OT - Wow.. Just wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02pWbr9bgbA

This is cool! Anyone had the opportunity to work on this?

Boy if they could only seen this 100 years ago... they would say it was cheating very nice engineering

geniusintraining said:

Boy if they could only seen this 100 years ago... they would...

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...have named it "hell on wheels."

If this machine was in the US it should have been called the John Henry.
What I found interesting is the concrete railroad ties. Concrete railroad ties are popular in Europe.

Peter,
Concrete ties are used here for some of the rapid transit systems, BART, Washington DC among others. Unlike the others we use an elastometric track pad to cushion the rail.

they have siemens as PLC

I have seen machines like that for laying freeway also. Very cool.

I didn't see anything that was screening out the poop and toilet paper that they drop on the rails from the train toilets in Europe... I guess they just recycle it back into the gravel. I'd hate to be breathing the dust around there though.

Gotta love the engineering in something like that, leave it to the Europeans for thinking up that machine.

I think they still lay track with hammer and spike here in Canada. The lack of automation and robotics in industry here is shocking, especially here in the oil patch. "We have done it this way for 40 years, why would we change now". Well, hopefully this latest implosion in the oil industry will finally force some automation and efficiency on an industry that has rested on high profit margin for too many years.

Dont mind my rant....HaHa.

Don't be so pessimistic!!!

Fluid Power Nerd;636123 Well said:

I wouldn't be so pessimistic. You just haven't seen all the good things that are done in Canada. I haven't either but I have a clue.
I sell hydraulic servo motion controllers.
Canadians buy more of our controllers per person than any other country including the US.
You should see Canadian saw mills. They are very automated.
Look up iron derrick man. Some of the most sophistic pipe handling was developed in Alberta using our hydraulic motion controllers.
See
http://pqsystemsltd.com/

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Peter, I have lots of experience in sawmills in Canada, and they are a shining light for sure. As for the Iron Derrickman, I have seen it, there are more automated pipe handling units out there now which is good.

A lot of what I see is the service side of the oilfield, trucks, pressure trucks, hot oilers, vac units, ect. And they are the most scary unsophisticated units out there. Perhaps these units are designed for the skill level of the people who operate them, which is pretty low. Most of these guys can barely handle a cell phone let alone a touch screen.

My push here has been to more towards monitoring and built in equipment safety systems on mobile equipment, which can still be a hard sell, cause electronics are scary!!!!!!!!!!

Rant, rave, rant, rave. Sorry must be tired.

Did anybody else see what looked like two sets of rails on the near side in some of the shots? Were they replacing old rail, or laying a fresh line with this machine?

Replacing old tracks and ties on fly. Front of machine is above old tracks and end above new ones.

p.s Here in Finland it has nick name "Veera", if I remember right. Veera is girl's name...

I saw one show a lot time ago and they were using old tires for railroad ties... wonder why they never took off, I still see wood everywhere.

JaxGTO, I did help with a machine that in one shot grinded up the asphault road and mix it with oil (and other stuff) then lay it back down in the back them, they had a MicroLogix 1500 on it

Plasser in Australia are designing and building these types of machines and have been for many years now. And also a variety of similar but smaller machines. They use Omron PLCs and generally have been using Device Net but not sure now - have not been in touch with them for many years. Concrete sleepers are really popular here now as we have termites everywhere - even good Aussie hardwood does not last. Hammer and spikes? Been gone in Oz for years! Plasser have a machine here that strips out the old gravel and recycles it and packs it down properly as well. They also have machines that go over the tracks with vibrations and test the base. They also build machines that take up old worn out track and replace it as well. The machines that scratch up old hot mix on the road, add bitumen and relay it have just about vanished here - it does not work very well - recycled hot mix has been found to not work very well - life expectancy has been way too short.