April Rail fools

This month has seen me take on a new railway challenge with Sensonic , (They do cool stuff with vibration sensing via fibre optics, data processing and AI). So I've been learning lots of new stuff and meeting lots of new fab folks. I'll try and share some of the interesting stuff I've been learning about their tech in future editions and #rail101 articles. Speaking of railway learning - lets put the little bit of rail education first in this issue by asking...

#Rail101 - What is ballast

There is more than you think to those simple stones under the track. This little 6min video is worth a look if you thought they were just rocks. (The angry looking ballast at 2:20 made me laugh).

Of course there may be some readers who will want me point out the benefits of alternative track forms - Slab track makers, I'm looking at you!

In the interest of fairness, I have to agree there certainly are merits to ballast-less track in some situations/uses. And when I say ballast-less let's be honest, we are typically talking concrete instead. The advantages of slab track are usually lower maintenance and longer life, vs the disadvantage of increased initial costs. It is the old CapEx vs OpEx debate that will likely rage on forever.

And now back to the usual recent railway mayhem that you love to hate.

Railway news to make you cringe

I'm not sure quite why this guy decided that red lights on the crossing didn't apply to him, but very luckily we didn't see his red in the video.

In this clip we get double jeopardy with this (perhaps) unsavoury pair narrowly escaping being turned into strawberry jam weaving around barriers and ignoring crossing lights. As a somewhat lapsed biker myself I just don't get how you'd ever come to make that decision.

Railway news to make you smile

Whilst I don't expect everyone to know exactly how railways work - I really do worry about some peoples lack of basic understanding this "news" report really takes the biscuit.

Last but not least I try to remind people why they love (or should love) the railway. Usually I pick something scenic - but today something a bit more upbeat and fun. Hopefully it's obvious that this was done in a controlled environment - don't try this at home etc. (Actually if you do try this at home send me the video!)

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