Rail Welding on the FEC

On Tuesday,7/26/11, I noticed that ATCS showed an occupied block just north of me, so I went out at lunch to see what was happening. I found the MOW crew just starting to do something very cool. and by cool, i mean HOT!!!!
here is how to make a welded rail!

(thanx to Ken Kanne for this description)
The two large A shaped things are rail pulling clamps. They draw the two ends
of the rails to be welded toward each other.
Those were already in place when you started taping, and the welding form was already clamped around the joint. They were preheating the rail ends inside the form when the video started.
Shortly after that they removed the torch and set the Thermite cylinder (ceramic) on top of the form and lit it, then replaced the cover.
Thermite (in this case) is iron oxide and aluminum powder plus other
chemicals that result in a steel alloy after the exothermic reaction (burn).

Once the Thermite starts burning, it creates molten steel that flows into
the rail joint, partially contained by the form. After the Thermite reaction
was finished the used cylinder was discarded, the form was removed, and the
resulting overfill of weld was removed in stages from the joint, first by a
hydraulic shear and then by brute force with a sledge hammer. Finally the
weld was ground to shape. After the weld cools the rail clamps are removed
and the track goes back in service.
SOME of the time I've seen them reheat the fresh joint after the weld was ground down to rail contour, but not always. I guess it depends on the ambient temperature whether that gets done or not.

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[rufec12]

Cool video, Doug! I have never actually seen this done before, great catch and a favorite!

[Floridaman98]

There is much more to welding rail than I thought! I bet they love that Miami heat.

[raridan1]

I always wondered how they do thermite welds and I kinda had an idea but this was very informative. Thanks for taking the time to capture and post this.

[Jasmanny86]

Very, very nice. 5 Stars!

[csu1226]

Nice!