TRANSPORTATION

ENGINEERING

 TYPES OF RAILS
 SPACING AND STIFNESS OF RAILS
Submitted To:
PROF. Dr. TAHIR SULTAN

Submitted By: ODD ROLL NUMBERS

2018-CE- 01,03,05,07,09,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29,31,33,35,37,39,41,43,45,47,1757,1717

Session : 2018-2022
Semester: 6th
Course: TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING
Department: CIVIL ENGINEERING

B.Z.U. MULTAN.
Sleepers:

 These are the members generally laid transverse to rails on which rails are supported and fixed to transfer the loads
from rail to ballast and subgrade below.

 Functions of sleepers;-
 Hold rails to correct gauge & alignment
 Holding gauge in proper gauge & level
 Act as elastic medium
 Support the rails firmly & evenly
 Distribute the load transmitted from the rolling stock over large of ballast
 To provide the general stability of permanent way
 To provide the insulation of track for the electric field tracks of signaling
 To provide easy replacement of rails fastening
o Sleepers - Requirements

 The sleepers to be used should be economical, i.e they should have minimum possible
initial & maintenance cost.
 Moderate weight – easy to handle.
 Fixing & removing of fastenings should be easy.
 Sufficient bearing area.
 Easy maintenance & gauge adjustment.
 Track circuiting (electric insulation) must be possible.
 Able to resist shocks & vibrations.
Types of sleepers:

According to materials:
 Wooden sleepers
 Metal sleepers Cast iron sleepers, Steel sleepers
 R.C.C. sleepers
 Pre-stressed concrete sleepers
 Here we have to discuss only metal sleepers:

Steel sleepers:
 Steel made of 6mm thick sheets. At the time of pressing of sleepers, an
inward slope of 1 in 20 on either side is provided to achieve tilt of rails.
 Standard size is 2680mm.

Types:
 Key type steel sleepers
 Clip and bolt type steel sleepers
 DESIGN OF STEEL SLEEPERS

In the design of steel sleepers, the following things are considered:

 It should maintain perfect gauge.

 Can fix the rail and there should be no movement longitudinally.
 Should have sufficient effective area to transfer load from rail to ballast.
 The metal of sleepers should be strong enough to resist bending.
 The design life should be 35 years.
 Advantages:

 Very durable

 Its Life is about 35 years

 Easy to maintain gauge & lesser maintenance problems

 Lesser damage during handling and transport
 Easy to manufacture
 Not susceptible to vermin attack
 Not susceptible to fire attack
 Good scrap value
Scrap value is the worth of physical asset’s individual components when the asset itself is deemed no
longer usable. It is also known as the residual value, salvage value or break-up value.
BENEFITS OF STEEL RAILWAY SLEEPERS W.R.T COST

 Reduced logistics costs and improved handling due to lightweight and stackable design -
3 times more sleepers per lorry/container
 Time and cost savings at installation due to reduced ballast requirements
 Reduced maintenance through improved track stability
 Fully recyclable with end of life value
 Large project cost savings (over 40% saving compared to concrete)
 Disadvantages:

 It is liable to corrosion.
 It can be used only for rails for which it is manufactured.
 Fitting required are greater in number.
 These develop the tendency to become center bound because of
slope at both ends.
 The overall COST of steel sleepers is more than that of timber
sleepers.
 Care of Steel Sleepers
The key issues to consider for care of steel sleepers include:
• Access for coating application and maintenance
• Avoidance of moisture
• Drainage and ventilation to minimize the time of wetness
• Careful management of contact with other materials

These issues can be handled by:

 Paint coatings
 Metallic coatings
i. Hot-dip galvanizing
ii. Thermal spraying

 Inspection and quality control

Cast iron sleepers:
 These are made of cast iron.
Types:
1. Pot/bowl Sleepers(not suitable for curves)
2. Plate Sleepers.
3. Box Sleepers.
4. CST-9 Sleepers (Indian Railways)
5. Duplex Sleepers.
6. C.I. Pot Sleepers.
 Advantages of Cast Iron Sleepers

 Long life up to 50-60 years.

 High scrap value as they can be remolded.
 Can be manufactured locally.
 Provided sufficient bearing area.
 Much stronger at rail seat.
 They are not attacked by vermin.
 Maintenance cost is low.
 Disadvantages of Cast Iron Sleepers

 They are prone to corrosion and can not be used in salty formations and coastal
areas.
 Not suitable for track circuited portions of railways.
 Can badly damage under derailment.
 Difficult to maintain the gauge as the two parts are independent.
 Require a large of fastening materials.
 Difficult to handle and may be easily damaged.
 Lack of good shock absorber.
  Disadvantages of Cast Iron Sleepers
CONTINUED…..

 They are expensive.

 Not suitable for all type of ballast.
 More ballast is required than any other type.
 No. of fittings required is more.
 Lesser lateral stability.
 Tie bars are weakened by corrosion.
 Not suitable for mechanical maintenance.
 Heavy traffic and high speeds (>110kmph) will cause loosening of keys and
development of high creep.
COST FOR CAST IRON
SLEEPERS

Following are the points responsible for the cost of cast iron sleepers.
• Cast iron is expensive in market as compared to some other sleeper materials. Hence it
is uneconomical.
• So many fastening materials are required to fix the rail to the sleeper.
• Proper Maintenance is required.

Care of cast iron sleepers is similar to steel sleepers

 TRACK SPACING

 The track spacing is the distance b\w the track centers of double-track railway lines.
 There are standard distances derived from the standard loading gauge in a country.
 For high speed trains and in tighter curves that distance needs to be increased.
 The track spacing is also called center-to-center spacing to differentiate it from edge-
to-center spacing of a railway. These two values may be different depending on how
signals masts are added to the overall track geometry.
 The distance between the track centers makes a difference in cost and performance of
a double-track line. The track centers can be as narrow and as cheap as possible, but
maintenance must be done on the side.
 The minimum track spacing can be derived from the loading gauge.
 The European Berne Gauge has a width of 3,150 mm.
 The minimal distance to structures on the side of the track is half of it but that is doubled
again for double track lines. As the wagon can move within the rail gauge one adds 100 mm
and with a possible displacement of tracks over time one adds some 250 mm as a security
margin. This leads to a minim centre-to-center spacing of 3,500 mm.
 In fact, the first Prussian railways were built to that standard but it became soon apparent
that it was too dangerous with some passengers having a hand or their head out of the
window.
 Narrow track centres might be 4 metres (13 ft) or less. Narrow track centres may have to be
widened on sharp curves to allow for long rail vehicles following the arc of the curve, and
this increases a surveyor's workload.
 Widening a track centre to 5 metres (16 ft) or so suits high-speed trains passing each other,
and eliminates the need to widen the centres on sharp curves. Increasing width of track
centres of 6 metres (20 ft) or more makes it much easier to mount signals and overhead
wiring structures.
• In the United Kingdom, the early lines of the Great Western Railway were built
to Brunel's broad gauge, which was also associated with a more generous 
loading gauge. This is still apparent along those lines which remain in use
today: structures such as bridges and tunnels are larger, and the distances
between opposite platform faces are larger.
• Railway lines in desert areas affected by sand dunes are sometimes built on
alternate routes so that if one is covered by sand, the other(s) are still
serviceable.
•09 ft 8.0 in (2.95 m) Liverpool and Manchester Railway 1830 at opening day; later
widened.
•10 ft 8.5 in (3.26 m) United Kingdom (a six-foot plus a four foot)
•11 ft 0.0 in (3.35 m) New South Wales 1855 old standard (estimated)
•12 ft 0.0 in (3.66 m) New South Wales 1910 new standard for 10 ft 6.0 in (3.20 m)
wide carriages. Rounded in imperial.
•13 ft 1.5 in (4.00 m) New South Wales 1973 metric standard; rounded in metric.
•14 ft 9.0 in (4.50 m) New South Wales Certain ARTC lines after about 2012.
•4.20 m (13 ft 9 in) LGV Rhône-Alpes
•4.23 m (13 ft 11 in) Tōkaidō Shinkansen
•4.30 m (14 ft 1 in) San'yō Shinkansen
•4.50 m (14 ft 9 in) Erfurt–Leipzig/Halle high-speed railway
•4.70 m (15 ft 5 in) Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway (before 1998)
• By definition the track spacing is given from center to center of a rail track. For an actual
construction the distance is measured from the inside of a rail head to the matching one of the
other track. As far as both tracks have the same gauge this is the same distance.
 RAILWAY TRACK STIFFNESS

Stiffness is one of the basic performance parameters for railway track. The efficient and accurate
stiffness measurement has been considered as the foundation for further development of railway
engineering, and therefore has great theoretical and practical significance.
The track stiffness can be classified into dynamic stiffness and static stiffness
• Dynamic stiffness
The dynamic stiffness refers to the resistance of track structure to deformation under certain dynamic excitation, which is determined
by the natural frequencies of track structure.

• Static stiffness
The resistance of track structure to deformation under a static load is called as static stiffness, which, usually, is determined by
the deformation degree of track structure under the static load.
Suppose that under load P the rail beam will deform. If the deformation amount is y, the track static stiffness K will be

K= P/y
 SIGNIFICANCE OF TRACK STIFFNESS MEASUREMENT

• Track stiffness is an important factor influencing the safety and stability of train operation and the
vibration and deformation of track structure as well as the dynamic response of substructures like
subgrades and bridges.
Researches in relation to track stiffness mainly focus on three aspects:
• ① the analysis of the influence of track stiffness on the vehicle-track-substructure coupled dynamics
• ② the nonlinear characteristics of track component stiffness, such as the nonlinearities of the rubber
pad; and
• ③ the evaluation methods of track stiffness and the reasonable stiffness for track structure and its
components.
 STIFFNESS DESIGN OF NEW RAILWAY LINES

• Stiffness design of new railway lines is to determine overall track stiffness and track
component stiffness to meet the operation conditions of new railways. The
measurement of track stiffness can help evaluate the stiffness design of new railways
and present the relevant modification opinions.

 Daily maintenance of railway lines

Track stiffness is also an important parameter for maintenance of railway lines in addition to the track
geometric irregularity. For most maintenance methods, the track geometric irregularity of railway lines is
always adopted as the diagnostic parameter.
 THE MEASUREMENT OF TRACK STIFFNESS FOR MAINTENANCE
PURPOSE COVERS FOUR ASPECTS:

1. Low track stiffness

The railways built in soft soil areas and bad soil zones tend to experience serious
rail displacement and fast cracking of track components after a period of operation. These diseases
are mainly caused by poor stiffness of soil subgrade and therefore it should be strengthened. It is
very important for checking the railway lines in time to keep safe train operation.

2.  Variable track stiffness

The stiffness always changes abruptly at the railway–bridge, railway–tunnel, and
bridge–tunnel sections, and therefore transition zones shall be set. Besides, when track geometric
irregularity is deteriorated, support for the track will be uneven.
3) Virtual track stiffness Diseases, such as dirty ballast, hanging sleepers, and loose
fasteners, can cause deformation and holes, leading to virtual stiffness for the rail
support. The virtual stiffness represents potential risk to safe train operation.
4) Assortative stiffness
 The unmatched supporting stiffness of the right and left rails will result
in uneven rail displacement, which can cause center bending of sleepers as well as the
other unreasonable stress and cracking problems of track components.

• The measurement of track stiffness can help direct the routine maintenance of railway
lines and provide a reliable basis for making optimal maintenance strategies.