Up close look at the head of a section of rail that has been grinded by a LORAM Rail Grinder. This process is used to restore the profile of rail and remove irregularities in the rail, which exte... (more)

This special track work at the CN Joliet yard certainly lives up to its name. Instead of using the traditional type of turnout for their yard ladder, this portion of the yard uses overlapping tur... (more)

Hot Rail
The thermal effects of a recent field weld are evident on the web and top of the rail head at this new joint. The rail has just undergone an electric flash-butt welding proc... (more)

A wonderful sunrise has begun to illuminate the rails and signal the start of a new day along the BNSF mainline between Pueblo and Denver in the Centennial state.

Now this is a compromise joint!
Having to connect vastly different sized rails on this seldom used NS house track greatly illustrates how valuable compromise joints are and what they ... (more)

Numerous mammatus clouds begin to gather and brew overhead as an afternoon thunderstorm makes its presence known atop the abandoned MoPac mainline on the flatlands of eastern Colorado. Special... (more)

A pair of 50+ year old rail from former steel giants make up the second track mainline that runs through Lineville on the namesake CSX subdivision. While the Carnegie Edgar Thompson works ceased ... (more)

A little off the top
When brand new rail is connected to an existing one there is going to be the problem of matching the top of the rail heads to form a smooth running surface. Since... (more)

Solid
Built as a one piece cast design, just like its cousin of the self-guarded variety, the solid manganese st... (more)

Instead of using a chalk marker to label their rails like railroads do out west, these 136 pound specimens from Japan have th... (more)

When competitor rail lines are built next to one another like they are in Colorado, the need to properly identify your mainline is always crucial.

As the temperatures continued to drop and snow began to accumulate atop the rail and surrounding ground, nearly uniform in length icicles have formed off the head of rail during this very cold day... (more)

Even some of the best rail will need to be replaced eventually.

Bridge to nowhere Once used by the Missouri Pacific as a crossing over the Fountain River and their way into Pueblo, this steel bridge has outlasted the MoPac and surprisingly still retain... (more)

A section of "new rail" as designated by the chalk marks from a track crew is pretty fitting verbiage for this rail since it was rolled a little over a year ago in 2012.