The LNER Encyclopedia

Have a look at this cabride clip from Melbourne (it's 5' 3" gauge):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEountMxl2A

Two things struck me about this clip. First, the track seems to have been laid almost according to the contours of the land, with very little in the way of earthworks. Second, the track itself is highly irregular. I'd hazard a guess and say the train doesn't get above 25 mph the whole trip

Perhaps British railways aren't so bad after all!

Yeah it always made me wonder how trains ran safely over American railroads during the earlier years when on some western films (movies) you would see a railroad gang just drop sleepers on the ground (no ballasting?) then drop the rails onto the sleepers and then hammer spikes into the sleepers to hold the rails in place then run a train over them?. Was that how it was really done?. I presume prior to laying the track some surveying work was carried out of the route intended to be taken but not much in the way of earth works appeared to have taken place before the sleepers were dropped on the ground and the rails fastened down on them?.

Movies != the real world!

If you read about the trans-continental railroad (Union Pacific), then the main route definitely was surveyed and leveled even on the flatter eastern side.
Similarly I've driven along the Wichita Falls - Fort Worth section of the Fort Worth & Denver (this section built in the early 1880s), and this was definitely levelled more than the modern highway with lots of cuttings and embankments. I'm not aware of any re-alignment or major re-laying during the last century.

No doubt someone did try without ballast, like there were multiple attempts to use wood rails! Stourbridge Lion 'failed' because they ran it on wood rails - John Bull ran on iron.

Even more recently (1880s or 1890s iirc), the railroad between Palestine & Rusk here in Texas was laid with wood. Didn't work. This had a very patchy history, it also served as a prison railroad, and carried timber and iron ore. My guess is the temporary timber railroads could get away with wood rails and no ballast - but they often ran with things like Shays (slow speed, very low gearing, bogies).