The reason is that in the years, leaves and waste as well as crushed ballast itself fills up in between the larger rocks. This in turn makes water culminate instead of running through the ballast. And this is bad since water causes "splashing humps" especially with concrete ties, where the ties have started moving in the ballast and is basically crushing the stone underneath AND the tie itself to dust, magnifying the problem.
There is also the risk of fire. Many of the "brush" fires my FD gets called out to on RR tracks turn out to be the oils & fluids burning on the tracks after a train threw some sparks. This goes back to the lack of proper water drainage, it doesnt carry the oil away just accumulates it in one spot as the water evaporates.
the reason behind it is because once dirt gets down into it it causes ties to rot quicker, make track structure move around to much and let track settle and dip and a few other little reasons
Man I'd hate to get stuck at a crossing with that thing
SmokyMtnSteam 1 year ago
that looks like a machine a crazy professor would build.
lexichronicle2 1 year ago
i use to run this machine back when i worked for good ol loram.
sladek2003 1 year ago
The reason is that in the years, leaves and waste as well as crushed ballast itself fills up in between the larger rocks. This in turn makes water culminate instead of running through the ballast. And this is bad since water causes "splashing humps" especially with concrete ties, where the ties have started moving in the ballast and is basically crushing the stone underneath AND the tie itself to dust, magnifying the problem.
randknu 2 years ago
There is also the risk of fire. Many of the "brush" fires my FD gets called out to on RR tracks turn out to be the oils & fluids burning on the tracks after a train threw some sparks. This goes back to the lack of proper water drainage, it doesnt carry the oil away just accumulates it in one spot as the water evaporates.
DeltaFoxtrotWhiskey3 2 years ago
the reason behind it is because once dirt gets down into it it causes ties to rot quicker, make track structure move around to much and let track settle and dip and a few other little reasons
sethallenevans 2 years ago
What's the purpose of "cleaning" the rocks?
TJE4210 3 years ago