 031035 Amtrak Carolinian passing track construction site near Durham, N.C. |
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Railroad construction continues to take place, though often out of sight from the general public. My stock photo coverage of railroad construction and maintenance ranges from modern main lines of major freight railroads to work on new rail transit systems, including urban light rail.
The images here a only a small sampling of a wide range of construction photos from many parts of the U.S. (and Europe). If you need images or activities or equipment not shown here, please contact me for information on what else may be available.
Click on any of the images for a larger version, usually with a more extended caption.
 031021 Ballast tamper at work |
 031019 Ballast regulator at work |
Tampers and ballast regulators are two of the most important machines for assuring correct track alignment. Information about the operation of these machines is provided in the captions of the larger versions of these images.
 031011 Bulldozer climbing over track |
 030202 Crossing rebuild |
Tracked and wheeled equipment also plays an important part in railroad construction and maintenance. When operated carefully, even bulldozers can climb over track without doing damage.
 031049 |
 031044 |
 030159 |
Though many aspects of track construction can be highly automated, laying of new track with machinery is normally only done for the largest projects. Here workers manually place and space ties for new mainline track at Funston, just west of Durham, N.C.
 030959 |
 030958 |
 030969 |
Manually built track still requires manual placement of spikes. These spikes will be driven into the ties by a mechanized spike driver.
 030974 Rail anchors |
 030978 Spikes |
 031004 Tie plates |
 040578 used rail sections |
Recovered rail from track construction project. These rails had been used on a section of main line track that has been rebuilt with newer and heavier rail. Though showing some wear, these rails still have a useful life on sidings and industrial spurs where trains travel only at low speeds or which are used primarily for storing railcars. |
 030871 Hi-rail dump truck with swivel bed |
 031081 Dumping ballast from ballast train |
 031001 Rail tongs |
 031054 Tie claw on backhoe |
For photos of the replacement of a century-old railroad bridge at Clayton, N.C., click here.
Additional track images are included on my Generic / technical railroad stock photos page.
For access to many additional categories of railroad images, please go to my Pictures by category page.
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PLEASE READ THIS: I am a photographer and writer specializing in transportation and travel subjects. I am not involved in the transportation business myself, nor do I deal in any types of transportation equipment or services. Therefore, I cannot tell you where to buy, lease, or sell transportation equipment or supplies, nor how to ship specific goods between specific points. The photos of transportation equipment and supplies on this site are provided solely as samples of the types of images available from me as journalist.