Don’t let the freeways fool you, and don’t read too much into the inadequate state of passenger rail in America. The American network of freight rail is still an integral segment of our national infrastructure, allowing goods to travel cross-country with higher efficiency than by highway and lower fuel consumption than by air. As our nation rebuilds itself, part of those efforts will involve expanding our railroads while rehabilitating extant but crumbling tracks. If your firm can play a role in making sure quality railroads and railways keep crisscrossing the nation, here’s a look at some of the equipment needed for railway construction.

Dump Trucks and Backhoes: Laying Down Gravel

Railroad tracks traditionally lie upon beds of gravel or ballast. This aggregate keeps grass from growing up and around the rails, where it would surely gum up the works. To transport the ballast to the site, you’ll need to load up your dump truck. Once you unload it, a backhoe bucket will take the next step of scooping it up and putting it down.

Ballast Tampers: Packing It In

It’s not enough to simply dump the ballast and call it a day. This material needs to be tightly packed down to do its job and keep from spreading out and shedding. As the name would indicate, tamping machines tamp down your ballast so that it properly shuts out persistent vegetation and stays dense. Not only does this extend the life of the ballast, but it also increases the durability of the trackage itself.

Railroad Grapples: A Helping Hand

Laying down railroad ties and rails isn’t a task that workers have to do by hand. With an waste handling grapples, one of many that an excavator can take on, you can lift and place each tie or rail from the relative comfort of the excavator cab. While new trackage may need some fine-tuning once it’s on the ground, a dedicated railroad grapple allows heavy machinery to do the heavy lifting. When we’re talking about heavy lifting, whether through electromagnetism or raw power, Moley Magnetics has you covered. We provide some of the equipment needed for railway construction, as well as a wide array of general construction, demolition, and recycling equipment that can help America’s workers build and rebuild a better country.

YouTube