Most of the rail sections will be very long (couple hundred metres each), but where they are joined they will be welded and ground so the seam is not visible or felt.
It kind of makes sense from a construction standpoint to only move around small sections that are just wider than the roadway for these intersections.
These rails will be permanent with a weld seam just beyond the roadway on either side. Right now they are semi-temporarily bolted to the existing CN track. I noticed the rail profile isn't the same (obviously things have changed over time) and there's a special fish plate that bolts the two different rail profiles together - sort of like this.
I was surprised to see how the concrete slabs are placed for the road surface - I guess I had always (incorrectly) assumed that road crossings were just giant concrete blocks with two grooves in them for the rails. I didn't realize there were actually ties under there (wider ones, though) and the concrete slabs just sat on top of them - on top of ballast!
It kind of makes sense from a construction standpoint to only move around small sections that are just wider than the roadway for these intersections.
These rails will be permanent with a weld seam just beyond the roadway on either side. Right now they are semi-temporarily bolted to the existing CN track. I noticed the rail profile isn't the same (obviously things have changed over time) and there's a special fish plate that bolts the two different rail profiles together - sort of like this.
I was surprised to see how the concrete slabs are placed for the road surface - I guess I had always (incorrectly) assumed that road crossings were just giant concrete blocks with two grooves in them for the rails. I didn't realize there were actually ties under there (wider ones, though) and the concrete slabs just sat on top of them - on top of ballast!