3 ms·

> To prevent this, a big part of railway maintenance involves digging out all the stones, washing them to get rid of sand and soil, and putting them back. Usual

• dotancohen 3y ago
  I think that the title suggests that is repositioning the stones (ballast). This video seems to be of the cleaning process: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XWjUZJtR610 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XWjUZJtR610 I could be wrong, I had never heard of this fascinating maintenance until this very moment.
  • bombcar 3y ago
    I love the response: >BOURLEZ RENOVATION 9 months ago Why is it?
  • Sharlin 3y ago
    Tamping is also of critical importance when tracks are first laid; they’re quite uneven at first (visibly wonky) and the tamper evens out the ballast to achieve the extremely smooth geometry required.
• codethief 3y ago
  I know nothing about this topic at all but, having browsed Wikipedia for a bit, the machine from the video looks very much like a tamping machine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine (The video title also says "tamper")
• olejorgenb 3y ago
  In the comments they say that "tampering"[1] is done once every year and the wiki page does not mention cleaning as an objective. Tamping is done to readjust the ballast making the track more more level and durable. (One can infer it does some cleaning as well - getting rid of the topmost dust layer) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNFUgTJR6jw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNFUgTJR6jw seems to be the full cleaning procedure [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine
  • codethief 3y ago
    According to the description of the video you posted, the ballast cleaning machine is then followed by a track laying machine, https://youtube.com/watch?v=tMXfU8blPMM https://youtube.com/watch?v=tMXfU8blPMM . What an incredible machine! > they say that "tampering"[1] I believe you mean tamping. :-)
    • zo1 3y ago
      Looking at that machine I'm amazed that we as a society are not advancing further. We have incredible engineering feats like that, yet at the same time, we have rampant poverty, homelessness, polluted oceans, smog clouds, and thousands of others. That thing is a moving synchronized orchestra of a mini-factory, carrying it's own inventory and moving on the same railway track that it's servicing/fixing. And here I am, can barely coral a bunch of juniors to fix a basic CRUD app.
      • hgsgm 3y ago
        Controlling rocks is easy. Controlling people is hard.
        • datavirtue 3y ago
          The various cults make it look easy.
          • FartyMcFarter 3y ago
            They target the most vulnerable people.
            • ttjjtt 3y ago
              I’ve known several people who have been recruited into a particular death cult and they are/were very high performing individuals with very stable backgrounds ie strong social network with plenty of resources of all kinds. Confident upper middle class successful entrepreneur types. The attack vulnerability was simply some level of narcissism and desire to belong. These are universal human qualities. You haven’t described accurately who is at risk from cults, at all. Think of the idea that every religion could be reasonably described as an established cult.
• roelschroeven 3y ago
  No, that's a tamping machine: it packs ballast to level tracks. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamping_machine