I was the lead Welder in Phoenix from 96 to 02 and went to train service. It was the best railroad move I've ever made.

I was on the thermite welding gang with Canadian national railways, had the best Foreman ever, happy retirement Dave McPherson you where the best!! You treated us like gold, I hope you're doing well,

I was a ship yard welder many, many years ago. Watching this thermite welding technique just blows my mind. I doubt it could be used on the hardened armor plate on many parts of the ship but it is very cool (or hot) to watch. My son works for BNSF and started out as a welder for them. We talked about his work and I never could grasp what he was doing it was so different from what I did on US Navy ships in the ship yard. Thanks for sharing this. I just gotta talk to the kid about all this.

Look at the final weld...very clean. These guys take pride in their work obviously.

Hi! Here we have men who are working hard and they have a lot of stuff to work with but nonetheless they are doing very well with their job! My job is close to train tracks so I hear a train now and then!

I find this strangely satisfying to watch.

As an adult I'd say,interesting but as a "Rail Fan" I have to say I,Love it,love it,love it!

I don't know what is the use for watching this video but I love to know things of which most of people does not want to know. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting And Educational Great Video.

Thanks for posting.

Show o trabalho, muito bonito! Parabéns à todos!!!

seen it done many times over here in England, interesting to see stateside that the trimmer and grinder and hydraulically powered, also that your leg shields have a sheet of metal on them ours are just canvas... if you even get any

A job well done to them.

I love KZfaq. Where else can you see this kind of stuff? Thanks for sharing!

These boys mean business!

The top of the break out sledge could have a bronze cap--to prevent denting on a missed strike.

good job men!

I've never seen that. My first reaction was how cost-effetive is that?? Seems mighty labor intensive vs the old way of just arc welding (?) a joint

Pretty slick!

these guys are way more efficient than the guys in the Sweden video

Really interesting. May be safer than it looks, but I'd want at least a grinding shield and long welder gloves.

This is a super slow process but nice to watch

ive been working on the rail road

Thermite welding process observed in a steel plant in India which is situated in bhadravathi the plant is great maharaja of Mysore and sir M visweswaraya the application for overhead EOT CRANES TRACK line RAILS.

I’ve always said there are a 1000 ways to do the same thing or a 1000 ways to get to the same place... end results are what counts

What's the reason for the hydraulic jacking of the left overs? I'd have thought it might have cut the metal off the top of the rail but looks like it just pinches it together.

The old fashioned and cumbersome way! Hurray USA!

You fill-out your Fire Risk Assessment Book?

GIT R DONE

Me gustaria hacer ese trabajo de rielero siempre hay que aprender hacer algo mas muy educacional el video gracias

Good grief, the tools our US boys are using are way more worn and simple than the tools being used in Sweden and Australia. Was surprised to see them placing the hard metal billet into the preheated chamber "by hand" instead of using hand tools and a guide. Experience counts.

What's your Heat Index at?

b3j8 to answer your question this process has been around in some shape or fashion since 1908 i believe

The two ties under the weld need to be replaced and a good amount of rock tamped under those ties , to support the weld .

50 guys in India to do the same job 20 guys in another country i watched only 3 guys in USA, A LOT NEATER JOB TOO. Quality is a stand out.

After grinding , nobody bothered to check the profile of the running edge ?

what kind of steel is left over from the weld;;;thank you;;ger [IRELAND]

anybody know what type of firecracker he throws in the pot ? i'm thinking Termite.

how about aneeling like a bandsaw blade but on a larger scale

i want a job job like that!

What is the white powder the worker sprinkled into the tray, and what is the tray for?

think that guy has hit a few spikes in his day

Good to see the 1800s technology of wooden ties still being used here.

Was this in Ashland, Va?

Get these guys some fire resistant coveralls.

I wanna be the guy with the Orange hard hat,..... CHILLING

Would have been more informative IF there was an audio narrative to explain what is happening at each step along the process of the realignment and welding. Just a thought.

Two guy's working and the Stupidvisor...must be a Union job!

Things have surely changed since they headed west in the mid 1800s

Seen a weld done in 20 mins train used track in 22 mins not recomended , Ive also seen other things I cant write about here :)

Thermite welding.

Are those sleeper are wooden??

3:50 Mr. Clean

Operarios sin guantes trabajando??? En mi país es imposible que ocurra en empresas importantes.

Wonder what the old boys who worked on turn-of-the-century(20th) track gangs would say watching all this! LOL

However, they are complicated, there is not so much remachining in Europe

What does he look at ? 0:54

Why are they still using wooden sleepers

rail welding united states 휼륭합니다 ! 한국도 ktx 고속철도에 rail welding 도입하여 많은 성과를 거두고 있습니다 !

Can't have bad backs or knees for this job............

i just saw some other video where like six guy we're watching two guys work same shits going on here to

nice the railroads in USA are not begging the congress for help :)

You hold the hammer at the ready and I’ll hold the spike and when I nod my head you hit it.........

Thermite - for when you need molten steel right the hell NOW - and WHERE you want it!

Wow i saw the Indians doing this in rubber flip flops and i thought it was crude only to see americans are still doing it the same way with the same technology !

Ol

good olde Yankee ingenuity ... like an on-site steel forge

hey guys i m an Master Welder from Germany, is it possible to come to the USA and Work there as welder ?? can someone Help me pls

My dad and I seened some termites at Taco Bell and they gived us free food

Why wooden ties, why concrete ties? For all the lack of real information I see on here other than pre-conceived notions of what is better - each have their place. Concrete ties can not handle the weight of the wood ones without fracture. Wood allows for much better flexibility. Here in the U.S, The cars are longer and weight more. If you watch a video of a train crossing an intersection here in the us, it's not uncommon to see the track 'flex' down a couple inches under the weight. The concrete crossings fail extremely rapidly and have to be rebuilt consistently here - largely due to this flex as well as weather (Most tracks in US are in areas that see high freeze/thaw conditions. Wood is much better adept at handing these cycles and maintaining integrity. Concrete has a tendency to fracture and within a few years, fail completely - It's not unheard of here to have wood ties in place for 50-75 years depending on the traffic. The high speed corridors here are a different matter and are generally concrete - but the maintenance is MUCH high on those than on freight tracks. It's about both economics and ability to perform maintenance. Too many are saying one or the other - sorry the world isn't black and white, but there is an application for everything. Plus, remember that Europe has twice the people as the US has to spread this cost around, while cars are more popular in the US - leaving much less train funding available for public transportation. (BTW, This is much the same reason we still use mostly wood in our houses vs. steel - Just handles better through environmental issues - and we all know we have issues here in the U.S. (Pun intended))

Blue jeans?

It seems to me that a large electric welder could do the same job in half the time.

Hahahahahaha the us still mounts tracks in wood

kind of time consuming

The guy in the orange hard hat is a supervisor. Apparently they don't have to get dirty...that's below their pay grade. Typical of any union job.

Interesting video. Thanks. Face protection and lower leg protection, fine, but no ear protection, bad. They'll all go deaf in old age. Question: what happens to the molten aluminum in the thermite? It doesn't contaminate the weld?

Countless trillions of tons of good cement making sand available and we still use wood ties????

I cant believe there using thermite there are better welding procedures.

They messed up the spacing on the wooden ties (see 9:58 onward), reducing support for the weld on one side.

No confidence in there welding both guys holding a hammer to stop weld pouring out

to all the foreigners, 1.the guy in the orange is a supervisor whitch means he's there to watch the guys with the white caps because there rookies make sure there not messing around 2. they have all day to do one weld there not in in a hurry there's different ways they do this if there's many to get it done faster 3. we're not all fat just tend to be in the city because everything is given to them by farmers like me. I am definitely not fat either 4. I'm pretty sure 3 goes for the same in Europe

So many things done improperly... many safety violations... ballsy doing this on camera without the proper ppe on... this video will get you sent home at csx...

Thermite ...corporations must be above the law People are so full of chit

Dont know. Dont care. Ask Mike Rowe if this works for most everyday people. Stop advertising to average people.

Alumino thermite: perfect for welding rails. Nanothermite: perfect for heat blasting the twin towers construction beams.

It would be a nice use for recycled materials instead of wood for those ties....No?

El método Europeo es mejor!!! Eurpe way are better!!

Thermite....sounds familiar....*farts*

I hate to say but the previous video with the Swedes made the US guys look like hobo's. And the Swedes don't have a third guy with his finger in his ass. They got it done, but I hope others here do better. And the wooden ties are best - Europe cut all it's wood down 300 years ago. Wood gives, cement breaks. And walking the tracks when I was a kid pulling out all the date nails [incredible - copper nails were driven into each tie to show install date] most of them were in the 1930's - and this was 1970! Still had life in them at 40 years old. Here in California you sometimes find Redwood and Sequoia ties from the logging railroads in the mountains. They are untreated and date from the late 1800's - still good for landscaping, or re-sawing into furniture wood.

this guys broke all kinds of rules doing this, too close to the weld, mud sticks, hiting the rail, torch too cold, acident waiting to happen. by the way i do this for a living.

Feminist, please apply for this job.

American work safety standards? - (a) look at the dipstick wearing no gloves throughout including the hot work; (b) the guy doing the grinding only wearing leggings for that (cos levis are fire proof during the thermit bit, right?). (c) All wearing short sleeves; (d) Guy on the hammer without ear defenders (e) and his mate (Mr no-gloves) head 2 feet from the hammer blow - no ear defenders. (f) same idiot and his mate standing in the grind path - the guy doig the grinding was wearing the face shield, but is the one least likely to receive any hot grindings in the face !

ha