The Role of Rail Track Maintenance in a Safer Rail Network

The rail network is a core concept of transportation over land. Cost efficiency, high capacity, reliability, sustainability, and safety are just a few advantages of railway transportation. Their unique features also make them the best option for mining and ore transportation. This is why about 9% of total freight transportation in the world is performed by rail networks. However, an insignificant issue in the railway infrastructure can easily disrupt their function, reduce their safety, and even incur intensive costs.

Therefore, we come to the importance of rail track maintenance and the role it plays in this industry. Whether the rail tracks are defective or not, maintenance is required in order to ensure their safety, reliability, and efficiency. In this blog post, we discuss rail track maintenance and its various types in more detail.

Understanding Rail Track Maintenance

Affected by mechanical, environmental, and operational factors, rail tracks are defective over time. The high speed, vibrations, and heavy loads of rolling stocks can gradually distort or erode different components of tracks, such as gauges, the surface level of rails, and sleepers. On the other hand, they can deteriorate due to weathering factors like rain, icing, sun, etc. These defects, even the smallest ones, yield significant issues in rail networks that disrupt their operations, reliability, and safety.

Rail track maintenance is a set of activities that prevent these issues from occurring. Accordingly, the lifespan of rail tracks is extended, and railway operations and transportation have become safer and more enhanced. Moreover, repairing rail track defects and issues involves extensive cost, and railway track maintenance can significantly reduce it. But there is a question: what activities are included in rail track maintenance?

Railway Track Maintenance Activities

These activities are typically provided based on the type of rail track maintenance. However, here are the most common activities carried out with the aim of extending the lifespan of tracks and minimizing the repairment costs:

Inspection and Monitoring

There are various factors that can impact the rail tracks when rolling stocks are transported on them. Among these factors, axle load and speed are the primary ones that deteriorate the rail tracks or distort their alignments over time. Therefore, regular inspection and monitoring are necessary to ensure their safety and performance and prevent large damages.

Rail Grinding

Rail tracks gradually erode and develop corrosion, deformation, corrugations, spalling, and other defects on their surfaces. Grinding machines can be efficiently and effectively used in railway track maintenance to remove these defects and reprofile the rail tracks.

Ballast Regulating and Tamping

Ballast is a main component in railway infrastructure, used to provide stability, drainage, and vibration reduction. Ballast regulation and tamping are necessary for distributing and shaping ballast around rail tracks, which can significantly help restore their alignment and longevity. Some of the ballast regulator machines are also equipped with brooms that remove the dust and sand from the rail track surfaces.

Replacement

In some cases, defects in railway components cannot be removed, and they should be replaced to enhance their performance and efficiency. Therefore, different components of rail infrastructure, like rail tracks or sleepers, are replaced and renewed in the railway track maintenance process.

Types of Rail Track Maintenance

Railway track maintenance is provided in various types that specify the required maintenance activities. Here, we specifically proceed with the different types of rail track maintenance in the following:

Routine Maintenance

Rail tracks are required to be maintained routinely to ensure their performance and safety. Some slight defects are detected during this routine maintenance and removed by routine tasks, including visual inspection, checking and refilling lubricants, clearing vegetation, and refining small defects.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is one of the most common types of rail track maintenance. It typically refers to the periodical activities and inspections that address small defects, such as misalignments, cracks, ballast irregularities, etc. As its name suggests, preventive maintenance aims to prevent major damage from occurring and extensive repair costs.

Predictive Maintenance

A more detailed and specific type of rail track maintenance aims to predict the possible defects and failures that might occur in the future. Using sophisticated technological equipment, rail track components that are more susceptible to deterioration are detected. By doing so, the required maintenance activities are performed on them to ensure that these components operate safely and efficiently.

Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance, also known as reactive maintenance, includes both maintenance and repair activities. It refers to addressing issues or failures that have occurred on rail tracks and repairing them to ensure that they are ready to operate safely. Accordingly, it could be costlier rather than the other types of railway track maintenance.

Emergency Maintenance

Emergency maintenance refers to urgent activities performed in response to a failure after it occurs. In other words, emergency maintenance can be considered repair, aiming to proceed with rail track defects immediately. By providing necessary activities at times, emergency maintenance plays a critical role in bringing rail tracks back to safety operation.

The Importance of Railway Track Maintenance

Due to the importance of safety in railway networks, rail track maintenance is a crucial process in this industry. The unpredicted failures not only harm the rail track infrastructure but also can threaten the crew and workers. Railway track maintenance significantly ensures the safety of operation. Moreover, detecting small defects initially prevents them from deteriorating, which can both extend the life of rail tracks and reduce the enormous cost of repair.

How Is Rail Track Maintenance Performed?

Based on the variety of railway track maintenance types and activities, a wide range of equipment is designed, each used for a specific purpose. They are provided in different categories due to their applications and the way they operate. Here are the primary types of rail maintenance tools and equipment:

Rail Maintenance Tools

To perform railway track maintenance activities, it is crucial to inspect them and identify their infrastructural flaws and defects. With the development of technology, sophisticated rail maintenance tools are designed to inspect the railway tracks with minimum destruction. The most common rail maintenance tools are as follows:

Ultrasonic Testing Machines

Ultrasonic testing is a non-destructive testing method for inspecting rail tracks, detecting flaws, fatigue, cracks, and any other failures that cannot be identified by the naked eye. Ultrasonic testing machines send high-frequency sound waves into the different rail track components to detect defects that can cause extensive damage if they are not addressed.

Rail Profiling Systems

Rail profiles can significantly impact their operations and safety. Rail profiling systems are sophisticated tools that measure rail wear, detecting any defects that can appear over time. These efficient tools can be provided in various types, using lasers or sensors to ensure the rail tracks are safe as well.

Track Geometry Measurement System

Railway alignment can be disrupted over time, and due to its importance in operation and safety, it is required to be inspected regularly. Track geometry measurement systems estimate features such as track gauge, cross-level, curvature, etc. By doing so, the misalignments can be detected and rectified, preventing hazardous situations from occurring.

Track Maintenance Equipment

After inspecting rail tracks and detecting their defects and flaws, the next step is removing them. By addressing the identified issues specifically, the rail track’s life is extended, its safety is ensured, and it can operate smoothly and more efficiently. Here is the most common track maintenance equipment:

Rail Grinding Machines

The corrosion, deformation, corrugation, and spalling that develop over time on the rail surface can deteriorate both tracks and rolling stock operations. Rail grinding machines, also known as track grinders, utilize mechanisms to proceed with these defects, avoiding huge damage in the future.

Ballast Regulator

Ballast regulator refers to railway vehicles or machines that distribute and shape the ballast around the rail tracks. Since this process may develop dust on the rail surfaces, ballast regulators are often equipped with brooms to remove them.

Track Tampers

After ballast regulation and track alignment, tracks must be tamped. Track tampers are efficiently used to ensure that the tracks are properly stable and supported, enhancing their operation and safety as much as possible.

Sleeper Gantry

A sleeper gantry is a machine used to lay or replace the sleepers. These machines are typically designed to lift, transport, and lay the sleepers made of different materials in rail track maintenance and even infrastructure processes.

Rail Replacement Machines

In some cases, rail tracks can be eroded or deteriorated due to various factors, and they are required to be replaced with new ones to prevent unsafe conditions and damage. Rail replacement machines are manufactured to replace heavy rail tracks, ensuring their reliability and operation.

ADOR’s Track Maintenance Equipment and Tools

Regarding the role of technical tools and equipment in performing railway track maintenance activities, it is important to use reliable and high-performance ones to ensure their operation. ADOR provides cutting-edge rail maintenance tools and equipment that can efficiently inspect the rail tracks, detect their defects, and proceed with them to enhance the safety of the railway network. We offer a wide range of track maintenance equipment and tools designed to deploy any activities required in this process as well.

Conclusion

The railway is the primary network, especially for mining and ore transportation. Due to the defects derived from various factors, rail tracks can be eroded and deteriorated over time. Since the repair cost is significantly intensive, it is required to inspect and detect the rail track flaws initially to prevent unpredictive and hazardous failures, which is referred to as rail track maintenance.

By understanding the importance of railway track maintenance, its different types, its activities, and the equipment used in this process, you can not only ensure the safety of the railway network and crews but also enhance the rail track’s operation as well.