Reddit Reddit reviews The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does

We found 3 Reddit comments about The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Books
Transportation
Railroads
Engineering & Transportation
The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does
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3 Reddit comments about The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does:

u/Blackfloydphish · 4 pointsr/trains

The seemingly paradoxical characteristics of flexibility and strength are pretty impressive.

Rail used to come in 45 foot lengths that were bolted together. Those bolts come loose periodically and need to be tightened. Railroads used to have section gangs spaced regularly along the mainline to patrol and maintain the tracks. Those gangs made up a very large workforce that often lived in micro communities in the middle of nowhere that were made up entirely of railroad workers and their families.

Nowadays, rail is imported in 90’ sticks that are welded together into quarter-mile lengths. Those quarter-mile lengths of rail are distributed by special trains then welded together on site. That’s called continuously welded rail (CWR) and represents a major breakthrough for the railroads. There is much less maintenance required, which means a much smaller maintenance of way workforce. CWR saves railroads money through both lower costs and improved reliability.

I can’t recommend any YouTube channels, but I can recommend the book The Railroad: What It Is And What It Does. It’s an excellent book that explains, in detail, almost every aspect of railroad operations.

Edit: fixed link

u/lurknessmonster43 · 2 pointsr/mildlyinteresting

If he can't you should read The Railroad: What it is and What it does by Armstrong.

I'm in grad school focusing on rail engineering and its unofficially required reading for all new students.