HOW RAILROADS WORK Ep. 9: Maintenance of Way 

In Fullerton CA in the rain I saw a crew lift a whole section of rails and ties out and replace them with new ones. Awesome!

Never seen those living quarters on flat cars before.

Outstanding Video

Great job on this series of videos!

This is just too cool. Thanks for the video!

I saw a welded rail train a few days ago and it was a suprise to see it

Very interesting. Totally enjoyed watching. Excellent video.

Just got home from work... LOVE IT!

Very well done! I thoroughly enjoyed your detailed coverage from start to finish. Just subbed!

Another A-1 railfan video from the Master......May you and your family have bright 2017

Awesome video! I like to see MoW equipment in operation. Almost anything rare on the rails get me excited! Now I have watched all episodes of "How Railroads Work".

Well done as always my friend. Happy New Year to you.

excellent video...thank you

awsome video hope there is more keep it coming

Absolutely excellent video. Brought out an awful lot of information that the average person isn't privy to.

Man, you put out some really incredible videos. I really enjoyed watching this. I really liked the research train at 0:45, and all the work trains. I've always been fascinated by rail trains. 90M at 14:58 with that CP unit was neat. It was also great to see some Reading & Northern at 16:08. It was awesome seeing the ballast tamper work, as well as seeing the crew installing new rail at 39:43. You really gotta give those guys credit for what they do. Not only is it physically demanding, it is mentally demanding too. And they need to be out in all sorts of weather...rain, snow, bitter cold, and extreme heat. Being on a track crew definitely is not for everyone. I've always had respect for the MOW crews, but watching this, I now have more.

Awesome video. I use to work for a railroad contractor and we used back hoe tractors alot

Near my home there is a railroad crossing. And I've found all kinds of stuff people have placed on the tracks including bicycles, bricks, pieces of foam packaging. Whenever I can I try to remove the stuff if it's not too heavy.

I love your music drops but i have never said anything about it - i got to this time around. They on point and you should do them more often on all your videos!!! I know i have already stated you have the best videos and part of the reason is the music/instrumentals you drop along with the knowledge you drop!!! Soul Brother of the Railways!!! I wish they had others who could drop videos of the same quality (or better if you/they could get larger budgets) but they had different personalities because I would love a rock guy - one who may prefer real oldies old and new as some still make oldies in modern times... but anyways you the only brother i know that produces railway videos and so you're the only one that sounds like you got soul to you. And if you aint a brother you do one heck of a job pulling it off. You should drop more tracks (jams if you want to call them) though for real with all types/genres of soul. I have always though hip-hop and railways go good (especially drum heavy) together and this drop made that point evident in my eyes!

Отличное видео. Приятно смотреть как работают люди и ремонтная железнодорожная техника. СУПЕР.

awesome job

I remember as a little kid seeing from a distance some maintenance machine as in 5:39 that looked like the car on a roller coaster. I never actually got to see one up close. This was on the Milwaukee Road as it went through Mount Carroll, Illinois in the early 1950s.

Glad I found your videos, seeing more of what's going on with lines I've seen regularly from the Hwy. is interesting. This MoW video in particular, at one time I was leased to PACER (Pacific Motor Freight) with a flatbed and after moving a fair number of UP maint. loads (rolling stock parts & MoW) had more interest than ever to see what was happening.

Great vid, there would be a few safety violations here in Canada on that work gang. but they got the job done, This is the every day stuff that people do to feed their family that needs to be documented.

After spending time in the summer working on a rail gang, I enjoyed your video and explanation overlays. Track work still comes down to a man, pick-axe and spike mall to keep the big stuff running so to pay the bills. I wish you a wonderful new year and more "HAPPY RAIL FANNING"!!!

That high hood @ 7:49 was glorious.

An awesome and fascinating look at what goes on behind the scenes with Maintenance of Way. They may not get the love, but without them we sure wouldn't enjoy train watching. I totally enjoyed your video and explanations, which were really well done and worth the time to watch. Awesome video and thank you so much for sharing it and taking the time to put it together for us.

Great Vid alot of familiar track esp the Lackawanna Bridge where the fence now stands. I grew up on those tracks and shot has changed!

excellent music choice !

Love this video great job

great video

wow. very cool. awesome video.

Very interesting Video indeed!! Learned a lot about MoW from it!

You don't have to imagine. Vintage rail way maintenance videos are here on youtube. Back in the 50s this was done by hand. Every plate and bolt was inspected. Every thing was tightened by hand and every foot of rail was in line. Not this wavy crap you see today. Every thing was oiled and cleaned.

Great vid, Thanks,,,,,,,,,,, I build "DERAIL" signs, no kidding I do, Blue Flag, Occupied Camp Car, and more I answered a question below with this, Those are camp cars, about 40 ft long with two beds each end with two bath rooms and mechanical, nice if you have a clean room mate, I didn't see one but most have a kitchen and diner car with them. They have generators, water tender and storage cars with them. They park them on a siding and the crew shows up on a Sunday night and works a bout 4 10's leaving for home Thursday evening, not to bad unless your are working in New Orleans and you live in Ohio. I've been working on the camp cars since 1977, fun.

Wow what a storm

If you wanna know what no maintenance looks like, watch a show on the PENN CENTRAL.

Tamper also raises and lowers track according to the grade they want

Just after 27:52 what kind of locomotive is the 2nd one?? I've never seen a locomotive of that type?

Nice shot of the old CF double @ 29:10

Hi from the UK, Great video Very Informative, Could you tell me @09:39 the train with the Welded rail, Does the Rail BEND when going around Curves? Thanks Stay Safe (covid2020)

Wonderful work as usual. I cringe when I hear that someone is glad the "gangs" of guys are gone. It was a difficult and thankless job. Outside constantly, for years at a time. Of course, mechanized efficiencies will be chosen over the guys. Personally, I would rather see money go to working families who contribute and live here, than a larger corporate bottom line. BTW, I know more than a few workers who have rare cancers and don't make retirement, thanks to their time on the railroad "gangs". Not to sound dramatic, but that is the ultimate sacrifice and it has been like that from the beginning, IMHO. Sorry for the seemingly coarse comment, but I believe hard working men built what we have today, although I know it's just one guys opinion among others. Thanks for all the effort you put into these vids. They are very enjoyable to watch.

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING!!!!!!!!! You should have a TV show. Hey when did NS 34 come through here?

The regulators are also used for snow removal as where Jordan spreaders where used in dressing ballest

is there stillaara scenix rail road in mt dora area

16:00 - "Hello boss... Do we have insurance for stupidity???" "That derail came out of nowhere."

Down here in Virginia we call the ballest trains Herzog's

What type of locomotive was the maroon Norfolk and Southern.?

Funny sounding horn on the second Rail train

This is really a nice video. I have a couple of questions for the experts: - Do the steel mills manufacture the rails in full lenght, say 400 m or are they manufactured in smaller sections, then welded together and finally loaded onto the rail cars? - How are these long rails fixed onto the rail cars? In curves I guess each single rail will move slightly back and forth. Thanks in advance Also, looking forward to watching more of your videos Cheers Adam (from Denmark)

What were the white things that looked like trailers at 30:42? I had a laugh at the horn at 33:18, "Wamp wamp!" How are curves created on a railroad? Are there specially made curved pieces of rail?

look at that cute little loco at 0:45

That is cool! BNSF and UP together? Whoah!!! And this ain't the "Joint Line"!! Cool vid though. Just uploaded my first vid, so take a look if you can. Thanks. Cheers, Dan

What is a typical penalty for accidentally running over a derail. Would an engineer get fired or suspended or 're-trained'? I imagine cleaning up a wreck of this type is costly so what are typical consequences? Cheers.

what type of engine is the brick?

I almost wish my car could do what that truck was doing at the beginning of this video.

I would think somewhere in that work train there is a hydraulic repair crew.

Too late now , but I should have gone for rail Maintenance ( Fettling ) , rather than try to be a Station Assistant !

I wonder if your car gets hit by a hi-rail truck at a railroad crossing while the truck is on the rails, does it mean you were hit by a train or a truck? Also, how to build an airplane that lands and takes off on railroad tracks so it has train wheels for a landing gear? Those rails the train is carrying must bend with the train when it goes around curves and then straighten out again. That's crazy. But the rails should be fine since on each curve they don't bend anymore than a rail normally should. Anyway, people need to buy up my "Impact" and "Dance of Death" James Grider novels on Amazon so I can afford a used car.

those rails are heavy and theyre worth a lot of money

A bunch of guys sitting around with nothing else to do is fallacy. They had 8 am to 4 pm jobs repairing cars and putting new wheels and testing air brakes Some were inspectors in train yards as well. If they called the hook then the crew left and we had 17 men on the crew, one being a cook who went to get groceries first. Dont get me wrong, we did use wrecking companies often after they shut down the repair points and did not have crews

Y'know... I've always wondered... Why are MOW trains powered by a heavily modified cowl unit? Wouldn't it be a whole lot cheaper just to use a more standard road switcher unit to power the trains instead?

Gandy Dancing.

Love the video but just don't like all the dang music during the whole video rather listen to the machines working than the music

and some fool wants these trains to run with only one person. silly talk

No closed captions...? bad video