RAILWAY STRUCTURE

- Railway structures encompass a wide array of construction intended to support the track itself
or house railway operations. When designing railway structures, the various sources of their
loads must be considered, as would be with any other similar, non-railway structure. In addition
to the dead load of the structure itself, there are the usual live loads from the carried traffic.

TRACK STRUCTURE

- The track on a railway (non-US) or railroad (US), also known as the permanent way, is the
structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast (or slab track), plus the
underlying subgrade.

TYPES OF TRACK STRUCTURE

2.1 Ballasted Track

- A ballasted track refers to a track with ballast (usually made of crushed stones) under the track.
It is one of the main forms of track structure. It has the advantages of good flexibility, low price,
convenient replacement and maintenance, and good noise absorption. However, compared
with the ballastless track, it also has the disadvantages that the line plane geometry is not easy
to maintain, most of them are short, and the maintenance workload is large.

Advantages

 Ballasted track requires low investment cost.

 Ballasted track is usually easy to lay.
 Ballasted track has good drainage performance.

Disadvantages

 Train run on the ballasted track with banged sound and low speed. so that, passengers may feel
uncomfortable.
 Ballasted track is easy to be deformed.
 Ballasted bed requires frequent and costly maintenance.
  Train speed is limited on the ballasted track.
 Ballasted track has poor life expectation (about 15-20yrs).
 Ballasted track produce more pollution by releasing dust from ballast.
 Ballasted track has higher noise level than non-ballasted track. It is necessary to take effective
noise reduction measures.

2.2 Ballast-less Track

- A ballastless track is a track structure that uses concrete, asphalt mixture and other integral
foundations to replace the loose gravel trackbed. The sleepers of the ballastless track are made
of concrete, and the roadbed does not need gravel. The steel rails and sleepers are directly laid
on the concrete road.

Advantages

 Non-ballasted track need less maintenance, save cost.

 Non-ballasted track can reduce dust and beautify the environment.
 Non-ballasted track has great ride performance and stability.
 Non-ballasted track has long durability and service life (about 50-60yrs).
 Non-ballasted track has high train speed and make passengers feel comfortable.

Disadvantages

 Non-ballasted need more investment cost than ballasted track.

 Non-ballasted track cannot be laid in some area like clay deep cutting, soft dirt road and
earthquake area.
 The most serious drawback of non-ballasted track is that possibilities for improvement are
limited.
SUBGRADE

- The sub grade soil and its properties are important in the design of pavement structure. The
main function of the sub grade is to give adequate support to the pavement and for this the sub
grade should possess sufficient stability under adverse climatic and loading conditions.

BALLAST

- Ballast is the selected material placed on top of the track subgrade to support the track
structure. The ballast layer supports the track structure (the rails and the sleepers) against
vertical, lateral, and longitudinal forces from the trains. The sleepers, to which the rails are
fastened, are embedded in the ballast, which is tightly compacted or tamped around the
sleepers to keep the track precisely levelled and aligned. The standard depth of ballast is 0.3
metres, but it is packed to 0.5 metres around the sleeper ends to ensure lateral stability.
-

- The ballast layer has several important functions:

- it limits sleeper movement by resisting vertical, transverse and longitudinal
forces from the trains,
- it distributes the load from the sleepers to protect the subgrade from high
stresses, thereby limiting permanent settlement of the track,
- it provides necessary resilience to absorb shock from dynamic loading,
- it facilitates maintenance surfacing and lining operations,
- it provides immediate water drainage from the track structure,
- it helps alleviate frost problems, and
- it retards the growth of vegetation and resists the effects of fouling from
surface-deposited materials.
Sources:

https://www.arema.org/files/pubs/pgre/PGChapter8.pdf

https://railroadrails.com/knowlege/railway-track-structure-overview/

http://railsystem.net/track-structure/

http://www-classes.usc.edu/engr/ce/599/Thesis/RTRSETTL.pdf