Project on

Review of
Various types of SEJs under trial on
Indian Railways

submitted
by
B.L.Meena,Dy.CE/SOR & IT,SECR
&
M.V.Chalapathi Rao,XEN/CN/SWR

Review of various types of SEJs

under trial on Indian Railways
INTRODUCTIONThe IRS design of Switch Expansion Joints have been in
service on Indian Railways since 1960s. However, there
have been several cases of fractures reported on the
stock/tongue rails of the standard SEJs since 1990. Such
sudden and unpredictable fractures in running tracks
obviously pose a safety hazard. A study of the reasons for
such failures and the possible remedial solutions is
considered necessary

At the time of initial introduction of IRS design of SEJs during

1960s, the rails used were Medium Manganese type having
ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 72 Kg/mm and percent
elongation of 14% (min). Due to significant increase in rail life
with the use of higher UTS rails, Indian Railways have been
using rails with UTS of 90 Kg/mm since late 1980s.The
percent elongation of these new rails is only 10% (min).
Further, the high UTS rails are highly sensitive to bends, nick

marks etc., which are normally caused at the time of

handling/ machining of SEJs. Consequently there have been
several fractures of stock / tongue rails of IRS design of
SEJs manufactured from high UTS rails as compared to
almost nil fracture earlier.

Switch Expansion Joint :

Switch Expansion joints are provided on either end of Long
Welded Rails to allow expansion and contraction due to
thermal stresses developed in it.

Improvements in design :
1.

To avoid two bends involved in the design of the stock rail

and tongue rail in conventional type of SEJ.

2.

To avoid fractures in the bent portion of stock rail and tongue

rail in conventional type of SEJ.

3.

To meet other requirements like wide gap at bridge

approaches.

4.

Suitability in curves sharper than 0.5 and up to 4.

5.

Suitability for higher axle loads

for iron ore route

for heavy mineral route

8.

Suitability for high speed routes.

SEJs under trial :

1.

SEJ with 80mm gap on concrete sleepers

for 52kg( Drg. No. RDSO/T-4160 )
for 60kg ( Drg.No. RDSO/T-4165 )

2.

SEJ with 60kg UIC on curve with curvature from 0.5 to 1.5
(Drg.No. RDSO/T-5748)

3.

SEJ with 190mm gap for bridge approaches.

for 52kg ( Drg. No. RDSO/T-6039 )
for 60kg ( Drg. No. RDSO/T-6263 )

4.

SEJ for 80mm gap with CR-120 crane rails (Drg.No.

RDSO/T-6257)

5.

SEJ with one gap

developed by M/s Rahee Industries Ltd, Calcutta.

6.

SEJ with two gaps

developed by M/s Bina Metalway, Jamshedpur. &
M/s Chintuparni Engg. Works, Barabanki.

Review of SEJ with 80 mm gap :

RDSO/T-4160 and RDSO/T-4165 are the conventional
straight SEJs with 80 mm gap. Each SEJ has a pair of
tongue rails stock rails, with 6 special sleepers to RDSO

drawing No.RDSO/T-4149.All these are 300 mm wide

sleepers with sleeper Nos 10 and 11 with special fastenings
and sleeper No. 8,9,12 and 13 with similar fittings. The
center line of sleeper No. 10 coincide with the tip of the
tongue rail and the 40 mm initial gap is provided with tip of
the tongue rail coinciding with the center of the sleeper
No.10. The center to center spacing of sleeper No. 10 and
11 is 700 mm while the sleepers spacing from 1 to 10 and 11
to 20 may be 600 mm or 650 mm depending upon the
sleeper density.Fig.No.1 gives details of a typical SEJ layout
and Fig.No.1(a) gives the details of location A.

SEJ on curves with curvature from 0.5 to 1.5 :

These SEJ layouts can be used when the SEJ has to be laid
in a curve sharper than 0.5 but not sharper than 1.5. The
tongue rail and stock rail are given curvature as shown in
Fig.No.2
The conventional SEJ design involves two bends in the stock
rail and tongue rail

which are locations of weakness

resulting in fractures. Improved design SEJs developed by

various industries are under trial on the Railways till the

approval is received from the Railway Board.

Curvature details are given below

Fig.No.2

SEJ with 190 mm gap for bridge approaches :

These are wide gap SEJs for bridge approaches where
maximum gap permitted is 190 mm, the mean position is
kept at 166 mm from center line of sleeper No. 10 to enable

the tongue rail to remain on the sleeper even when the entire
expansion takes place. Sleeper No.7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 are
special sleepers with sleeper Nos 9,10 and 11 with special
fastenings. Use is made of ERC mark II clips with flat toe
designed with a toe load of 350 to 400 Kg/ clip to enable free
rail movement. Sleepers other than 7 to 13 are approach
concrete sleepers with normal fittings. When the gap is more
than 100 mm for passing dip lorries with smaller diameter,
use of an insertion piece in the gap should be made.

Review of SEJ with one gap :

This design has been developed by M/s Rahee Industries
Ltd,Calcutta. Fig.3.6 the design comprises of a pair of
machined segments on non gauge face side of two non bent
running rails mounted with a gap between the juxtaposed rail
ends and the third rail called a gap avoiding rail of
predetermined length accommodated in the said machined
segments parallel to and adjacent to the non bent straight
length of the running rails. This rail is securely fitted to one of
the running rails with high tensile steel bolts. This running rail
together with the gap avoiding rail is called the stock rail. The
other running rail is called the tongue rail. The non bolted
segment of the gap avoiding rail braces the machined

segment of the tongue rail. It provides an elbow-free

arrangement without any stress-raising bends. The lap joint
is provided by a bolted-on stock rail. There are no short rails
and every rail piece is long enough to resist the longitudinal
forces from trains.

There are no bends either hot or cold in the Rahee design.

Rahee SEJ does not utilise a floating length of short rail. The
risk of inadequacy of its longitudinal resistance against creep
forces stands eliminated. The width of the rail

head is

increased to 90mm over the transfer length. This ensures

adequate bearing. The wheel tread does not jump the gap
but is smoothly guided into the rail which is wide enough to
give the outer half of the full support.

The Rahee expansion joint permits expansion up to 200 mm

normally and more with modification. There is no risk of rail
fracture or cracks as there are no bends or stress raisers.
The principle of the Baton passing has been incorporated in
the Rahee SEJ Design. As the wheel swings from side to
side in its natural sinusoidal motion, possibility exists of the

root radius grazing the rail ends. This is eliminated by the

use of a check raill which pushes the wheel gently on to.
The purpose of the check rail is only to ensure a smooth
transfer of the wheel from rail to rail. It can be removed for tie
tamping work etc. without any detriment to safety or affecting
traffic in any way.
The Rahee Switch Expansion Joint system has been
standardized by the World bank consultants M/s Canarail /
Systra for the Jamuna bridge rail link project in Bangladesh.

SEJ with one gap developed by Rahee

Advantages of SEJ with one gap :

1.

No bends in tongue and stock rail.

2.

Only 5 sleepers of standard SEJ on PSC assembly are used.

3.

Check rails guard against excessive play of worn out

wheels.

4.

Design suitable up to 200mm max. gap.

Review of SEJ with two gaps :

Two designs have been developed by two different firms
(M/s Bina Metalway,

Jamshedpur and M/s Chintpurni

Engineering Works,Barabanki). In both these designs two

gaps of maximum 80 mm each are provided in one SEJ.
Thus a maximum gap of 80 mm is available for an LWR on
one side of the SEJ. Similarly a gap of 80mm is available for
the LWR on the other side. The tongue rail is manufactured
by cutting the rail at head and foot location. Two cut rails are
joined together to make the stock rail.

Salient features of Bina Metalway 2-gap SEJ

The stock rail is considered to be static with negligible
expansion and contraction in length due to temperature

changes. This SEJ makes use of 6 wider concrete sleepers

each to Drg No. T/4149, with three sleepers located near
each gap. The length of the SEJ is 5750 + 6950 + 5920 + 80
= 18700 mm.

Hence a total gap of 18750 mm should be created while

inserting this SEJ. The stock rail is fabricated out of two
pieces of lengths 7140 mm and 5920 mm connected to each
other by HTS bolts. While laying the SEJ it should be
ensured that the ends of the stock rail are 40 mm away from
the centre line of sleeper Nos. 12 and 22 with the tip of the
tongue rail coinciding with the centre line of the sleeper.
1.

Sleeper Nos. 1 to 31 should be at a spacing of 600 mm c/c.

2.

Sleeper Nos. 10' 11 I 12, 22, 23 and 24 are special sleepers

to RDSO drawing No. T -4149 and the rest are normal PSC
line sleepers.

3.

Mean position of SEJ should be kept at centre line of

sleepers No.12 and 22.

4.

The mean gap is 40 mm on each end.

5.

The tongue rails are kept at mean position at centre line of

sleeper Nos. 12 and 22, and stock rail end kept at 40 mm
from mean position, thus creating a gap of 40 mm.

6.

The mean position should also be marked on the rail posts

erected on both sides of track.

Salient features :
BENDS IN STOCK / TONGUE RAILS:
The IRS design of SEJs make use of stock and tongue rails
which have two sharp bends of more than 7 in close
proximity. The high UTS rails being highly sensitive to such
severe bends proneness to sudden fractures at the bends is
to be expected.
NUMBER OF GAPS AND NOMINAL GAP VALUE:
The conventional SEJ uses one gap of 40mm nominal size
between stock and tongue rails. Under temperature changes,
this gap can vary from 28 to 74 mm as per the Tables at
Annexure -V of LWR Manual (1996).
MINIMUM HEAD WIDTH OF RAIL :
In IRS design of SEJ, the maximum head width of tongue rail
is only 35% of full rail head width. As such, the rate of wear
of rail in such cases becomes high.
M/s. Bina Metal Way Ltd., who have been in the service of
Indian Railways since early 1980s, have studied the
problems experienced in the use of conventional SEJs and

have developed an improved design of SEJ. Fig. 4 shows

the salient features of BMW's design. The patented features
of BMW's design of improved SEJ vis-a-vis the features of
IRS designs of SEJs are compared in the following
paragraphs.

BEND-FREE STOCK / TONGUE RAILS :

In the Improved design of SEJ, there are no bends either in
stock or tongue rail. In order to achieve this feature, the stock
rail is fabricated by machine and bolting together two
separate rails. However the tongue rail is similar to tongue
rail of conventionall SEJ, except that there is no bend in the
rail.

NUMBER OF GAPS AND NOMINAL GAP VALUE:

An advantageous feature of the improved SEJ is provision of
two gaps each of 40 mm (nominal) size each between the
centrall stock rail and the two adjacent tongue rails. Due to
temperature changes in welded rail, each of the gaps of 40
mm nominal size is expected to vary from 33 to 57 mm in
Zone IV. The 57 mm (max) gap is expected to lead to lesser

impact under passing wheels as compared to that under the

maximum gap of 74mm in IRS type of SEJ.
Another advantage accruing from the use of two gaps at
each SEJ is that it gives the PWI better control in providing
correct nominal gap at the time of installation / replacement
of SEJs. Providing a single nominal gap of 40mm between
the ends of LWR poses severe difficulties for the field staff
considering working conditions at site. Since a nominal gap
of less than 40mm can eventually cause problems by way of
buckling of track, the PWI consciously tries to avoid chances
of buckling by providing a larger initial gap. This is one of the
prime reasons for the large gaps normally observed in
conventional SEJs even at the height of summer.

MINIMUM HEAD WIDTH OF RAIL :

In BMW's design of SEJ, the minimum head width of tongue
rail is more than 61% of the full rail head width. This is in
contrast to the 35% head width in conventional SEJs. As
such, lesser wear and longer life can be expected from the
new design.

PEARLITISING OF RAIL HEAD :

The wear prone areas of stock and tongue rails are
pearlitised by through a special process to achieve a
hardness of 320 BHN. This has been found to significantly
increase the wear life of rail heads at the critical gap zones.

PERFORMANCE OF SEJs OF M/s. BMW MAKE

Several Railways, namely Central, Eastern, Northern, South
Central, South Eastern and Western Railways have procured
over 850 Nos. of Improved SEJs from BMW based on the
recommendations of 69th Meeting of TSC held at Puri in
January 1998. (This quantity includes 100 Nos. ordered by
Railway Board for supply to Eastern and Northern Railways).
Out of these, over 650 sets have already been laid in track
as per the information available with BMW. As the design is
new, BMW interacts closely with field-staff for troubleshooting and for constant up-gradation of design. The
performance of the SEJs has been reported to be
satisfactory.

Review of USE OF BMW'S SEJ ON CURVES:

As per para 3.2.1 of LWR Manual, LWR shall not be laid on
curves sharper than 440m. Again, as per para 4.5.5 of the
Manual, SEJs with straight tongue / stock rails shall not be
located on curves sharper than 0.5 as far as possible.
Consequently, the above two stipulations read together,
prohibit the use of SEJs on a large number of curves. To
remedy this situation, BMW is in a position to supply SEJs
with pre-curved stock rails to suit curves in steps of 1, 1.5,
2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 & 4 (440m) as shown in Fig. 5. Such precurving is suggested due to the reason that the stock rail in
BMW's design is of rigid construction (being made of two railwebs bolted together). Therefore, BMW proposes to precurve the two rails (forming part) of each stock rail, bolt them
together and supply such stock rails as part of curved SEJs
ordered by the Purchasers.

The tongue rail, being slender, can be curved at site by the

PWI using a jim-crow. Or else the tongue rail can even be
used without pre-curving, as is the normal practice with use
of rails in curves, turnouts etc where the rail-sleeper

fastenings assist the PWI in achieving the requisite

curvature. This suggestion is being made as curved tongue
rails, if consigned by BMW, are likely to get distorted in
transit / unloading etc requiring correction of curvature at
site.
The procurement of some curved SEJs as per Fig. 5 (with
pre-curved stock rails) by the Railways as part of normal
SEJs ordered by them from BMW and

their trial use on

curved tracks will thus help Indian Railways to standardise

the use SEJs on curved tracks up to 4, instead of restricting
their use to curves up to 0.5 as per present stipulations of
LWR Manual. It is to be emphasised that the stock rail used
in BMW's design of Improved SEJ has a sturdier crosssection as compared to that of IRS design of SEJ. Similarly,
the tongue rail in BMW's design of SEJ has no bend unlike
the tongue rail of IRS design of SEJ. Both these features
enable achieving a safer pre-curved SEJ for use in curved
LWR tracks.

No. of SEJs manufactured,supplied are 865 sets

DIFFERENCE IN FEATURES BETWEEN IRS SEJ AND BMWs SEJ

SL.NO FEATURES

IRS DESIGN

BWM DESIGN

ADVANTAGES

BEND IN RAILS

7 DEG 7 MIN

NO BEND

No breakage

SLEEPER SPACING

650 & 700 mm

600 mm

Min. packing

NUMBER OF GAPS

Easy maintanance

Max.GAP

120 mm

65 mm

Less wheel impact

Head thickness of ton.rail

25.5 mm

44.75 mm

Increases life

Head thickness of St.rail

72 mm

89.5 mm

More wheel support

Status of stock rail

moving

static

Room to LWR forexpansn

Pearlitising of rail head

Not specified

Pearlitised

Reduces wear

Use on curves

Limited to 0.5

Up to 4

Scope for use

Fig.No.4

Advantages of two gap SEJ

1.

The maximum gap is 57 mm which lead to lesser impact

under passing wheels as compared to gap of 74 mm in IRS
type.

2.

It gives the field staff better control in providing correct

nominall gap at the time of installation/ replacement of SEJ.

3.

The minimum head width of tongue rail is more than 61% of

full rail head width (44.75mm) as against 35% of head width
(25.5mm) in conventional type.

4.

The wear prone areas of heads of stock and tongue rails are
pearlitised through a special process to achieve a hardness
of 320

5.

BHN

Maximum head thickness of stock rail is 89.5 mm as

compared to 72 mm in

IRS type of SEJ which in turn

increases wheel support.

6.

Status of stock rail is static as compared to moving type in

IRS type of SEJ.

7.

It is suitable to be laid in curves in steps of 1,

1.5,2,2.5,3,3.5,4 by supplying pre curved stock rails.

8.

The tongue rail being slender can be curved at site by the

field staff.

Suggestions :
1.

German Railways are not at all using SEJs.

2.

Even distressing is not required.

3.

It will be worth while to study

laying and maintenance of

LWR in German Railways with improved elastic fastenings,

breathing lengths can be brought down eliminating SEJ.
4.

The range of temperature is also from 25 to +65 ie 90

variation.

5.

Once methods for finding stress free temperature of LWR

are developed, SEJ as well as distressing can be dispensed
with in India also.

6.

Delhi Metro Railway has used wide gap SEJ of 300 mm

7.

Indian Railways has used 300 mm wide gap special type of

SEJ in Jammu Udhampur section

References
1.

LWR Manual

2.

RDSO publications

3.

The design developed by M/s Rahee Industries

Ltd,Calcutta.

4.

The

design

developed

by

M/s

Bina

Metal

ways,Jamshedpur and M/s Chintuparni Engineering

Works, Barabanki.

Fig.No.4( a ) SEJ with two gap developed by Bina Metal Way

Fig.No.5

Fig.No.1(a)

Fig.No. 4(b)

Fig.No.1 Switch Expansion Joint