Railroad tracks are straight and solid, right? Not all of them. Check out the unbelievable state of the tracks in the former Wabash Railroad's 5th District, possibly the worst railroad in the US. A train painstakingly crawls over the broken and bent tracks in this great footage captured by Scott Taipale. The railroad stretches between Woodburn, Indiana and Liberty Center, Ohio in the United States. Apparently, maintenance has been done on large sections of the track recently but pockets in this condition still exist.

Much of the rail line is built on swampy land which contributes to the disrepair of the track. When Pioneer Railcorp purchased the line in 2012 they stated the track was "in dire need of rehabilitation" after having had no maintenance on it for the previous 50 years.

Due to the intense loads being forced down on rail tracks, they require intensive maintenance to retain track efficiency. Maintenance can include replacing loose gravel, drainage of collected water and the regular cleaning of the gauge. Regular maintenance ensures trains can continue to meet their top speeds and meet scheduling requirements. High-speed train lines in Japan have nightly monitoring and maintenance to ensure their perfect records.

Scott runs a classic trainspotting channel with great footage of trains from lots of different classes. He specializes in creating videos of short line railroads and class 1's in NW Ohio.

To make this featured video Taipale condensed footage of the PREX 1603 and PREX 3054 trains slowly navigating the almost destroyed tracks.

Via Scott Taipale