9 Ballast Ballast is the granular material usually broken. stone: or brick, ‘shingle or kankar, gravel or sand placed and packed below and around the sleepers to transmit load (originally from the wheels of the train) from sleeper, to formation and at the same time allowing drainage of the track. It provides a suitable foundation for the sleepers and also holds the sleepers in their correct position, preven- ting their displacement by lateral or longitudinal thrusts. The Jateral stability of a track depends on the ballast. 91. Functions of Ballast. Ballast perférms the folfowing functions : Ft transfers the load from the sleeper_to the subgrade and ‘distributes it uniformly over a larger area of the subgrade. .-fiiy Tt holds the sleepers in position_and prevents the lateral and longitudinal movement, due to dynamic and vibrating, “loads of Gi) It'imparts some degree of elasticity to th iv) “i provides easy méani6T maintaining the correct the two lines ina track (i.e., level in straight portions ani “Super-elevation in curves) and correcting track alignment. (») It provides good drained foundation immediately bélow the sleepers.and helps to protect the top surface of the formation. This is achieved by providing coarse and rough aggregate with plenty of voids. 92. Requirements of the Good Ballast. To perform the above mentioned’ functions, the ballast should have the following characteristics : . (i) It should be able to withstand hard-packing without dis- integrating. In other words, it should resist crushing under dynamic loads. (ii) It should not make the track dusty or muddy due to vowder under dynamic wheel loads but should be capable of being wieaned to provide good drainage. ° (iii) It should allow for easy drainage with minimum soakage and the voids should be big enough to prevent capillarity. (iv) It should have resistance to abrasion and weathering. Abrasion means wear due to rubbing action of particles over each ‘other and weathering means cracking and shattering of the material due to variation in temperature, moisture and freezing. Non-porous Particles of ballast are usually more durable. 118BALLAST 119 (vy) It should retain its position laterally-and longitudinally under all conditions of traffic particularly on curves, where it should prevent transverse displacement of sleepers. The internal friction ‘between particles which provides stability depends upon the size, shape and texture of particles, therefore, angular and cubical stones should be used but not the flat-particles. (vi) It should not have any chemical action on rail and metal sleepers. (vit) It should be of size 5 cm for wooden sleepers, 4.cm for metal sleepers and 2°5 cm.for turnouts and crossovers using stone ballast. . (viii) The material should be easily workable by means of the implements in use. (ix) The ballast should be available in near by quarries so that it reduces the cost of supply and fulfils the re quirements of quality, amount of traffic, life and maintenance cost. In short, the ballast. should be such which fulfils the charac teristics of strength, cleanability, durability, drainability, economy and stability and is ‘workable with specific’ size with no harmful effects on rails and sleepers. 93. Fypes of Ballast. The different materials used as ballast in India are broken stone, gravel, sand, ashes or cinders, soft aggregates iike moorum, kankar, overburnt and broken brickbats, blast furnace slag and sometimes selected earth. (1) Broken Stone. This is the best material for the ballast and almost all important tracks are provided with stone ballast. Broken stone satisfies all the specifications and requirements of a good ballast mentioned above. The best stone for ballast is a non- porous, hard and angular, which does not flake when broken Igneous rocks such as hard trap, quartzite and granite, make exe lent bollast and are used in large quantities for high speed tracks in india. Where such hard stone is not available, sandstone and lime tone which make fairly good ballast are used. For stability, graded broken stone ballast is better than un- graded one. Graded stone of 5°08 rm-to 1°9 cm size is found to pro- vide the maximum stability. On the other hand, workability is hetter obtained with small size baliast say, 1°9 cm size. (2) Gravel or River Pebbles or Shingle. Gravel comes next in rank for its suitability for use as ballast and is used in large quantities in many countries. This is obtained either from river beds or from gravel pits. The smooth pebbles are broken, other- wise they are liable to displace the sleeper due to smoothness of its particles and the packing does not hold, (because the particles roll down the section due to vibrations and the packing under the sleeper gets loose.), ‘The process of ramming the ballast underneath the 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 cr:b.’”120 RAILWAY ENGINEERING (3) Ashes or Cinders. This is available in large quantities on railways from coal used in locomotives. It has excellent drainage pro- perties as it is very porous. It is cheap and is largely used in sidings but cannot be used for main lines as it is very soft and gets reduced to powder under Joads and makes the track very dusty. It is excel- lent for station yards and for footpaths particularly in rainy weather as it does not retain water and is not slippery. The great drawback of ashes is its corrosive quality and, therefore, corrodes steel sleepers. and foot of the rails. In emergency, such as destruction of track by floods, the ashes or cinder being easily’ available in large quantities can be used for repairing formation or packing tracks. (4) Sand. It is reasonably good material for the ballast as it is cheap and provides good drainage (provided it is free of earth and vegetation). Sand ballast also produces a silent track and has been found to be particularly good for packing pot sleepers. The great drawback of the sand is its blowing due to vibration, which gets into the moving parts and on the track and causes heavy wear. The maintenance of the track is, therefore, difficult, Sand ballast is some- times covered with a layer of stone or brick or some such material to prevent it from blowing about too much. The coarse sand is pre- ferred to fine sand and thé best sand consists of a quantity of fine gravel sand which is used on narrow gauge tracks. ‘8) Moorum. It is the soft aggregate and is the result of decomposition of laterite and has a red and sometimes a yellow colour. Thg best moorum for ballast is that which contains large quantities of small laterite stone. It is recommended as a ballast, for sidings and main tracks when they are newly laid and the embank- ments are not sufficiently consolidated. When moorum is finally put in the track, it forms a soling or blanket under the stone ballast. (© Kankar. It isa lime agglomerate and is common in cer- tain clay soils and is dug out of the ground. Where stone is not easily available, it is use as road metal, and as ballast for railway tracks. It is soft in nature and reduces to powder under loads. It is used for M.G. and N.G. tracks with light traffic and wherea better type of the ballast is not available. (7) Brick Ballast. Where no stone or substitute is available for use as ballast, overburnt bricks are broken into small sizes and used. It powders easily and produces a dusty track. Rails in tracks laid on brick ballast many a time get corrugated. Brick ballast, however, is fairly good for drainage. (8) Blast Furnace Slag. Which is a by-product in the manu- facture of pig iron forms a suitable ballast material. It should, how- ever, be hard, of high density and free from gas holes. Slag, suitable for use as ballast, is obtained by pouring molten slag collected at the blast furnace into shallow pits of thin layers, allowing it to cool, and then by digging, crushing and screening. (9) Selected Earth. For sidings, earth, if of suitable quality, is sometimes used as ballast. It is also sometimes used on new for-BALLAST Wr mation as a temporary measure. Indurated (i.e. hardened) clay and decomposed rock are suitable erials. 9°4 Size and Section of Ballast. \The size of the ballast. used varies from 1°9 cm. to 5*l cm. gauge. Stones of larger sizes are not desirabje and the maximum size as S‘lcm. is preferable, as interlocking of stones of this size is better than of stone of larger sizes. The best ballast is that which contains stones varying in size from 1°9 cm to 5"l cm. with reasonable proportion of intermediate sizes. The exact size of the ballast depends upon the type of sleeper used and location of the track as below : (i) Ballast size used for wooden sleepers track a =5'1 cm. (gauge) (ii) Ballast size used for steel sleepers track -=3'8 cm. (gauge) (ii) Ballast size used for under switches and . crossing =2'54 cm. (gauge) The section of ballast layer consists of depth of ballast under the sleepers and the width of the ballast layer. The depth of the ballast under the sleepers is an important factor in the load bearing capacity and uniformity of distribution of load. The more the depth of ballast more will be the load-bearing capacity. In America, a depth of ballast equivalent to the sleeper spacing is recommended, because of heavier loads and the closer. spacing of sleepers existing in that country. In India, this recommen- dation will give unnecessarily thick layer of ballast due to more spacing of sleepers. The width of the ballast layer is also important as the lateral strength of track depends partly upon the quantity of ballast at’ the ends of the sleepers. The lateral strength increases with increase in width of the ballast layer but there’is a limit beyond which no useful purpose is served by widening. This limit is at 38cm. to 43cm. from the end of the-sleeper as computed, The Indian standards have recommended dimensions for (i) width of ballast section at the level of the foot of the rail and (ii) for depth of ballast below the sleepers (Fig. 9°1). Minimum Depth of Ballast Section. Although the lines of equal pressure in ballast through wheel loads are in the shape ofa ‘bulb’ (refer to Fig. 26°5).yet for simplicity purpose the load dis- persion can be assumed at 45° to the vertical. For uniform distribu- tion of load on the formation, the depth of ballast should be such that the dispersion lines do not overlap each other. From simple geometry of Fig. 9°1, the depth of ballast can be calculated as below : Sleeper Spacing (S)=width of sleeper (w)+2 Pe wy Pe x depth of ballast (Db) or S=w+2x Db . ez Do= 5" Minimum Depth of ballast.122 RAILWAY ENGINEERING For example, if wooden sleepers are used in track laying with sleeper density as (n+-7), the sleeper spacing is 65cm and width of Fig. 9°1. Minimun Depth of Ballast. sleeper is 25cm. Then the minimum depth of ballast from above formula comes to be 20 cm which is minimum depth of ballast generally prescribed on Indian Railways. Table 91. Details of Ballast Sections Dimensions BG. MG. NG. , 1. Width of ba'last 3°35 m | 2:25 m 1:83 m 2. Depth of ballast 20to 25cm =| 15 to20cm] 15 cm 3. Quantity of stone 1-036 m* 1007) m “053 m* ballast per metre length — | 4 1 9°5. Quantity of Ballast. The quantity of stone ballast required per metre tangent length is 1°036 m? for B.G., 0°071 m8 for M.G. and ‘053 m3 for N.G. of track with standard ballast cushion 3:35m FOR BG. 225m FOR MG.: 1-63m FOR NG. BALLAST “SHOULDER — 20 TO 25cm FOR BG. 15 TO 20cm FOR MG. 15cm FOR NG. Fig. 9°2. Ballast Sections for Railway Tracks. and timber sleepers. Slight variations in quantities occur with the, type of sleeper used. Wooden and concrete through sleepers.BALLAST 123 because of their bulk, require slightly less ballast than pot or trough sleepers. For curves with superelevation, the quantity of ballast is slightly more, because the Indian standards recommended depth at level is provided under the inner edge of the sleeper. Also wider shoulders (about 15 cm or more) than specified above, are provided ‘on outside curves to counteract the increased lateral thrust. . Table 9°2 gives a comparative statement of the various mate- rials used as ballast for the railway track. 9°6. Renewal of Ballast. Due to prolonged movement of wheel loads over the railway track, the ballast material gets crushed to smaller sizes. The fine crushed particles get filled in the voids and form an impervious layer, preventing the rapid flow of the rain water. It thus creates drainage problem. Quantity of ballast is also reduced due to ? (a) Blowing away of the ballast by the movement of trains. (6) Penetration of the ballast in the formation, and (c) Rain water and wind etc. To make up the loss, the ballast is renewed from time to time. In the process of renewal, the crushed fine 1uatcrial is removed by screening. ihrough the screens as shown in Fig. 9°3 and new material -of the desired size is added. INCLINED SCREEN (WIRE-MESH) SRN (USABLE BALLAST FINE PARTICLES REMOVED Fig. 93. Screening of Ballast. Summary Ballast is the granular material which is packed below and around the sleepers to transmit load from sleepers to formation and Provide elasticity ts the track. It also helps in drainage of the track, Broken stone is considered as the best type of ballast, though Grates, Cinders, Sand, Moorum, Kankar, Brick ballast, etc. can e used.126 . RAILWAY ENGINEERING Table 9'1 gives the recommended dimensions of the ballast section for B.G., M.G. and N.G. tracks. Wenever quantities of ballast become lesser than those recommended, it is renewed. During the renewal, the fine crushed particles are removed through screen- ing. For proper stability, cleaning, screening and packing of ballast is essential. Ballast requires regular watch and routine care during the daily and periodic maintenance, because uader the heavy moving loads it gets crushed. Strength depends upon the inverse proportion of voides. Typical Questions 1, What is the Lallast in permanent way? Mention the functions of ballast and state the requirements of a good ballast material. * 2. Describe briefly the suitability of various materials which are com- monly used as ballast in a railway track 3. What material as ballast you would susgest for high speed tracks and why ? 4. Compare the different ballast matezials with respect to merits, demerits and suitabiliy of each materials a ballast. 5. Write short notes or (i) Ashes or cinders as ballast material. (it) Size of ballast. (ii) Sections of ballast layers. (iv) Quantity of ballast. (v) Depth of ballast. (v1) Selection of ballast materials. (vii) Screening of ballast. 6. Explain why periodic renewal of ballast is necessary? How is done?