BALLAST & BALLAST

LESS TRACK
Functions of ballast
➢ Transfers the load from the sleeper to the subgrade, and
distributes it uniformly over the formation.
➢ Holds the sleepers in position and prevents the lateral and
longitudinal movement due to the movement of train.
➢ Imparts Degree of elasticity to the track.
➢ Provides easy maintenance and alignment.
➢ Helps in drainage.
Requirements of the good ballast
➢ It should resist crushing under dynamic loads.
➢ It should not make the track due to powder under the
dynamic wheel loads.(but should provide easy drainage)
➢ It should provide resistance to abrasion and weathering.
➢ It should not produce chemical action with rail and metal
sleepers.
➢ The ballast should be available in nearby quarries so that it
reduces the cost of supply.
 Types of ballast
Broken stone
➢ It is the best material for ballast
➢ Broken stone satisfies all the specifications and requirements
of a good ballast.
➢ Used in high speed tracks in India(quarzite and granite)
➢ Non- porous ,hard and angular.
➢ Where such hard stone is not available sand stone and lime
stone are used .
➢ For better stability graded broken stones are used.(5.08 to 1.9
cm)
 Advantages(Igneous Rocks) :
➢ Provides strength, stability, durability, drainability, economy
and workability.
➢ Ballast cushion is minimum.
Disadvantages:
➢ Initial cost is high.
➢ Angular shape injures wooden sleepers during packing.
(Best suited for ballast)
Advantage(Aqueous Rocks )
Less in cost than igneous rocks.
Disadvantage
Easily broken down to pieces.
(Fairly good ballast)
BROKEN STONE
 Gravel or River Pebbles or Shingle
➢ Obtained form river beds or from gravel pits.
➢ Smooth pebbles are broken, otherwise packing does not
hold.
➢ The process of ramming the ballast underneath sleeper is
known as “ packing”.
➢ The ballast above this layer which surrounds the sleeper,
is loose filled and is known as “boxing”.
➢ The loose ballast between the two adjacent sleepers is
known as “ballast crib”.
 Advantages :
➢ Less in cost
➢ Does not injure wooden sleepers
➢ Maintains good packing in pot C.S.T -9 sleepers.
➢ It has good drainage quality
Disadvantages
➢ Packing gets disturbed in flat sleepers.
➢ Needs greater cushion
➢ To prevent spreading ballast wall is provided.
➢ (Suitable ballast material, where good ballast material is
not available )
Gravel or River Pebbles or Shingle
 Ashes or cinders :
➢ Material is available in large quantities on railways from
coal being used in locomotives.
➢ Has excellent drainage property.
➢ It is cheap and largely used in sidings but not used for
main lines as it is very soft (powdered due to wheel load).
➢ It has corrosive property .(corrodes the steel sleeper &
rail).
 Advantages :
➢ Excellent for station yards.
➢ Prevents vegetable growth.
➢ Provides fairly good drainage
➢ Easy in handling and less material cost.
➢ Good ballast for station yards.
➢ Specially useful in emergency .
Disadvantages :
➢ Corrodes metal sleeper and foot of the rails.
➢ Soft and light so the track becomes dusty.
Ashes or cinders
 Sand :
➢ It cheap and provides good drainage.
➢ It provides silent track and used in packing pot sleepers.
➢ The sand has blowing tendency due to vibration(causes
wear) and hence maintenance of track is difficult.
➢ Sand ballast is covered with a layer of stone or brick to
prevent the blowing effect of the sand.
➢ Used in narrow gauge.
 Advantages :
➢ Cheap material
➢ Good drainage provided if free from vegetation and earth,
➢ Produces a silent track.
➢ In particular good for packing cast iron sleepers.
Disadvantages :
➢ Sand is easily blown off and causes wear of rails.
➢ Sand ballast requires frequent renewal.
➢ Maintenance of ballast track is difficult.
➢ (unsuitable for heavy traffic )
Sand
 Moorum
➢ Used when it contains large quanties of small laterite
stones.
➢ Used in sidings and main tracks when they are newly laid.
Advantages :
➢ Cheapest if it is available locally.
➢ Makes the track loss noisy
➢ Suitable for station yards.
➢ It possesses good drainage properties .
 Disadvantages :
➢ Turns into dust in very short time as it very short time.
➢ Maintenance of moorum as ballast is very difficult.
(Never used as permanent ballast)
Kankar:
Very soft and get powdered easily under wheel loads.
Used for M.G & N.G tracks with light traffic and where a
better type of the ballast is not available.
Brick Ballast :
Over burnt bricks are broken into small sizes are used.
Powders easily and produces a dusty track.
Provides good drainage.
 Advantages :
➢ It is cheap
➢ Readily and locally available
➢ It has fairly good drainage facilities .
Disadvantages:
➢ Unsuitable for heavy and high speed traffic.
➢ Makes the tracks dusty and muddy causes corrosion of
metal sleepers and rails.
➢ Causes roaring of rails.
(Good ballast material where suitable ballast material is not
available)
 Blast Furance Slag :
➢ Obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of pig iron.
➢ Slag is poured in shallow pits of thin layers, cooled and
the ballast obtained from digging, crushing and screening
from the cooled slag.

Selected earth :
➢ Hardened clay and decomposed rock are suitable
materials.
Size and section of ballast
The size of ballast varies from 1.9cm to 5.1 cm.
Stones of larger size are not used as interlocking is very
difficult.
The size of ballast depends upon the type of sleeper.
Ballast size for wooden sleepers tracks = 5.1 cm
Ballast size for steel sleepers tracks = 3.8 cm
Ballast size for under switches and crossing = 2.54 cm
 The section of ballast consists of
➢ depth of ballast under the sleepers
➢ width of the ballast layer
Depth of ballast :
Important factor:
➢ Load bearing capacity & uniformity of distribution of
loads.
➢ More is the depth of ballast more will be the load- bearing
capacity.
Width ballast:
Width of ballast is important factor in deciding the lateral
strength of the track.
Minimum depth of ballast
● Sleeper spacing = width of sleeper(w)+ 2 x depth of
ballast (Db)
● Db= S-w/2
Quantity of ballast
➢ Quantities of sleeper depend on the type of sleeper.
➢ Wooden and concrete through sleepers because of their
bulk, require slightly less ballast than pot or trough
sleepers.
➢ Along the curves large quantity of ballast are used.
1.036 m3 = B.G
0.71 m3 = M.G
0.53 M3 = N.G
RENEWAL OF BALLAST
➢ Due to repeated movement of wheel loads over the
railway track, the ballast material gets crushed to smaller
sizes.
➢ Crushed particles get filled in voids and form an
impervious layer, preventing the rapid flow rain water.
Quantity of ballast is reduced due to :
a) Blowing away of the ballast by the movement of trains.
b) Penetration of the ballast in the formation
c) Loss of ballast due to rain water and wind
➢ To make up the loss, the ballast is renewed from time to
time.
➢ The crushed ballast are removed by screening.
 BALLASTLESS TRACK
➢ First such tracks were mountain railways
(like Pilatus railway, built in 1889) with rails attached
directly to the mountain rock.
➢ From the late 1960s onwards, German, British, Swiss and
Japanese railroads experimented with alternatives to the
traditional railway tie in search of solutions with higher
accuracy and longevity, and lowered maintenance costs.
➢ This gave rise to the ballastless railway track, especially in
tunnels, high-speed rail lines and on lines with high train
frequency, which have high stress imposed on trackage.
➢ Paved concrete track has the rail fastened directly to
a concrete slab, about half a meter thick, without ties.
➢ A similar but less expensive alternative is to accurately
position concrete ties and then pour a concrete
slab between and around them; this method is called
"cast-in precast sleeper track".
➢ These systems offer the advantage of superior stability and
almost complete absence of deformation. Ballastless track
systems incur significantly lower maintenance costs
compared to ballasted track.
➢ Due to the absence of any ballast, damage by flying
ballast is eliminated, something that occurs at speeds in
excess of 250 km/h (150 mph).
➢ It is also useful for existing railroad tunnels; as slab track
is of shallower construction than ballasted track, it may
provide the extra overhead clearances necessary for
converting a line to overhead electrification, or for the
passage of larger trains.[
● Building a slab track is more expensive than building
traditional ballasted track, which has slowed its
introduction outside of high-speed rail lines.
● These layouts are not easy to modify after they are
installed.
● The curing time of the concrete makes it difficult to
convert an existing, busy railway line to a ballastless
setup.
● Slab track can also be significantly louder and cause
more vibration than traditional ballasted track.
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