Fascinating! I have always wanted to see this kind of work done in the NYC subway system. It seems that it would be almost impossible to accomplish something like this in such a confined space, and do it quickly. Thank you for getting this photo.
Gregory
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I've spent countless hours in the Tubes in London and was lucky enough to see them do rail work. It wasn't a stitch but a stretch of defective track and ties. They have large cranes with long booms and large counterweights on the back. They cut the track away, and loosen the bolts and spikes. Then they lift it, a trailer is put under the stretch, and then the defective stretch of tracks and ties is lowered onto the trailer. It's then pulled away and they do the reverse with the new stretch.
The new stretch of trackage is normally completely built off site so they just need to drive in the spikes or bolts in. It doesn't take nearly as long as normal MOW work since the trackage is done. I've seen the same thing done where I live when the replaced a bridge in the town I live in. The stretch of track is complete and just needs ballast added.
The tracks here are fairly busy so they didn't want to spend all day here with trains going very slowly through town while work was done. By having the tracks done, when an Amtrak and freight came, so they just put the new stretch of track down, and left the track completely. The Amtrak, while not going full speed, was still traveling at a pretty good pace considering that work was being done. Same for the freight.
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