how do they put trains onto the train tracks?

Question

a train weighs a ton and they have to put it on the track just right. how do they do it?

Answer 1

i work for norfolk southren and they use cranes for this but ge is a big supplier of engines and they have there own track they build the engine right on this track is connected to are track and after it is built they pull it around to are track one main place is in erie pa. the ge factory

Answer 2

There are differeint ways, depending on the situation.
In large shops there are overhead gantry cranes that can pick up an entire locomotive (200 tons average) and move.
There are also hydraulic cranes that are powerful enough to pick up one end of a loaded car or locomotive at a time.

Most railroads have a derailment crane on standby, these are very heavy duty cranes, with huge booms and when properly stabilized can drag a derailed car up a bank and place it back on the rail, it is very slow painstaking work but it is effective.
In a derailment there are devices called rerailing "frogs" that are shaped like butterfly wings, if the wheel in question is not farther than a foot or so from the rail, the frog will catch the wheel and as the equipment is pulled ever so slowly forward the frog will guide the wheel back onto the rail, it is fascinating to watch. Kind of like a funnel principle only for equipment and not liquid.
Another way is with jack pads, they are very heavy duty pads with a movable platform, placed under a derailed car on each side. Then a very heavy duty air operated hydraulic jack is placed on each pad and the car very slowly carefully lifted up til the car s above the top of the rail.
The jack pads have a very heavy duty screw mechanism that an employee on each one can operate with a large wrench, moving the entire jack with the car on it incrementally over until it is situated just so and can be lowered carefully back onto a new set of wheels that are situated on the rail.

I was involved in a derailment one time (oneof many LOL) there was only one wheel on the ground at a switch, the car foreman put a heavy duty chain between the switch point and the rail on each side and had me move slowly, the chain was solid enough for the wheel to ride up on and thunk! it landed back where it belonged.
That worked well, took all of ten minutes and was much easier than explaining how that switch got ran through in the first place.
Railroad employees can be very innovative, there are many ways to place equipment back where it belongs.
Interesting question.

Answer 3

When building: The trains are built on a site next to the railway line

Accidents: Normally using:
A (Only part of locomotive off 1) - small ramp made from sleepers (US Ties), and the locomotive powers itself back onto the track
B (only part of locomotive off 2) - Jacks gently shift the locomotive to the track. Cranes may also be used.
C - 2 cranes lift the locomotive back onto the track

Transportation by road: Special low loader with inset rails. A special ramp track is carried by the trailer at all times which slots into the rails - This method is often used in Britain to shift preserved steam loco's about

Answer 4

Yep - makes my heart skip a beat everytime I see it! It is on TV in the UK advertising rail safety. If you look closely at the mother she looks as if she is talking on a mobile phone, this is why she has such a delayed reaction when the stroller rolls away from her! What a lucky woman and baby - I bet she clung on to her baby for dear life when she realised that it was unhurt, she'll never do it again! All it would have taken was for her to keep further away from the track, turn the stroller away from the track and put the break on the stroller! I can't believe that she was so unaware that the train was approaching the station either - you know how loud they are. I guess it shows just how distracting mobile phones can be.

Answer 5

They use heavy machinery to lift individual train carts onto the track.

Answer 6

watched it on discovery channel
they actually build them on tracks and also use some of the largest cranes on earth to do repairs on them

Answer 7

some get build right on the tracks or they a big lift.

Answer 8

Alot of people wonder this same question you have. It is a little like the ship in the bottle is built IN the bottle, well.......the train is actually built on the tracks.

Answer 9

thye aassemble at the rail siding and then the train moves to its destination

Answer 10

Crane.