John Henry laid off...permanantly.

[trof]

Plus a million Chinese coolies.
Ain't no more steel drivin' men.

Now it's automated.

http://www.wimp.com/traintrack/

[kentauros]

1. I think I've seen that before,

but it appears to still need human operators. And I wish they'd go to concrete ties everywhere, especially road crossings! There's a spur nearby here that's got deteriorating wooden ties for the road crossing, but Union Pacific hasn't done shit about it in years. I guess when one of their service trucks breaks an axle they will then do something about it.

[kentauros]

2. Just watched it a little more closely.

The person that titled that didn't notice the part where the machine was removing the old ties (they looked like concrete ones, too) and replacing them. So, it isn't a machine to make a new railroad, but to repair one. Making a new route for rail requires all the same kind of preparation of the bed as you'd get in a road, minus the laying of rebar and subsequent pouring of concrete.

Now, it could be that a temporary set of ties and rails were laid for this machine, but the video doesn't make that apparent. That would likely require more hands-on human work. So, that part isn't yet dead :)

[Mopar151]

3. John Henry was drilling rock

Holes for blasting. John Henry's aims may have been noble, but he was a fool.