Photos of Night Operations on an English Track Renewals Site

These are the results from my first ever series of night photos.

Sorry about the quality ! :oops:

Laying in a new S&C unit panel


Measuring the position of the unit to the design position


Ballasting operations start


Unloading the ballast from the wagon


Tipping the ballast into the track


Finishing of the S&C installation


Not quite the arrival of the Queen of Sheba...The S&C tamper appearing out of the night


A close-up of the S&C Tamper tamping bank


OHL Staff adjusting the OHL as a ballast train departs


Ready to roll ! A ballast train waits the Certificate of Readiness from the Engineering Supervisor


Ballast trains on site



All pictures are copyrighted !



All comments and criticisms welcome

I think the following emoticon says it all...






Thanks for sharing.

Nice photos , thanks .

Do they not have ballast wagons that are self unloading . Here we have 2 types , one that tips to the either side , and one that dumps out the bottom , in a controlled spreading type fo way ?

We have a whole variety of self unloading ballast wagons.

We have hoppers that discharge to the sides and underneath;

We we have a hopper train that discharges at one end using a conveyor belt system;

We have a train of side tipping wagons.

i thought you would have . any idea why they uses a digger ? . seems a slow way of doing it .

We only had that type of wagon available, and the job was only for a short length (200yards) so actually removing the ballast from wagons with an excavator is a much easier and more efficient way of doing things.

Thanks , makes sense .
the blue plastic sheet , is that always put under the ballast , or is this a special case .

The blue plastic sheeting is to prevent stone running into the switch rails and blocking the switch blades.

I attach a couple more photos.

The crane. This is a specially designed rail crane for renewing S&C. It was built by KIROW in Leipzig, Germany.


Maneuvering the S&C Panel


A general view of the site


Wagons by night


A ballast train leaves site