Westbahnstrasse Tram Track Rehabilitation Project: Track Welding

Summer 2009

Welding track makes the ride much smoother (no clickity-clak) and helps reduce wear on the wheels; reduced wear on the wheels means less track maintenance, it's one well-connected system. Here are photos of the track placement process.

Click on any photo to see a larger version from my flickr photos.

All photos are available on my flickr set Westbahnstr Tram Track Renewal

Beginning the welding process.

Lots of sparks.

Night welding. Aerial photo from a neighbor.

Preparing a joint.

The photos below show several steps in the process of filling a joint and then breaking away the excess steel.

Grinding the resulting rail. See the film below to view the whole process.

Here's a YouTube video showing the process of filling a joint, grinding the rail and a small bit of welding.

Here are the Wiener Linien welders working on another section of track. The section shown above was done by sub-contractors.

Photos of the Wiener Linien welding truck - rad! - are below.

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