Going Nowhere's video: Railroad Maintenance

Keeping the track itself operational and clean, is a prime ingredient of railroad operations. The ballast cleaner machine (straight from the movie 'Terminator"), does the job of making sure water does not build-up inside and under the tracks(those wood beams that support the steel track). Especially the water that can become trapped and freeze, which can warp the tracks causing a accident(those loud thumps when a train is moving, can be from a bad rail-line. The ballast-cleaner, removes gravel build-up on the outside, under the wood beam edges, laying-down fresh gravel, to allow water to drain-out, discarding small gravel fragments(that cause blockage), by throwing them far to the side of the railroad(Don't be near the machine). It is generally a combined effort of a Loram crew, and CSX workers. Moving at about 5mph. I caught this by fate. Noticed all the lights on the track, moving slow. And you can hear the machine a few miles away. Machine runs all-day, all-night, switching-out crews, till the job is accomplished. The second rail-maintenance machine to watch, is the "Grinder." It smooths the track-out, making the top very shiny. Sparks shoot over twenty feet from the grinder(very bright). And the contraption even has a train car filled with...water, which sprays the area near the tracks, so the sparks do not cause a brushfire.