Europeans have the coolest backyard parties. “The Welding of the Rail” is an old favorite, usually when the host runs out of beer.

For me as a frequent rail traveller in Germany, this has been most interesting! Thank you for uploading.

In 1970, I worked for a company in the UK; Murex Limited, who developed the Thermit welding process together with a German company; Elektro-Thermit GmbH. At the time, there was widespread rail replacements being carried out in the UK, and the Thermit welding process enabled sections of the rail to be welded in situ. I worked in their analytical laboratory in Essex, and one of my jobs was to check that the constituents of the mixture was correct. I remember that we were given a demonstration (similar to this) on how the process worked - pretty spectacular! The process is still used, not only for railway lines, but for welding other large items, such as ship anchors.

In case anyone wonders: This was a demonstration at the Hannover Tramway Museum at Wehmingen near Hannover in September 2017.

I'm working at the depo station in Stuttgart, Germany and never saw this before, so I was really shocked when I saw flames and something on fire on the other side of the station in the middle of the night. I was close to call the fire department when I got the info "Keep cool, they're just busy with rail-welding" :D

I see that's at the streetcar museum near Hannover, Germany. Great place to visit.

I have to say that the crew really knows what they are doing even if they are not talking to each other

this was oddly satisfying to watch

Gentlemen. I love to see Professionals at work. This is as exciting as anything I've seen for some time. Thank you.

THAT WAS AWESOME! I have only ever heard about this being done by the old timers. I never thought I would ever be able to see it done! Thank you so much!

That was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in quite a while. I had no idea that was ever done to begin with. Great stuff.

Thermite welding is awesome, what a great process. We made a thermite reaction in high school, I can still see the molten iron dripping out the bottom of a terra-cotta pot in my mind, even though it was nearly 30 years ago and I never bore of watching this!

Nice video. Cool to see the process.

All BNSF track, throughout the U.S., is welded together this way. It is monitored for breaks constantly this way. A continuous track is essential for the speed and weight of the trains traveling on it. This is also how the signal lights are controlled. The same may be for other train companies.

God they got a freaking tool for everything

Wow, that's way more involved and time-consuming than I thought it was. But considering rails can be in-service for decades, I suppose it's a relatively tiny amount of effort for the added benefit of having a smoother rail.

Interessante Technik und ein wirklich interessantes Video. Toll, dass du das Aufnehmen konntest. Daumen hoch. Gruß Unimedien.

man these RC machinery construction videos are getting impressive!

10 feet of track complete. Well done fellas. Just 1100 miles more to go

Danke fürs zeigen...hatte ich so noch nie gesehen!

They're building a tramway in my city, I was lucky enough to see this happen live this summer.

Que nivel por favor!!! Excelente y felicitaciones por el video

Wow, I can finally weld my railway, thanks guys

Das sind klasse Aufnahmen, sehr interessant anzuschauen. Daumen hoch dafür!

I don't remember clicking on this video. I don't know how I got here. It showed up as one of my tabs

Well now THAT was cool as ever. Love how things get done.

Did I just watched 7 minutes of rail welding???

Was für ein Aufwand für eine Schweißnaht, da schaffst du ja gerade mal 20 Stück am Tag, aber schön anzuschauen war es allemal, danke für's Einstellen.

Mit Abstand die spektakulärste reperaturarbeit an Gleisen

.. das war jetzt mal echt interessant anzusehen! Danke! :-)

Great video....& resolution. Learned a lot about the process of thermal welding.... Thank you for your effort to post and share....

i love tools & this kind of work. thanks

Strongest joint I’m sure but wow does it take a long time to do one. I couldn’t imagine having to do miles of it. Makes me want to look up how they did it in the old days

Interessante Technik, auf jeden Fall eine heiße Angelegenheit. Daumen hoch fürs zeigen! Gruss inselvideo!

Zauberwerk Toll!@@! Sonnenaufgänge sehe ich auch wo anderst !

More involved and critical than I ever thought. I'm surprised the ties didn't burn.

Wirklich sehr interessant anzuschauen.

Sieht nachts noch besser aus. Glaubt mir! In der Praxis wird auch besser geschliffen :D

nice vido - more like casting.

Very nice video ! Aluminothermy, I learned that at school when I was a kid ! :o)

Cool, but it leaves one question unanswered: How and where do welded railways allow for thermal expansion and contraction?

TOTALLY FASCINATING! ... I walk my dogs along the railway tracks in Toronto and many times I've walked along the rail trying to find a seam but NOTHING! .... FINALLY I KNOW WHY! .... (....thanks for that AND for showing us EXACTLY how the Israelis imploded the WTC Towers on 9/11).

Looks like so much more work than the old way, with bolts and plates, but I'm sure this type of joint is much more solid and needs much less maintenance.

Oct. 30, 2018---Thanks for an interesting video, but wonder how long in real time did this take vs the shortened viewing time.

Fascinating. What is the material around the iron? Is it a clay cast? Also, does the weld now consist of cast iron or are adjuncts in the thermite to produce a sort of steel?

....und alles so genau erklärt! Toll.

Schönes Video👍✌ von denn Dewind D4 🗽NewYork Tobi🗽 ich bin immer überall dabei weil jedes Video interessant ist!

Think how many miles they have to do this for. I wonder if there's a more streamlined process when they do it for real or if it genuinely takes that long...

Thermit ist schon was schönes..

Did thermite welding to ground wires welding in a electrical substation once. Pretty cool.

Супер! Так много операций,и все так аккуратно! Жаль что в России ,так никогда не будут делать!

,ich danke sehr für die Vorführung das war echt interessant !

Heisse Sache! Sehr interessant, ich kann nur die Termit Sprengschnüre, die dicke Stahlträger durchtrennen für eine Häusersprengung...Gruss DrDuu

Great video, so interesting, thanks for sharing

Good job

Danke dafür! Mein Urgroßvater hat an der Eisenbahn gearbeitet.

German tradesmen have a hammer for every occasion lol!

No idea how I got here, but that was great.

Imagine how interesting this would be if there was a narrative of everything that's involved.

That's a lot of specialty equipment

We used to use the over flow slag to boil our cast iron kettle for a brew up while waiting for the setting time

That hydraulic rail scraper slag chopper is sweet

0:32 Wenn ich meinen Traktor vorglühe... (when I warm up my tractor...)xD

Does the aluminium oxide by-product effect the strength of the weld in any way? Or does it form some sort of slag that floats to the top of the weld?

Wow how welding has changed, now you could weld that in 10 minutes or less, neat to watch*****

Fascinating!

fine video.....

Hab das gerade in chemie. Danke fuer das video

This seems extremely tedious for what you get from it. Does it have a better lifespan than if you just used an arc welder?

I thought rail road tracks should not be welded or bolted together with fish plates too tightly, to allow for expansion?

i have no clue what i just watched but it def was worth it

You’ve done a mans job sir 👍🏻

What we don't know is how long the rails are that they are welding because rails are welded at the shop in great lengths and then railed to be laid. I'm sure we're not talking short length rails here.

They've got some cool tools.

Amazing demonstration but in a real weld the slag has to be left longer to allow a slower cool down

There is welded rail in North Austin. A machine the size of a locomotive grabs and lifts the ties, fluffs the gravel and reseats the ties level as you please.

Did they just bolt the rails together before this or bring a portable welder out?

Saw this done in 1984 with a military thermite grenade. a demonstration of a combat weld by the DB for the US Army

Pretty short train line.

All that for 1 joint. Each joint 33 feet apart. For 150 miles. With two rails. "Ok guys, only 47, 999 more to go. "

Wow... Excellent

now when there were fishplates there were expansion joint, where have they gone?

Looks nest however I wish someone explains what they are actually doing don't understand what the yellow buzzing machine us I assumed it was a x-ray checking outcome the weld has penetrated.

0:31 *VTEC kicked in, Yo!*

Sehr interessant sowas mal zu sehen.

On Polish rail,-"LHS" you can see the same situation. You sholud to find: "LHS Spawanie Szyn". Grettings from Poland!

Wow! Some jobs are just funner than others.

Were rails always welded? I seem to remember seeing rails that were just butted up against each other. Is this for high speed trains?

How do you take into account the expansion and contraction of the rail in summer and winter?

mmm delicious homebaked iron cakes

Cooles Video. Echt interessant. Ich muss nur zugeben das ich kompletter Laie bin und keine Ahnung was da passiert^^ oder wieso man hier Thermitscheißen verwendet anstatt anderer Verfahren. Wenn jemand hier eine Erklärung hat was in dem Video wieso passiert wäre das echt klasse. Danke schonmal für das Video an sich :)

I know this makes a strong connection for the rails but it seems like it would take much longer than just using normal spikes if they were doing a large section

Impressive !

They make it look so easy.

Now that was cool

Das war sehr cool

Where would I get a pair of the fancy black work trousers? The ones with the orange stripes at the rear.

Long work hard work, nice video.

Good job ))))

Wow, never knew termites where flameable :/