'll study up.

[@nopopshots2722]

I am making a Civil Engineering video game. Trains are my first vehicle, path and industry that I am adding in. This entire video is incredibly interesting and extremely helpful. Thank you!

[@Hyce777]

Let me know what the name of the game is, I'll play it when it comes out!

[@nopopshots2722]

@@Hyce777 The project name is "Topographic Commerce", I am unsure of what the final title will be. I started programming it about 2 weeks ago and almost have the Topographic map feature fully completed. Just needs some tweeks and a few performance passes so I can get a 2,000 point by 4,000 point grid. I watched your train signaling video as well, so I am going to add the type of flow chart with the relay picks. It is a lot better than the ladder programming I was originally thinking about. Hopfully I will have my first public test build out in about 6 months, and I hope I get a lot of critical feedback from gents such as yourself. Cheers from Pennsylvania, and Happy Halloween! 👻👻👻

[@Hyce777]

@@nopopshots2722 that sounds awesome! I'll be on the lookout for it. Would love to play it on the channel and provide feedback.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

When I was a lad, many track ballasts were made up of cinders, the material left from the fireboxes of coal burning steam locomotives. This was not long after steam was replaced by diesel.

[@limitles4758]

Lucked out finding this channel. I am fascinated by trains. Surrounded by them, Saskatoon SK and I know nothing about them

[@pepperthekobold]

The Scunthorpe Steelworks just down the road specialises in the manufacture of rail, particularly extremely long single lengths of 'high speed' rail that's slated for use in the HS2 project in the UK. It's crazy to watch these huge single lengths of steel pass back and forth through rollers, turning from a glowing orange 'bloom' about 10 feet long to a piece of rail over 100 meters long. They use these specialised train sets to move them. These massive lengths of track load onto an equally long string of wagons with half a dozen cranes spread along it and the rail actually bends with the train as it moves. I'm assuming someone did the science behind it but you'd thing that would cause metal fatigue.

[@ricgal50]

Which is how continuously welded rail is moved in the U.S. and Canada.

[@pepperthekobold]

Well, I suppose if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[@Crouse_Property_Maintenance]

I was head of track maintenance for a steel mill until it closed. Spent many a day running a mk1 switch tamper with lift jacks. 4-71 Detroit. It was like being in a paint shaker. Earmuffs over earplugs were an absolute necessity.

[@Hyce777]

Yeah that sounds awful.

[@RobiBue]

12:51 thermite welding! That’s a term I learned eons ago whilst watching an episode of mythbusters! And then I started seeing it in tie welding! Thanks for the refresher on my olde memory bank (or forgettery as I tend to call it nowadays)

[@jamielacourse7578]

Not many people realize the physics involved that make this so efficient. It's amazing......especially when you consider the contact area for a wheel to rail is not much bigger than a roll of quarters.

[@SImrobert2001]

Sup Hyce? I"m loving this series so far. Are you going to go over history itself, like the gauge wars?

[@Hyce777]

That i know less about! That could be a fun topic.

[@CMDRSweeper]

Or you can experience the gauge wars in Railroads Online! The strange sides where Hyce represents team narrowgauge, and then you got the standard gauge guys, Russian gauge with the AA20 and of course the newcomer that wanted to throw a wrench into the works, the Germans with their Breitspurbahn... So you may get random gauges on your railroad in the future and someone to blame your derails on :D

[@ratchet1freak]

34:00 that's the same way highways are laid out, using a spiral to avoid drivers having to throw around the steering wheel and can instead steer in and out gradually

[@frederf3227]

Kinda clothoid loop?

[@yuckyool]

@@frederf3227 Yes, exactly: Not algebra either. Just basic calculus applied to trigonometry.

[@GaylordWinchester77]

Came here via Hellbot, now I'm learning about train track and physics and maths. Love it.

[@Hyce777]

You might be the one and only that's gone that way! Haha. That's awesome. We've got some cool gigs coming up next month :)

[@GaylordWinchester77]

@@Hyce777 Right on! I'll definitely be there and arriving via Night Train!!

[@erikziak1249]

Nice video. I would add that in curves, besides superelevation, the gauge is also widened, to allow smoother drive of the wheelsets. Depending on the specific rolling stock, the amound of widening can wary, and it depends on the radius as well. Also, flanges on the rolling stock, especially locomotives, can be made different on the driving wheels, with the "outer" ones having them smaller and/or moved. Or the contrary, the "inner" wheelsets can be flangeless to improve driving in tight curves.

[@gordonquickstad]

Very interesting and well presented. I'd have liked to seen a short explanation of the role of the track and wheel profile's taper and its ability to act as a "differential" to allow the wheels on a solid axle to effectively turn at different rates around curves. In a perfect world, wheel flanges wouldn't be needed on a railroad (but I wouldn't board such a train even in a perfect world).

[@c182SkylaneRG]

25:20, you missed a reason to have 4 rails instead of 3: when you turntable your narrow-gage locomotive and turn it around, suddenly your "common rail" is on the wrong side and your locomotive will come off the turntable onto the dirt. If all your tracks are centered, they're symmetrical, and you can turn any which way you want to without worry. (Unless the trains can handle the slight bend from the misaligned turn table when the rail ends are matched up?)

[@Jakob6250]

Very nice video sir! Super informative! Thoroughly enjoyed it! 😁

[@paulhintz9570]

I love your tracks 101...spirals and everything... I was a track inspector for a shortline.. I'd love to come visit some day I'm up for railroad retirement in a year and the guys I have worked with on this little shortline are now or are retired FRA track inspectors...

[@paulhintz9570]

I'd love to visit and run a steam engine... My railroad retirement kicks in soon and i'd love to visit and run a steam engine once in my career.

[@Hyce777]

You'd know the track side of things better than me, my man!

[@TilTisback]

Hello Hyce, im confused by the curvature part. how can you get the center of the track(circle) with just one fixed length of string? when you have a 100ft string between two points of a circle and you construct an equilateral triangle from it, the radius will also be 100ft. even when you have a much larger or smaller circle, it will always be the same radius.

[@Hyce777]

I realized after I posted hat I missed that piece :/. You can measure from the center of the 100' cord to the center of the track, giving a 3rd point that defines the circle. My bad on missing that, you're totally right!

[@beringstraitrailway]

I've seen a website that has circle cord radius calculator. But I want to see a table that show the minimum curvature needed for each speeding rating class of railroad.

[@frankely6378]

Actually, Hyce's picture was wrong. Imagine trying to find the center of a curve with a 2000 foot radius. Degree of curvature was designed to make the surveyors' job possible. This is little hard to explain without a picture, but if you start with Hyce's picture, ignore where it says "Degrees". Instead, extend a straight line from the right hand end of the chord tangent to the curve of the track (or perpendicular to the "Radius" line at that end). Now measure the angle between that tangent line and the chord, and that is the degree of curvature.

[@themidnightbanshee5927]

You had my attention at track I look at train tracks in my free time when I'm in the nearby city

[@LMR78]

Amazing and Informative! Maybe you could do a video of railroad-yards 101. That’d be good, like explaining ready tracks, team tracks, and mains.

[@andrewripley7461]

Good summing up. US Joint Bar, UK Fish Plate, but we don't stagger the rail joints over here. So on poor condition track you don't start a rocking motion. In the UK we've used screws into sleepers rather than spikes, if they loosen, you can fit larger diameter screws to get them tight again. You can of course blame the Romans for the "Standard Gauge" being 4ft 8.5in. US Superelevation, UK Cant. We did sort of develop tilting trains in the UK, but the APT (Advanced Passenger Train) was a failure.

[@liamcooper6721]

OMG. you had me in stitches for so much of that but none more that the hero of PTC xD. im dieing

[@001desertrat3]

Very informative , THANK YOU ! Big Thumbs Up !

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

One thing about ballast that most people, including railfans, miss us that it provides most of the suspension for trains especially the locomotives. A steam locomotive has very limited travel for its axles whilst diesel and electric licomotives have a little more travel. In the UK it has been reported that short-wheelbase steam era wagons bouncing themselves off high-speed CWR at a speed they would be comfortable on sectional track due to the high-speed track having a much firmer trackbed. Also the depth of ballastingbhas changed over the decades. In the early years in the UK the sleepers could be buried in the ballast (which at that time could been crushed granite or ash even on the ,ain running lines). Eventually the crush rock ballast would come to almost the top of the sleepers. But when CWR was 8ntroduced such ballasting did hold the track firmly enough in high-speed lines and so deep ballasting was reintroduced so that the top if sleeper was at least level, with the top of the ballast or in some places the ballast covers all of part of the sleepers.

[@Hyce777]

That's interesting! Had no clue. Cheers!

[@lout1587]

Immeasurably useful. Thanks, Hyce!

[@rivitedrailfan]

Thank you for making this video, it taught me quite a bit! It was quite interesting to me at least.

[@295g295]

39:12 - I thought the CLASS 1 railroads are the major mainline railroads, as opposed to short lines and industrial spurs. ... a different class?

[@Hyce777]

Classes of railroad and classes of track are two separate things. Yes it's confusing. Lol

[@jonelyackett]

I live right off the Falls Road. RR in NY. We have old rotted out ties, with decent rails. we still have square nuts on the joint bar. Today i discovered that the RR just tossed rail segments off the side into the woods (like you said Hyce, the railroad does what it wants ). The Falls Road RR is the one with the Upside-down Bridge over the Erie Canal in Lockport, New York.

[@arlenesobhani8739]

Actually very interesting. When we talk about the changes in railroad construction over time, it would be very interesting to mention the time-frame over which changes took place, i.e. in a historical setting.

[@jermainem3399]

It was very nice to know patriot engineer you commentary sir was excellent. Thank you sir stay blessed

[@andrewpalm2103]

Great stuff! Keep 'em coming, please.

[@mavadelo]

When you started about thermite welding (often called Aluminothermie where I live) I kind of hoped you had some footage as well as it can be quite spectacular if someone never seen it done. We use the same methode for track welding in the Netherlands and I had the pleasure to watch it being done when working a temp job at the Dutch company resposible for the Dutch network. I was a bit shocked to learn it involves temperatures of up to 3000C(ontinental units) or 5432F(reedom units)

[@Hauketal]

Some different perspective from Germany: - Curves and all dependent measurements are given as radius. - Rails are fixed to ties by screws, not nails. - Ties are mostly concrete now because of cost of disposal of creosote. Also some old steel ties exist. - Grades of ramps are measured in permille, not percent. So not 4%, but 40‰ for 1/25.

[@Hyce777]

oh interesting! Not surprising, most new projects use the concrete ties here as well. But screws I have not seen! And, the permille is cool! thanks for the perspective :)

[@AEP817]

I think Amtrak uses screw spikes and Pandrol clips on portions of the Northeast Corridor. I volunteered at a small museum that got some ties donated that had them. I think they came from a bridge deck.

[@Hyce777]

@@AEP817 neat! That's way out of my purview. Glad to learn about them :)

[@RorusBass]

-The radius is more logical and I'm sure they would use it in the US if they went though all the GPS coordinate type of track laying we do in the EU. -A lot of the rails in the US are something we would call "directly fixed". In most of Europe the systems are indirect, so we mount the rail onto a steel plate most of the time with a spring clamp. And then we attach the steel plate onto the ties either by screws or bolts. -I've seen some cases where composite ties have been used, most by far is concrete though -Most of the track in Europe is also slightly tilted (1:40) so the forces are better spread through the rails. -I personally have to deal with pretty much 100% electric trains, which often means that the signalling systems and return flow of the currents are a factor when designing track. Almost never will the left and the right rail be part of the same circuit. (The gauge bar scared me) -We use UIC 714 to determine the track class.

[@davidobrienirl]

What I did not hear you discuss is "Indian Gauge". Bay Area Rapid Transit a.k.a BART (San Francisco Bay Area). Part of my company has a rail division. We do a lot of track work for BART. Great video. Loved watching it! Thank you.

[@Hyce777]

Yes, the extra special wide gauge of BART... lol! Isn't it 5'? Weird. Very cool. Cheers!

[@davidobrienirl]

Actually your off by 6 inches. Indian gauge 66”. I have a warehouse of work trucks specially hi - rail for BART’s gauge. We tried once to have a dual gauge hy - rail on a Ford truck. In the fist quarter mile I derailed! LOL. The cost of doing business…. SMH!

[@sammylacks4937]

There was a time , when I thought a rail road track was a simple thrown down affair. I ve never been more wrong. I thought the rocks were there to prevent plant growth. I can, have and will continue to learn. Thanks for explaining and sharing.

[@RCAvhstape]

If you read about the history of the Transcontinental Railroad, they were just throwing the track down at first, because the more line they laid the more money and property rights they got from Congress. So the UP and CP Railroads were laying the cheapest garbage track they could get away with, just good enough to keep moving the work train along to the end of the line and keep the gangs working. They figured that once the line was complete they'd go back and lay good track before running real trains on it, but in the meantime the land grab was where the money was.

[@rgsrrofnc]

Much of the ties on the fill there was the last ties rescued from Marshall Pass. Back in '90, myself, Wally Maxwell and 3 scouts went out on Goose 6 and replaced two rotted ties at the top of the cut to let them experience how to do it. Back then we only had the 346, Pee Wee and the three motors.

[@Hyce777]

oh holy shit, that's really cool! I had no idea.

[@freighttrain7776]

12:51 I live near a Union pacific car shop in Missouri where they repair freight cars. And at the current moment they are working on the main line that heads to the shop and they are welding some of the track together by one of the crossing gates by the looks of it.

[@samfaszold79]

Desoto?

[@freighttrain7776]

@@samfaszold79 Yes

[@samfaszold79]

@@freighttrain7776 I just moved away from there about a year ago. It's a good little town

[@freighttrain7776]

@@samfaszold79 oh

[@Two_Bears]

Good job! You really want to see interesting track, look into the book, “Logging Railroads of the West”. There you will find spool wheel geared locomotives with logs for track. I have seen these in the field while tracking old railroads in California. A “rail” gets bad, toss it and put up another log! Track in the woods were temporarily so no use in putting up good rail. Later, they must of got tired of rerailing engine and cars, so ballast, proper rail and fish plates came into practice.

[@ChaoticNeutralMatt]

Been interested in this. Cool sounding day job.

[@kenqwe04]

Love the tech stuff. Interesting video and great comments too that I had to read through all the way. lol I'll be looking at all your vids for sure.

[@farizfadillah7557]

here on indonesian 42" (3ft6") railway: 5:26 R15 (15kg/m), i didn't know if this still exist in indonesia 5:27 R25 (25kg/m), some places still have this rail type 5:42 R60 (60Kg/m), sumatran lines? most of indonesian mainline use R54 (54kg/m), some places still use R42 (42kg/m). correct me if i'm mistaken...

[@colbystensland2508]

Phenomenal My friend. Thank you.

[@SuperScottCrawford]

This was both interesting and informative. Thank you! I feel like a few more of your videos and i could have a degree in Trainology.

[@milesdimitrijevic5365]

So, is the *click clack* sound from the train going over the spots where two tracks are connected together?

[@Hyce777]

Yup!

[@IowaRail8114]

I've been to the Colorado Railroad Museum quite a few times, it's neat that I happened a channel by someone who worked there.

[@dismalgravesite7763]

what an excellent vid. thanks dude...i subscribed based on this vid, the 1st one of yours i've seen.

[@Hyce777]

Cheers mate!

[@dismalgravesite7763]

@@Hyce777 don't you eff'n threaten me...thanx, bro', cheer right back at ya.

[@abyssminiaturestudios6103]

Very informative, even learned a thing or 3 .

[@DB-thats-me]

Another cool piece of trackage is four rail triple gauge! Imagine the points and crossings track work that’s required to encompassing 3’6”, 4’81/2” and 5’3” all at once! I hope to live long enough to see the double slip crossover, in triple gauge, that’s somewhere in Victoria, Australia. 🤓

[@SteamCraftOfficial]

Great video very informative! Would the different whistle signals you guys use be enough for a full video? You talk about grade crossing signals a lot but are there more?

[@Hyce777]

A short video for sure! We could definitely do that.

[@hughbishopnh]

Not sure that the FRA classes of track even applies to the line going past the street that I live on. Freight trains about 1 / 2 times per week going past at less than 2 mph. Access to street via an un-gated, unlighted crossing. Service truck precedes each train by about 6 hours. Hilarious, and we love it!

[@Hyce777]

2 MPH allows for a lot... lol

[@jkelley012]

Here in Sydney, Australia though they're becoming a lot less common I've seen plenty of wooden ties (called sleepers here) using rail clips! I've also seen some metal sleepers which were quite cool and unusual to me.

[@260bill260]

Nice job. Thank you for the video. I have a question. especially for those continuously welded rail and very long lines of railroad track how is thermal expansion and contraction dealt with? every so often you hear about railroad tracks buckling in the high heat. Just wondering how this thermal expansion and contraction is taken care of. are the tracks laid with curves at pretty good distances to allow for the thermal expansion ? thank you

[@Hyce777]

Rail anchors help with this by limiting the amount of motion the real can have. As well, the rails are laid at approximately the "neutral" temperature for stress in the rail based on the environment the railroad runs through, such that the amount of variance is typically not too much.

[@260bill260]

@@Hyce777 thanks. The computed expansion for a rail 1/4 mile in length with a 25 degree F rise in temperature is 30 inches. That’s a lot of expansion to compensate for in those rails.

[@Hyce777]

@@260bill260 No kidding, I'd have to go bark up a civil engineer's tree to better understand this piece myself. :)

[@akda5id]

I was wondering about that myself. I had assumed that the fishplates were designed to also provide thermal expansion joints, but doing a bit of wikipedia research, seems not to be the case. However there are special joints used to provide expansion when needed. Otherwise, it's as Hyce said, lay the track in the middle of the expected temp range, and physically constrain it! On wikipedia, Railway_track#Continuous_welded_rail has some discussion of the challenges.

[@akda5id]

@Hyce777 And coming back to link to @PracticalEngineeringChannel's great video on the topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sKLQgIaDdtmUmsU Turns out, lay them at "neutral temperature" which is actually near the *high* end of expected range, so that the rails are usually in tension.

[@Michael-ox2cx]

hey hyce, what kind of steel do they use for the tracks and spikes?

[@weekendrailroader]

25:12 Isn't the reasoning behind four rail dual gauge in roundhouses that it allows a turntable to turn an engine 180 degrees and still be able to line up with any of the stall or escape tracks?

[@Hyce777]

also that, hahah

[@thedreadednortherner2351]

Aaaah this remind me of my training days while working for network rail as part of Pway only difference is the accent and different terminology.

[@additudeobx]

Hummmm... 26:42, well, Geometry too.... Also, just wondering, metallurgically, what is track composed of?

[@Hyce777]

Hot rolled steel! Probably should've covered that in the video... lol!

[@jm0lesky]

You mentioned tamping. Yes, it sucks. I used to do it for 6 hours a day with a farmers pitchfork. I also used to drive spikes and replace ties by hand also. Oh, the memories.

[@28Cryptic743]

just curious about the track layout on the image you are describing the track gauge (around 22 mins in ) there is a side track with a car on it that doesn't appear to have a thru connection connecting to the main line that the engine is on, or do the tracks shift/pivot to allow it to be connected? Good explanation on the "How do Trains Steer? Switches 101"

[@davidbrowne8106]

The main reason for a four-track dual gauge track at the turntable is to have all rails aligned after a 180 degree turn. If regular three track dual gauge was installed onto the turntable, a standard gauge loco would still align, but the narrow gauge loco would NOT have aligned tracks.

[@Hyce777]

That's also a big part of it, which I definitely overlooked... lol. cheers

[@SDE1994]

We still use lb per yard in the UK but mostly use Bullhead instead of flat bottom which means it had 2 heads instead of 1 and a foot with chairs instead of spikes. flat bottom was mainly used on narrow gauge and light rail with spikes

[@NorthernNewEnglandRailfan]

The picture at 7:57, is that standard with a 3 foot down the middle?

[@Hyce777]

Standard is the outer two rails, narrow is the right two rails - so the rightmost rail is shared.

[@austinkleyn1816]

Did they use panel tracks to deliver the CB& Q Northern at the museum?

[@dylanhackbarth6390]

I'd like to see a video on signals, how they work and how to read them

[@kfb2001us]

Two thumbs way up.