Loram ballast cleaner SBC-35 in action 

@ocsrc that makes sense. I couldn't imagine why they were cleaning rocks.

I think the same thing. Who in the hell conceives the machinery. I watched a machine come along the rail line the first part pulled spike out of the timbers, then almost at the same instance latched on to the old timber vibrated it out, and vibrated another one in and replaced the spikes securing the new rail timber into place. then it moved on to the next old timber that was marked and repeated the process. It was almost an instantaneous operation.

Depends on the track some rock is dirty

Absolutely.

The how isn't super complicated, it's a screening system that separates finer, lighter material away from the track ballast, much like you'd have at any gravel quarry. The why is to extend the life of the track and ties... by removing the fine material that invariably fall from other hopper cars traveling the line, it allows water to better drain from the roadbed so the ties do not rot. This also helps in keeping mud from forming which along with rotting the wood ties, can also cause the roadbed to get soft and not maintain a level surface for the train to travel over. This reduces the flex on the rail and prevents rail cracks and defects. Also by eliminating undue flexing like that, higher speeds can be ran to deliver product faster. What's missing from this particular system is ballast cleaning from between the rails and ties. That process is a lot slower and requires a lot more work. This is a good first or interim step before doing major track refurbishment.

@@kleetus92 Thank you very much....I appreciate your explanation.

I actually worked on a machine like this last summer, SBC-17. It wasn't bad at all!

they clean the stone for better drainage. Stone stone with sand and dirt holds water and rots the ties + dirt can't handle the weight of the trains

Yes the workers are human, who would have guessed.😒

Who’s your fiancé, cuz it ain’t old balding

Nope his name is Nick.

Not nick, I always thought he was gay! He would always try to cuddle me in my room. Huh who knew.

Lmfao desperate times call for desperate measures I guess 😂

Tell my butt hole that

I assume they keep many spares of the parts in store that need servicing the most often.

They were about to cross a grad3 crossing at that point.

Dirt, debris etc. reduce the stability (interlocking) of the ballast. See here a German one with explanations (use subtitle). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3ddiwkspXxE.html

It separates the gravel from dirt mostly from coal trains to improve drainage. If they don't the railroad will become waterlogged.

so do you, cupcake