CE 310 Transportation Engineering I

Spring Semester 2009-2010

Railway Engineering
Instructor: Gopal R. Patil
March 10, 2010

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Railway Track Components
Rails
Sleepers
Ballast
Subgrade and formation
Track fittings and fastening

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Railway Track Components

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Rails
Rails are made of high-carbon steel
Functions of Rails
Provide a hard and smooth pathway with very little
friction
Bears the stresses developed due to heavy vertical load
and lateral and breaking force
Transmits the load to a large area of the formation
through the sleepers and the ballast

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Types of Rails
Double headed (DH)
I shaped, identical head and base with
an idea that when the head wore out,
rail can be reused by inverting.
However, it was found that with the
passage of time the base dented,
becoming unsuitable to be used as
head
Not used currently

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Types of Rails
Bull headed (BH)
Developed after realizing problem in
inverting and reusing the double headed
rails
More metal in the head to withstand wear
and tear
Fixing to sleeper was not easy
Not used currently

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Types of Rails
Flat-footed (FF)
Inverted T-shape
Easy to fix to sleepers
More economical design giving greater
strength and lateral stability compared DH
and BH rails
Used on Indian railways

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 Rail length

Longer rails results in less number of joints and lesser

cost of construction and maintenance
Length is restricted due to
Difficulty in transporting longer rails
Difficulty in manufacturing longer rails
Difficulty with the bigger expansion joins for longer rails
Heavy internal thermal stresses
Indian railways use 13 m rail for BG and 12 m for MG
and NG
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Sleepers
Transverse ties that support rails
Functions
Hold rails to proper gauge and alignment
hold the rails to provide desired gradient and super
elevation
Transfer the load from rails to the wider area of ballast
Adds to the stability of the tack

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Sleeper types
Wooden sleepers
Metal sleepers
Cast iron sleepers
Steel sleepers
Concrete sleepers
Reinforced concrete sleepers
Pre-stressed concrete sleepers

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 Wooden
sleepers
Used to be cheap and abundantly available, but not
anymore
Good in absorbing shocks and vibrations (+)
Easy to handle, and easy to fit to rails (+)
Suitable at track-circuited places (+)
Lesser life due to wear, decay, and attack by white ants
(-- )
Maintenance of tack becomes difficult (--)
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Metal Sleepers (steel and CI)
Compared to wooden sleepers, longer life and easier
maintenance (+)
Good scrap value (+)
Likely to corrode (--)
Not suitable at track-circuited area (--)

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Steel Trough Sleeper

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CI plot sleepers

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Plate sleepers: CST-9 through CST-13 sleepers

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Concrete sleepers
Provide more strength and stability to the track (+)
Can be used in track-circuited areas (+)
Longer life; not susceptible to corrosion or decay (+)
Handling and laying is difficult because of the heavy
weight of sleepers; needs to adopt mechanical
methods, which are usually costly (--)
No scrap value (--)
Heavily damaged at the time of derailment (--)

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Concrete
sleepers

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18
Concrete sleepers

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Two block
concrete
sleepers

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Sleepers comparison

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Ballast
Layer of broken stones, gravel, or any other granular
material place and packed below and around sleepers
for distributing load from the sleepers to the formation
Functions
Provides hard and level surface for sleepers
Holds the sleepers in position and provides stability to
sleepers
Transfers and distributes load from the sleepers to a larger
area of the formation
Provides effective drainage

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Types of ballast
Sand ballast
Moorum ballast
Coal ash
Broken stone
Other types: brickbats, gravel, kankar stone
A minimum cushion of 15 to 20 cm of ballast below
the sleeper bed is normally recommended on Indian
Railways

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Ballast types comparison

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Ballast types comparison

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Subgrade and formation
Subgrade: Naturally occurring soil which is prepared
to receive the ballast
Formation: Prepared flat surface over which ballast
layer is formed
The formation can be in the shape of embankment or
in cutting
Functions of formation
To provide smooth and uniform bed for laying track
To bear the load and transfer it to ground
To provide stability to track

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Track fittings
and fastening

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Types of track fittings

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Elastic Fastening
The traditional fastening are rigid
Rigid fastening becomes loose because of the
repetitive impacts of high vibrations
Elastic fastening dampens vibrations and can
withstand large repetitive forces

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Types of elastic fastenings
Pandrol clip: widely used on Indian railways
Very little maintenance (‘fit and forget’ type)
Heat treated, 20.6 mm dia, exerts a toe load of 710
No special equipment required at the time of fastening;
an ordinary hammer serve the purpose
Can be fixed on wooden, steel, cast iron, and concrete
sleepers
Adjustment of the gauge become impossible
It can easily be taken out by a simple hammer thus not
enough safegaurd against sabotage

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Pandrol clip

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Pandrol clip

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Other elastic
fastenings

Designed for wooden

sleepers
Designed for two-block
RCC sleepers
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Welding

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