Vehicle Dynamics

Railway Introduction

Inspection and Maintenance of Rail

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Contents

1. Track Support
2. Special Vehicles
3. Rail Damage
4. Track Inspection Vehicles
5. Monitoring of Vehicles
6. Precision Equipment
7. Track Categories
8. Inspection Intervals

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Track Support
Ballast fouling and buckling rail

Concrete foundations are stiff, result in high forces at fastenings,

and are difficult to repair if broken.

Ballast is flexible, and easy to maintain and repair.

It should be clean of mud, plants, etc., so that water
can drain out.
There is usually a protective layer between the ballast
and the soil beneath, so if mud appears on the track By Jailbird - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 de,
between the sleepers there is a serious problem. [Link]

This is called ‘mud pumping’ or ‘ballast fouling’.

Images: Ir. R.A. van den Bosch, ‘Non-destructive … track maintenance,’ Rail Engineering International, 2007

Poor quality ballast increases the chance of the track buckling,

especially in warm weather, and there is danger of derailment.

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Special Vehicles
Ballast fouling and buckling rail

Mechanised Maintenance Train (MDZ) – ballast maintenance

• Tamping - lifts the sleepers and ‘fluffs’ up the ballast
• Ballast distribution and profiling - several standards apply to ballast quality and geometry
• Dynamic stabilisation - ensure the ballast is sufficiently compact and stable

Inspection Train for Track Geometry: EM-SAT

• It is important that the track follows the expected path as closely as possible.

Images: Ing. Rainer Wenty, ‘Plasser & Theurer machines …,’ Rail Engineering International, 2007

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Rail Damage
Cracks and Corrugation

Gauge corner cracking, or ‘head checks’

Cracks at the curved corner of the rail, often found in moderate curves
from high contact forces.

Sometimes only 1-2mm deep; sometimes propagating slowly deeper until accelerated by
rail bending, leading to fast fracture and rail break.
Star cracks forming at a hole in
the rail web. Often seen at bolt holes
For fishplates (rail joints).
Short-pitch corrugation
Corrugation can be quite shallow,
but still creates loud noise (very
distressing to nearby residents)
and high forces. The white dust
forming by the sleeper is from
damage to the ballast.
Images: UIC Leaflet 712 ‘Rail Defects’

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Track Inspection Vehicles
Thousands of miles to walk…

A wide variety of technologies in use, e.g.:

• Laser scanners to measure rail profile
• High-speed cameras to detect broken clips
• Accelerometers to detect track irregularities
• Ultrasonic scanning to detect cracks
• Electromagnetic scanning to detect cracks.
NR’s new measurement train
(Source: Network Rail)

With thousands of miles to check regularly, having dedicated inspection vehicles is very useful,
especially if (like the NRM above) they are able to operate at line speed.

Images: MER MEC Presentation: Rail profile measurement

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Precision Equipment
Thousands of wheels to check…

In general, vehicles are monitored from installations

by the track (‘wayside’)
• Hot axle boxes (bearing failure) and hot wheels
• Wheel flats or out-of-round wheels (high impact forces)
• Other wheel parameters (diameter, profile) and defects
(fatigue damage)
• Overloading or unbalanced loading
Both track and vehicles need to be monitored and maintained.
A poor quality vehicle can damage the track. A poor quality track can derail the vehicle.

A vehicle can only monitor one vehicle – itself. A trackside station can monitor all
passing vehicles.

Sometimes it is necessary to monitor a

specific vehicle, e.g., accelerometers mounted
on the bogie can be used to assess ride quality.

Images: MER MEC Presentation

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Precision Equipment
Taking a close look…
Sometimes a proper study is needed, and
you can’t just look from a moving train,
e.g.:
• Inspection of welded joints
• Precise measurement of wheel and rail profiles

Ultrasonic inspection of welded joints

(EU FP7 Project RailECT)

Cracks in rails are a major problem from the point of view of inspection. What you see
on the surface of the rail doesn’t tell you for sure what is happening inside the rail…

Ultrasonic and electromagnetic scans do not give a reliable picture of the inside of the
rail – for that you need X-rays, which means cutting up the rail and taking it to a laboratory.
Which is what we’re trying to avoid doing!

Images: Greenwood Engineering: MiniProf

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Track Categories

Train speeds, axle loads, vehicle types and the total amount of traffic, all have an
impact on the state of the track, which gets categorized accordingly.

Track categories as specified by Network Rail. (UIC has a more-or-less equivalent

system of track categorization in UIC Leaflet 714 R.) Main Line & Heavy Haul

Sidings & Depots

Source: Network Rail, Company standard NR/L2/TRK/001/A01 (5/12/2009)

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Inspection Intervals

Track needs to be inspected at regular intervals, and more often for the more heavily
used lines. There is a hierarchy of responsibility.

Inspection vehicles are useful, but you still need people on the ground.

Source: Network Rail, Company standard NR/L2/TRK/001/A01 (5/12/2009)

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Conclusions

• There is a wide range of different maintenance activities, targeting different aspects of

the track system.

• There is a wide range of technologies that can be employed for inspecting track and vehicles.

• There are thousands of kilometres of track, and thousands of vehicles, and regular inspection
and maintenance is essential to prevent unnecessary damage of accidents.

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