Technology and IT

Poetry in motion: Track renewal video goes viral

Track replacement machine - Photo: Plasser & Theurer

WATCH: A two-minute video of an amazing Austrian-built railway renewal machine has sparked keen interest online in recent days.

Designed and built by Vienna-based engineering business Plasser & Theurer, the RU 800 S is a combination machine for continuous track renewal and ballast bed cleaning.

As shown in the footage, the RU 800 S moves along existing track, replacing sleepers and rail while washing and re-laying ballast. A vast array of individual machines doing relatively simple tasks, working in tandem; the machine is certainly an impressive one, even to the most knowledgeable rail expert.


Despite being posted just over a year ago, the video has had an explosion of views over the past few days, shared on a variety of social media and sharing sites. Since April 3, views have climbed from roughly 5,000 to more than 500,000.

The machine is marked with SWIETELSKY, an Austrian construction company with roughly 7400 employees.

The machine’s designer and constructor, Plasser & Theurer, explains its design:

Laying tracks using the continuous-action, assembly-line method has proven to be the most cost-efficient method of work. The entire supply of new sleepers and rails within the track being laid is by mechanised operation. Accuracy and high working speed are the outstanding features of this technique. The same applies for track renewal where firstly the old track is removed and then the new track is laid directly behind.

The higher output of this continuous working action is the greatest advantage compared to cyclic action using gantry units. Other advantages are the careful handling of the material, particularly the rails, and better preparation of the subsoil (sleeper bed).

As impressive as the Plasser & Theurer machine is, however, we prefer the Wallace and Gromit method of track laying: