Tie one on

Living atop train tracks is way more good than bad. Earlier this week we were treated see an amazing choreography of maintenance.

Last year sometime the RR dropped off bundles of glistening new ties at intervals along the track. Then last month somebody came along and marked some of the existing ties with spray paint.

To replace the bad ties takes about ten specialized machines and maybe 30 guys. First a spike puller, then a plate loosener, then a big machine to grab and lift the rail and slide the ties out to one side.

A little crane comes along and picks up the old ones, then another to place the new ones. Each vehicle is followed by a guy with a hammer or a crowbar to clean up.

New ties are slid into place, fastened a few different ways, soil is compacted. The first train rolled across just a couple hours later. The next day an alignment machine came along, they smoothed the gravel, and presto, it was like nothing ever happened.

I’m thinking about this whole process in the context of my own work, which seldom if ever seems so smooth as these guys did. Lots of people using specialized tools, all performing a very specific function in sequence. Presumably at a profit. There must be some lesson in that. Oh yeah, the industrial revolution.