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G'day Harry,
Yes, modern day track laying is far removed from the good ole days of swinging hammers and crowbars.
Continuous weld rail does provide for some benefits.
However, concrete sleepers (ties) do not sustain derailments as did the old wood sleepers.
After any derailment resulting in the concrete sleepers being cracked, and potentially going out of gauge, they must be replaced.
Twice that happened here in my region of NSW.
The double track section between Wallerawang and Tarana was converted to single in 1991 to save maintenance costs.
Not long after accomplishing that, by using similar equipment seen in your video clip, a derailment occurred.
To hide the problem, ballast was hurled over the cracked sleepers.
But, eventually them sleepers had to be replaced as they began to go out of gauge.
And, down at the start of the Sydney Metrop inner region on the Main West at Emu Plains, a freighter derailed on newbie concrete sleepers.
I laughed every time that I rattled past on the quickly replaced track at the piles of concrete sleepers piled up.
Thousands of them cracked sleepers remaining along the boundary fence for some time.
So, while wood has become uneconomic, it did at least resist derailments more than does concrete.
And, the foray into steel sleepers here in regional areas also posed some dramas with derailments.
The steel sleepers bending and needing replacement.
Also, steel sleepers tend to heat up the rails more and present potential buckled track in heat.
Steve.
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