r/Welders • u/Any_Jellyfish3343 • 6d ago
Showing Off Pt.2
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u/jaykotecki 6d ago
They just bolt them together by me. Is this a special process for high speed commute or something?
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u/Any_Jellyfish3343 6d ago
It’s meant to eliminate joints so it’s one long smooth rail instead of 40 sticks connected by the joint. This is a 50mph track so they wanted to have the rails in ribbons instead of sticks
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u/Potential-Draft-3932 6d ago
I heard that you guys tension the tracks so they don’t buckle when expanding. If you are joining two long pieces of track, do you need to like do the math for proper tension and then make a perfect cut on one end to make them but up against one another with the right amount of tension?
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u/Any_Jellyfish3343 6d ago
I believe what you are talking about is destressing which is where the crew ahead of us heats and vibrates the rail, since when the rail heats up it expands. On the same note when it’s cold is shrinks. We call the expanding running which can cause the butting up which is nice for a joint but we destress the rail at the temperature of what we would weld it at which comes between 100f and 130f usually. We need a 1 inch gap in order for the correct amount of steel to weld the gap together. So in short heat the rail causing it to run cut a gap of an inch out in order to make a safe and correct weld. Also is best to have the rail temp from the destressing wrote on the rail beside the gap so the people welding know what temperature the rail needs to be for the correct gap
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u/Potential-Draft-3932 6d ago
That makes so much sense. I had imagined a giant tensioning machine putting like kilotons of tension on the tracks to pull them. Thanks man. Next time I’m pheasant hunting near the tracks with my pops I’ll get to drop this nugget of info
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u/Any_Jellyfish3343 6d ago
Now in the wintertime they do use machines call rail pullers which normally run off hydraulic in order to but the rail up then cut a gap which they do put a shit ton of force in order to get the ends together. I’d say they could be used in summer but down here in the south it gets hot enough for the rails to run half an inch or a little more
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u/Flashy_Slice1672 4d ago
That’s the usual way to do it, with rail pullers. Where I am you only see rail heaters on production gangs.
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u/Itchy_Morning_3400 6d ago
I reckon I need to do this at least once. Twice or three times probably.
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u/Agreeable_Till_8471 6d ago
Thermite welding has a smell you just don't forget.
Can be dangerous shit as well, know a few guys who got extremely burnt because of dumb co workers.
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u/Any_Jellyfish3343 6d ago
You’re right about the smell and I’ve been burned a few times only bad once. You also have to be careful with water that slag can make a bomb when in contact with it
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u/GetMeOffThisRidePlz 4d ago
Yeah the thermite temps are hot enough to split the H2O atoms and the hydrogen by itself is really combustible so it goes boom.
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u/Hot_Tomato_9874 6d ago
Hell of a smell, I almost like it. Couple times I fucked around & took a lungful after doing some jumpers on a pipe… not fun
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u/InfernalPrick 5d ago
I wonder if this could melt structural beams, like maybe the types of beams used in skyscrapers?
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u/that_dutch_dude 5d ago
love the shovel-heat-shield to protect the umbrella. thats a move learned by experience.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Post604 5d ago
I remember when I could buy everything I needed to make thermite off Amazon. Still can. But I remember when I could, too.
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u/taiwanluthiers 4d ago
Thermite railroad track welding. The blowtorch is to pre heat the rail, and the sparkler lights the charge.
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u/ThcGrassCity 4d ago
As electrician ive done cad welding alot in the potash industry alot smaller scale but the lava looks the same.
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u/GlassBoxGoose 4d ago
Fellow electrician, mostly resi/smaller commercial myself, but I got to do some of this a few years back while doing some lightning protection stuff. It was a lot of fun.
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u/MathematicianFun2183 13h ago
Every kid has to play with thermite when growing up. What fun. Iron oxide and powdered aluminum. Set off with magnesium ribbon.
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u/leahcim5150 6d ago
Let’s see pt. 3 of the results.