Chapter 3

Component parts of a Railway Track Structure

After studying this lesson, you will be
able to:

 Understand the Component parts of

for railway Cross sections.

 Understand the functions of each

components of railway cross
sections.

 Basic Requirements for each

components.
• The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is
the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast (or
slab track), plus the underlying sub grade.

• For clarity it is often referred to as railway track or railroad track.

The purpose of track is to transfer train loads to the formation.

Requirements for Choosing a Track System:

Trains running on Track do not cause excessive environmental pollution in the form of
noise and ground vibration.
1. Costs of the total service life of the track must be as low as possible.
2. Maintenance should be low and as inexpensive as possible
The load transfer works on the principle of stress reduction - layer by
layer.
1. The greatest stress occurs between wheel
and rail and is in the order of 30 KN/cm2
(= 300 MPa).
2. Between rail and sleeper the stress is two
orders smaller and diminishes between
sleeper and ballast bed down to about 30
N/cm2.

3. Finally the stress on the formation is only

about 5 N/cm2.
Railway components
I. Running Rails
Rail is the most expensive material in the track. it is steel that has been
rolled into an inverted "T" shape.
The purpose of the rail is to:
• Transfer a train's weight to cross ties/ sleepers.
• Provide a smooth running surface.
• Guide wheel flanges.

Choice of Rail profile:

Depend on the traffic load as well as on expected lifetime.
For standard gauge track, it is customary to use UIC54 rail for low traffic load,
UIC60 rail for medium and heavy traffic loads UIC 71 profile was introduced.
Rail Profiles
Rail mechanical joints have been used in the railway industry to improve
the lateral and vertical alignment of the rails at their ends.

Mechanical Rail Joints

includes:
A. Fish Plate Joints
B. Insulated Rail Joints
C. Alumino Thermit Welding
D. Flash Butt Welding and etc
A. Fish Plate Joints
The normal rail joints consist of fishplates that are bolted at the rail ends
through a number of bolt holes (either two or three or more) that have
been drilled near the neutral axis in the rail web.
B. Insulated Rail Joints
1. Bonded insulated joints in rails separate electric circuits in tracks and
turnouts.
C. Alumino Thermit Welding

In this process, the highly exothermic reaction

between aluminium and iron oxides results in

the production of molten steel which is poured

into a mould around the gap to be welded.

D. Flash Butt Welding
Mobile Flash Butt Welding Group is dedicated to performing
high quality welds and to meet all the client needs.

In-Track Welding Equipment provides versatility and

reliability in any rail welding project.
• Rails are welded together to reclaim 18m of rail into
longer length strips.
• This can assist the track welding production with greater
productivity gains.
II. Sleepers
A railway sleeper is a rectangular object used as a base for
railroad tracks.
Ties/sleepers are members generally laid transverse to the
rails, on which the rails are supported and fixed, to transfer
the loads from rails to the ballast and sub grade, and to hold
the rails to the correct gauge.
Functions of Sleepers
Sleepers and bearers or timbers (for points and crossings) need to fulfils the
following basic functions:

1. Spread wheel loads to ballast

2. Hold rails to gauge and inclination

3. Transmit lateral and longitudinal forces

4. Insulate rails electrically

5. Provide a base for rail seats and fastenings

Types of Sleepers

I. Timber Sleepers

II. Steel Sleepers

Disadvantages:
III. Concert Sleepers  They are less durable as compared
to other types of Sleepers
I. Timber Sleepers
 Maintenance cost is best suited for
Advantages : track circuiting
- good resilience  These types of Sleepers are
- ease of handling subjected to wear, tear and decay.
- good electrical insulation
- easily adapted to non
standard situations
II. Concert Sleepers
is a rail road tie made out of steel reinforced concrète.
Advantages Concrete Sleepers
 Durable with life range from 40-50 years
 They can be produced on large quantities locally by installing a plant
 Heavier than all other types thus giving better lateral stability to the
track
 Good insulators and thus suitable for use in track circuited lines
They are not attacked by corrosion
 Free from attacks of vermin and decay, suitable for all types of soils
 Most suitable for welded tracks- Prevent buckling more efficiently
 Initial cost is high but proves to be economical in long run
 Effectively and strongly hold the track to gauge
 Inflammable and fire resistant
Difficult to be handled
 Difficult to be manufactured
in different sizes thus cannot
easily be used in bridges and
crossing
 Can be damaged easily
while loading and unloading.
The renewal of track laid
with these sleepers is difficult.
They are liable to crack due
to creep and shrinkage.
II. Steel Sleepers
Advantages:
- Easily manufactured, installed and maintained
- Keep track gauge adequately constant for a long time
- Relatively long lifetime, life expectancy 35 years
-After replacement, have a certain value as crap iron

Disadvantages:
- Low transverse resistance
- Their form makes longitudinal and transverse track
positioning difficult
- Noisy
- Special insulating device required for signaling
- Maintenance is difficult
- Sensitive to chemical attacks
Characteristics Wooden Sleeper Steel Sleepers Concrete Sleepers
Service life (years) 12- 15 40-50 50-60

No manual handling; gets damaged

Manual handling; no damage to Manual handling; no damage to by rough
Handling
sleeper while handling sleeper while handling
handling
Type of maintenance Manual or Mechanized Manual or Mechanized Mechanized only

Cost of maintenance High Medium Low

Gauge adjustment Difficult Easy Not required

Difficult; insulating
Track circuiting Best Easy
pads are necessary

Can be damaged by
No damage by white ants but No damage by white ants or
Damage by white ants and corrosion
corrosion is possible corrosion
white ants
Creep Excessive Less Minimum

Scrap value Low Higher than wooden None

III. BALLAST
It is a layer of broken stones, gravel or any other such as gritty material
laid and packed below and around sleepers.
Functions of ballast:
 To distribute the loads uniformly over the sub grade.
To provide good drainage for the track structure.
To provide elasticity and resilience to track for getting proper riding
comfort.
To held the track structure to line and grade.
To reduce dust.
To prevent growth of brush and weeds.
A good ballast should be strong, hard-wearing, stable, drainable,
easy to clean, workable, resistant to deformation, easily
available, and reasonably cheap to purchase.

Requirements of Good Ballast:

1.It should be tough and should not crumble under heavy loads.
2.It should not make the track dusty or muddy.
3.It should offer resistance to abrasion and weathering.
4.It should not produce any chemical reaction with rails and
sleepers.
5.The materials should be easily workable.
6.It should retain its position and should not be distributed.
It is required that good quality ballast, made of
well graded gravel, crushed gravel, limestone or
igneous rock was necessary if adequate
foundation and good drainage is to be achieved
for a reasonable period.

The required depth of good quality ballast

beneath sleepers varies depending upon the
maximum speed of trains, the maximum axle
loads carried and the gross annual tonnage
expected.
In general, the absolute minimum depth of ballast needed beneath
sleepers for even a lightly loaded railway should never be less than 150
mm and heavily loaded main lines can require as much as 280 mm.

To ensure both lateral and longitudinal stability of the track, it is essential that ballast
is taken up to the level of the top of the sleepers between the sleepers and given a good
‘shoulder’ at the sleeper ends.
Ballast Materials

Different types of materials used for ballast construction like limestone,

basalt, granite, slag and gravel.
An aggregate with the following property traditionally considered to be
best ballast material:
 Angular, crushed
 Hard stones and rock
 Uniformly graded
 Free of dust, dirt and resistant to cementing action
Good quality track ballast is made from crushed natural
rock with particles not larger than 50 mm or generally
smaller than 28 mm.
 Angular stones are preferable to naturally rounded stones, to achieve the
best interlock properties and resistance to longitudinal and lateral
movement under dynamic loading.
 If ballast particles are larger than the maximum size stated, there may only
be two or three stones between the underside of the sleeper and the sub
grade will be insufficient to properly distribute the load.
Too many small stones below 28 mm will however clog the ballast and
reduce, in the longer term, its drainage properties.

Samples of track ballast must be checked for grading by sieve analysis.

Not more than 3% by weight should be retained on the 50 mm square

mesh sieve and not more than 2% should pass through the 28 mm sieve.
Ballast Structures
Ballast structure may be divided in to four zones:
Crib – zones between the sleepers
Shoulder – the sloppy zone between the end of the sleeper
and down to the top of sub-ballast.
Top ballast – the top portion of the ballast structure which
is usually exposed to tamping.
Bottom ballast – the bottom and lower part of the
structure which supports the overall structure.
Track Ballast Mechanical Property
Evaluation
The aggregate’s internal friction helps to transmit the upcoming load to
the underlying layer and then to sub-grade and the particle needs to be
hard enough to resist crushing, degradation and wear.
The characteristics of the ballast particles can be measured by
the following tests:
 Los Angeles Abrasion
 Mill Abrasion
 Deval Abrasion
 Clay lumps and friable particles
 Crushing value
 Impact
 Los Ángeles Abrasión Test (LAA)
Measure toughness or tendency for coarse aggregate
breakage.

Where LAA500, M0, M500 are loss after abrasion test, original sample and sample
after abrasion test, respectively , retained on sieve No. 12 (1.7mm)
LAA ≤ 20 % (BS), the LAA ≤ 25% (ARTC).
Igneous rocks preferred to Sedimentary or Metamorphic rocks.
Deval Attrition Test (DA)

 Another ballast performance testing method (minimum durability

of the ballast)
 Can be conducted either in dry state or by adding equal amount of
clean water.

Where; Wi and Wr are the initial weight of the sample retained on

1.6 mm or 2.36 mm sieve size after test respectively, according to
French railways and British railways.
Mill Abrasion Test (MA)
 A wet abrasion test of ballast material with specified gradation mixed
with water
 Similar testing procedure with the Deval attrition test, except test
procedure and jar size
 Commonly used in North America to evaluate ballast
performance by measuring its durability.
 10,000 revolutions at a rate of about 33 rpm. The specimen mass is 3
kg of a specified gradation. The MA container is a porcelain jar 229 mm
in external diameter.
 The MA value is the amount of material finer than 0.075mm (#200)
sieve.
 Clay Lumps and Friable Particles
Measures the degree of particle breakage by finger after the sample has

been soaked in water for 24 ± 4 hours.

It is a routine examination of ballast materials given by ASTM C142.

 Crushing Test

A relative measure of resistance to crushing under a gradually

applied compressive load.
Aggregate Crushing Value = (W2/W1)*100
Where W1 = Total weight of dry sample
W2 = Weight of the portion of crushed material passing 2.36mm
sieve.
Impact Test

A relative measure of the resistance of an aggregate to a

sudden dynamic or impact loading, “sudden shock loading”
It can be tested in either dry or soaked condition in accordance with BS
812.
Aggregate Impact Value = (W2/W1)*100

Where W1 = Total weight of dry sample

W2 = Weight of the portion of crushed material passing 2.36mm
sieve.
AG Requirements for Ballast
 Track Ballast Failure Mechanism
I. Ballast Fouling
 presence of more fines in the ballast material.
Sources:
 External (“surface spillage”) fines – from freight transportation, coal
fouling and an upward migration of
fine particles from the sub-grade and fines produced from
tie wear (wood or concrete)
 Internal (“mineral fouling from crushed aggregate”)fines
generated due to traffic repetition and heavily loaded traffic frequency
 Detection can be by normal inspection using naked eye,
traditional drilling methods, or ground penetrating radars.
Mitigation strategies
Using hard and durable ballast material.
Proper gradation.
Avoid ground water table and surface infiltration
to avoid migration of fines from the subgrade.
Applying regular lubrication on the wheel-rail
contact.
II. Drainage Failure

The three main water sources in the substructure of railway are :

 Precipitation on the surface of the track

 Collected surface flow from the surrounding area

 Upward groundwater flow.

Mitigation - proper drainage system

II. Settlement
"best" aggregate gradation, a maximum density gradation provide good settlement resistance.
Measures:
 Using Uniform gradation.
Sub Ballast/Blanket
It is a layer of coarse, granular and hard material
placed between ballast and the sub-grade.
Advantage
Reducing stresses induced into sub-grade due to NO need of Sub ballast layer shall not be needed
wheel loads such as when formation/ earth fill Embankment
prevention of puncturing of ballast into sub- have:
grade soil or pumping (i) Rocky beds except those, which are very
of sub-grade fine into ballast (Mud Pumping), susceptible to weathering e.g. rocks consisting of
Improvement in damping of vibrations and shales and other soft rocks, which become muddy
drainage. after coming into contact with water.
(ii) Soils conforming to specifications of Blanket
layer
Sub Ballast/Blanket
It is a layer of coarse, granular and hard material placed between
ballast and the sub-grade.
Advantage
Reducing stresses induced into sub-grade due to wheel loads
prevention of puncturing of ballast into sub-grade soil or pumping
of sub-grade fine into ballast (Mud Pumping),
Improvement in damping of vibrations and drainage.
Subgrade Formation/Earthwork
Earthwork:
• The Naturally occurring soil is known as
subgrade and when it is prepared to receive the
ballast and track , it is called ‘Formation’.
• When a formation is raised on bank of earth , it
is called an embankment. When it is made after
cutting the ground , it is called ‘cutting’. In
case of cutting the track is laid below ground
level thus required portion to be excavated.
• Normally a railway line will be constructed on
a flat ground  or on embankment or cutting or
in a combined section.
Subgrade Formation/Earthwork
Depending upon availability of soils and economic considerations, it can be
Single layer or Two layer construction
Features considered in formation design
1. Width of formation : With normally depends on number of tracks , gauge of
tracks , center to center distance between the tracks , width of ballast layer ,
width of trenches if needed.
2. Slopes of sides: Stability of the earthwork depends mainly on two factors namely
‘cohesion’ and ‘friction’. For temporary stability , cohesion is useful and reliable
but permanent stability is achieved only by friction which keeps the natural angle
of repose of the material.
3. Drains: The accumulation of water reduces the friction in all sort of soils. In case
of embankments , the rain water is easily drained off but in cutting, drains to be
provided.
4. Stabilization of unsuitable soil if encountered.
END….…..QUESTION IF
ANY….???????