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Grinding the gears

Talk about a tough job.

San Francisco Chronicle has a feature on the “grinders” in the Bay Area Rapid Transit. All night they grind the tracks to smooth them down and hopefully reduce the high-pitched screeching sound the trains make.

Each night, crews smooth about 1 mile of track, just a sliver of the 104-mile system. It sometimes can take a dozen or more passes along one small section to get the track "just right," said Dave Alves, who has worked the job for eight years.

[via Mass Transit]

Does the TA have people doing similar work?

-- Chuck Bennett amNY.com

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Comments (2)

Yes, NYCT has rail grinders. Here is a photo of one.

http://nycsubway.org/perl/show?7219

It rarely, if ever used.

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