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Spike Driver
A spike driver (also known as a spiker) is a piece of rail transport maintenance of way equipment. Its purpose is to drive rail spikes into the railroad tie, ties on a rail tracks, rail track to hold the rail in place. Many different sizes of spikers are manufactured and in use around the world. History Historically, spikers was the slang-name for the rail workers who drove in the spikes after the gandy dancers laid the track on the tie. Spikes are used to hold the rail in gauge and keep it connected to the ties. Before the development of automated spikers, this task was done entirely by hand using pickaxes to drive the spikes into the ties. This process was slow and not easy to learn (at the driving of the golden spike that marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, several executives of the companies building the railroad tried and failed to drive in the final spike, showing how difficult a task it was). To make the process of driving spikes faster an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BNSF X4400320 20040808 WI Prairie Du Chien
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over in 2010, more than any other North American railroad. The BNSF Railway Company is the principal operating subsidiary of parent company Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the railroad's parent company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska. The current CEO is Kathryn Farmer. According to corporate press releases, BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal freight in North America. It also hauls bulk cargo, including coal. The creation of BNSF started with the formation of a holding company on September 22, 1995. This new holding company purchased the Atchison, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Transport
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road transport. It is used for about 8% of passenger and rail freight transport, freight transport globally, thanks to its Energy efficiency in transport, energy efficiency and potentially high-speed rail, high speed.Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower friction, frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains. Power is usually provided by Diesel locomotive, diesel or Electric locomotive, electric locomotives. While railway transport is capital intensity, capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maintenance Of Way
Maintenance of way (commonly abbreviated to MOW, also known as "Permanent Way Maintenance" or "PWM" in Britain) refers to the maintenance, construction, and improvement of rail infrastructure, including tracks, ballast, grade, and lineside infrastructure such as signals and signs. Track Railroad tracks consist of multiple key components: a track bed, and ballast forming the foundation of the tracks. Then the tracks themselves are place on the ballast, the tracks consist of a railroad tie, fasteners to secure the rails to the ties, such as spikes or clips, rails, which are assembled on a bed of ballast, which is in turn on a track bed that supports it all. Ballast is a material used to support the ties and rails, and keep them in place. It is also a key part of drainage along railway lines to ensure the integrity of the tracks during rain and other wet weather. Ballast is often a crushed stone. Stones need to be irregularly shaped, in order to increase friction that holds th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Spike
A rail fastening system is a means of fixing Rail profile, rails to railroad ties (North America) or sleepers (British Isles, Australasia, and Africa). The terms ''rail anchors'', ''tie plates'', ''chairs'' and ''track fasteners'' are used to refer to parts or all of a rail fastening system. The components of a rail fastening system may also be known collectively as other track material, or OTM for short. Various types of fastening have been used over the years. History and overview The earliest wooden rails were fixed to wooden sleepers by pegs through holes in the rail, or by nails. By the 18th century, cast iron rails had come into use, and also had holes in the rail itself to allow them to be fixed to a support. 18th century developments such as the flanged rail and fish bellied rail also had holes in the rail itself; when stone block sleepers were used the nails were driven into a wooden block which had been inserted into a recess in the block. The first chair for a rail is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railroad Tie
A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper ( Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright and keep them spaced to the correct gauge. Railroad ties are traditionally made of wood, but prestressed concrete is now also widely used, especially in Europe and Asia. Steel ties are common on secondary lines in the UK; plastic composite ties are also employed, although far less than wood or concrete. As of January 2008, the approximate market share in North America for traditional and wood ties was 91.5%, the remainder being concrete, steel, azobé (red ironwood) and plastic composite. Tie spacing may depend on the type of tie, traffic loads and other requirements, for example on North American mainline railroads to on London, Midland and Scottish Railway joi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Tracks
Railway track ( and UIC terminology) or railroad track (), also known as permanent way () or "P way" ( and Indian English), is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers ( railroad ties in American English) and ballast (or slab track), plus the underlying subgrade. It enables trains to move by providing a dependable, low-friction surface on which steel wheels can roll. Early tracks were constructed with wooden or cast-iron rails, and wooden or stone sleepers. Since the 1870s, rails have almost universally been made from steel. Historical development The first railway in Britain was the Wollaton wagonway, built in 1603 between Wollaton and Strelley in Nottinghamshire. It used wooden rails and was the first of about 50 wooden-railed tramways built over the subsequent 164 years. These early wooden tramways typically used rails of oak or beech, attached to wooden sleepers with iron or wooden nails. Gravel or small stones were pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gandy Dancer
Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States and Canada, more formally referred to as ''section hands'', who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. The British equivalents of the term ''gandy dancer'' are ''navvy'' (from ''navigator''), originally builders of canals, or ''inland navigations'', for builders of railway lines, and '' platelayer'' for workers employed to inspect and maintain the track. In the Southwestern United States and Mexico, Mexican and Mexican-American track workers were colloquially '' traqueros''. In the United States and Canada, early section crews were often made up of recent immigrants and ethnic minorities who vied for steady work despite poor wages and working conditions, and hard physical labor. The Chinese, Mexican Americans, and Native Americans in the Western United States, the Irish in the Midwestern United States, African Americans in the Southern United States, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Spike
The golden spike (also known as the last spike) is the ceremonial 17.6-Carat (purity), karat gold final Rail spike, spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the first transcontinental railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento, California, Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah, Promontory Summit, Utah Territory. The term ''last spike'' has been used to refer to one driven at the usually ceremonial completion of any new railroad construction projects, particularly those in which construction is undertaken from two disparate origins toward a common meeting point. The spike is now displayed in the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. History Completing the last link in the transcontinental railroad with a spike of gold was the brainchild of David Hewes, a San Francisco financier and contrac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Transcontinental Railroad
America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad), Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa, with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay. The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive Land grant#Public lands and bounty-land warrants, U.S. land grants.Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, §2 & §3 Building was financed by both state and U.S. government subsidy bonds as well as by company-issued mortgage bonds.Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, §5 & §6 The Western Pacific Railroad (1862–1870), Western Pacific Railroad Company built of track from the road's western terminus at Alameda, California, Alameda/Oakland, California, Oakland to Sacramento, California. The Central Pacific Railroad, Central Pacific Railroad Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List of national parks of the United States, national parks; most National monument (United States), national monuments; and other natural, historical, and recreational properties, with various title designations. The United States Congress created the agency on August 25, 1916, through the National Park Service Organic Act. Its headquarters is in Washington, D.C., within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior. The NPS employs about 20,000 people in units covering over in List of states and territories of the United States, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Territories of the United States, US territories. In 2019, the service had more than 279,000 volunteers. The agency is charged with preserving the ecological a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harsco
Enviri Corporation is an environmental company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It operates in over 30 countries and employs approximately 12,000 people worldwide. The company addresses complex environmental issues for large industries, including steel, railways, and energy. Enviri's common stock is a component of the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and the Russell 2000 Index. Founded as a railway car manufacturer in 1853, it rebranded from Harsco to Enviri in 2023. History Harsco was founded in 1853 as The Harrisburg Car Manufacturing Company and became the Harrisburg Steel Corporation in 1935. Following a series of acquisitions, the company became Harsco Corporation in 1956, forming three divisions: Metals & Minerals (Now Harsco Environmental), Rail, and Industrial. By the early 1990s, Harsco products and services covered defense, industrial, commercial, and construction applications, with over 250 manufacturing, reclamation, distribution, and service facilities across 14 co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nordco
Nordco, Inc. is an American manufacturer of railroad maintenance of way and inspection equipment, based in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Founded in 1926, it has been a subsidiary of Wabtec since 2021. The company is one of the top manufacturers of railroad maintenance equipment in North America. History Nordco was founded in 1926 as a division of Nordberg Manufacturing Company. Nordco was purchased by OMERS#OMERS Private Equity, OMERS Private Equity in 2009. In 2021, Nordco was acquired by Wabtec in a $400 million deal. Acquisitions Nordco purchased Illinois railroad maintenance machinery rebuilder J.E.R. Overhaul in 2006, followed by Connecticut based non-destructive testing company Dapco Industries in 2007. Both of the headquarters of these companies now serve as additional manufacturing facilities for Nordco. These were followed in 2008 by the purchase of Central Power Products, manufacturer of the Shuttlewagon series of railcar movers. In 2016, Nordco acquired Kansas heavy lift truc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
