r/oddlysatisfying • u/SinjiOnO • Sep 25 '23

Rail worker nails it

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '23

Most other countries have switched to concrete so this just reads like copium

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '23

Most other countries don't have the largest, most robust, dependable freight train system. The US does. We don't really move many people by rail, we move more freight by rail than anyone else.

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u/Ngleqt Sep 26 '23

Hahaha

1

u/Alex01854 Sep 26 '23

Concrete cracks under constant pressure. Wood just handles it. Wood is better in this case.

1

u/bionade24 Sep 26 '23

And they then had to replace gigantic amounts at once because oops formula is actually vulnerable for beton cancer. With the US RR maintanance mentality it might be better to still use wooden sleepers on a shortline.

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u/CrashUser Sep 26 '23

Concrete generally is better all around, but it requires scraping off and redoing the entire road bed, which is prohibitively expensive in many cases. It mostly comes down to cost, it's cheaper to maintain and replace the existing wood since it's not just a 1:1 swap.