Indian Railway Track Construction and

Ballasting Methodology

A Report on General Civil Engineering Problems (CE 471)

Submitted by

Sub - group 4
Ankush Hait Enrollment - 510418021
Sauvik Sarkar Enrollment - 510418082
Anchin Katiyar Enrollment - 510418098
Barsha Roy Enrollment - 510418103
Gautam kumar Enrollment - 510418072

Under the esteemed guidance of

Prof. Kalyan Kumar Chattopadhyay
Department of Civil Engineering
INDIAN INSTUTE OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, SHIBPUR
(Formerly Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur)
 Acknowledgement

This project would never be possible without the

bonafide guidance of our honorable professor
Prof. Kalyan Kumar Chattopadhyay
Who, despite his busy schedule has managed to provide
his active supervision throughout the entire project
duration.

We are truly grateful to him for his help and for offering
us this golden opportunity to participate in this excellent
project which will prove to be beneficial for us.

Signature -
 Abstract

T
his is report on “Indian Railway Track Construction and Ballasting
Methodology”, performed as mini project by students of sub-group 4 at
Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology, Shibpur under the
supervision of Prof. Kalyan Kumar Chattopadhyay.

There are a lot of different methods that different countries or different rail sectors
take up for their railway track constructions. This report particularly focuses on a
complete overview of the track construction methods that are attained by Indian
Railways for the construction of Broad gauge ground railways. India is one of the
very rare countries that are blessed with such a vast railway network at so many
different types of terrains and therefore it is very interesting to study the railway
system used here.

This project follows up on the construction process under normal circumstances (like
plain terrain , normal weather condition etc.), and focuses only on terminology of
components and procedure worked in Pandrol elastic E clip rail fastening system
used in India. The dimensions and specifications of all the mentioned components,
as well as procedures have been detailed by us to the best of effort. We tried to
present the necessity of each and every step involved in the process. And since the
study was done on Indian Railway construction system, therefore the details
specified in the report are all Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO)
certified, and correspondingly all the diagrams and tables included are among the
ones revealed by RDSO as well.

The report is based on the analysis and study of the methods and procedure found a
major shortcomings that Indian railway meets, which is, having clung to the
traditional methods due variety of unmentioned reasons . Hence, apart from the
traditional methods we have also included some modern methods and technologies
that maybe adopted for faster and more efficient construction and for better
performance of the tracks.
1. INDIAN RAILWAY - A brief overview
Index
2. Types of rail gauges
3. Rail fastening systems
3.1 Pandrol E clip Rail Fastening system

4. FAMILIARIZATION with The Basic Track Components In Construction -

4.1 Steel rails
4.1.1 Rail Length
4.2 Rail sleepers -
4.2.1 Types of sleepers
4.2.1.1 Wooden Sleepers
4.2.1.2 Metal Sleepers
4.2.1.3 Pre-stressed Concrete Sleepers
4.3 Rail Joints
4.3.1 Welded rail joints – continuous/long welded rail (CWR/LWR)
4.3.2 Unwelded rail joints – Fish plates
4.3.2.1 Standard fish plates
4.3.2.2 Combination fish plates
4.3.2.3 Joggled fish plates
4.3.2.4 Insulated joints
4.3.3 Suspended and Supported Joints
4.4 Track Insulating Liner
4.5 Rail clips
4.6 Rail Pads
4.7 Rail Shoulder/Inserts
4.8 Rail Turnouts
4.8.1 Type of turnouts
4.8.2 Switches
4.8.3 Crossings
4.8.4 Gauge Rod
4.8.5 Diamond Crossing
4.8.5.1 Simple Diamond crossing
4.8.5.2 Diamond crossing with slips

5 Track construction process

5.1 Track pre-construction activities
5.1.1 Drainage
5.1.1.1 Surface drainage
5.1.1.2 Sub-surface drainage
5.1.2 Preparation of construction materials
5.1.2.1 Preparation of steel Rail
5.1.2.2 Preparation of sleepers
5.1.2.3 Preparation of ballast
5.1.2.4 Width of Formation
5.2 Laying of bottom ballast
5.3 Installation of Sleepers
5.4 Laying on steel rail
5.4.1 Welding of rails
5.4.1.1 Flash butt welding
5.4.1.2 Alumino – Thermite welding
5.4.2 Check and Guard rails
5.5 Laying of top ballast

6 Innovations in Indian Railway Track Construction

6.1 Ballastless tracks
6.2 Use of LIDAR
6.3 Two block Washable aprons
6.4 Newer track construction machines

7 Conclusion
8 References
 INDIAN RAILWAY
A brief overview

Indian Railways, often described as the "transport lifeline of the nation", is the fourth
largest railway network in the world and probably the busiest too.

The first serviceable passenger train, operated by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway
dates back to 16 April 1853 which was hauled by three steam locomotives
(Sahib, Sindh and Sultan) ran for 34 kilometers (21 mi) with 400 people in 14
carriages on 1676 mm (5 Ft 6 In) broad gauge track between Bori Bunder(Mumbai)
and Thane, thus marking the beginning of a new era in Indian transport.

After 166 years of development and progress, Indian Railway achieves an amazing
statistics of –

 95,981 KM of route length (39,866 KM being electrified)

 8.26 billions of passenger and 1.16 billion tonnes of freight transported per
year.
 7,321 Railway Stations.
 Above 20,000 Passenger train services per day.
 Rolling Stock of 289,185 freight wagons, 55,258 passenger coaches and 12,108
Diesel and Electric locomotives.
 Employment of 1.227 million employees.
 TYPES OF GAUGES IN INDIAN RAILWAY

Essentially there are 3 different types of rail gauges that are comprised in Indian
ground railways –

 Narrow gauge – 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) and 610 mm (2 ft).

 Metre gauge – 1,000 mm (3 ft 33/8 in).
 Broad gauge – 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in).

Rail transport in India today is predominantly broad gauge with more than
1,20,000 km of tracks since India has presently undertaken the operation of
undergoing gauge conversion of both narrow and meter gauge to broad gauge due
to higher stability. However, some of the still operated examples remain which
might not face a gauge conversion are Darjeeling Himalayan Railways (narrow
gauge) and Nilgiri Mountain Railways (meter gauge).
 RAIL FASTENING SYSTEMS
Worldwide there are 7 major rail fastening systems, which are namely –

 Rail spike with baseplate above the tie

 Tension Clamp Fastening
 Bolt Clamp Fastening
 Tack Joint and Chairs Fastening
 Steel Spring Keyed rail in Chair Fastening
 Pandrol Fast clip Fastening
 Pandrol E-clip fastening

Pandrol E-clip fastening system –

This is the only predominant method of rail fastening system used in India for Broad
gauge railway. The E-type rail clip can provide durable alignment which can fasten
the steel rail and the fastenings from high pressure caused by train. The elastic E clip
is made of spring steel which makes it of high strength.

There are two ways of installing the E clip, Left hand installation and Right hand
installation method. IR broad gauge is known to use the left hand E clip installation
method. In Left hand, the loop portion clamps the rail and the tail clamps the sleeper
and it is vice versa in case of right hand installation.
 FAMILIARIZATION
with the Basic Track Components In
Construction
There is variety of components in a railway track, all of which needs to perfectly
fastened for a safe rail track. These components are as namely –

Steel Rail
This is without a doubt the primary component of a track construction. There are
three types Rails, Double head, Bull head and flat footed. IR uses the flat footed rail
with weight by length ratio of 52 Kg/m. This rail has thicker head for greater wear,
greater height for more stiffness and steeper equal fishing planes for the even wear
of fishing surfaces.

Rail Length –
Traditionally for Indian Railways, the rails were being supplied by the rail mills in
standard lengths of 13 m to 12 m for BG and MG respectively. However longer rail
lengths have the advantage of requiring less number of rail-welds. Rail weld is a
known source of weakness in track structure and is therefore to be avoided to the
extent possible. The rolling of rails in longer lengths is therefore encouraged. Rail
rolling mills have been directed to supply rails to Indian Railways in lengths of 260 m
and above by welding the rolled rails in integrated flash-butt welding plants.
 Rail Sleepers
Sleepers in Railway tracks perform two important functions: (a) Hold the track to
gauge and (b) transmit and distribute the oncoming loads to the ballast underneath.
Modern railway systems require much more of the sleeper than mere load
distribution or holding of the gauge, which are -

 Good Hold over Track Geometry

 Maintenance with modern Methods
 Ability to absorb Energy and Vibrations
 Have a long life span at least equal to rails, if not more.
 Economical in annual Costs of Service
 Simple methodology in Transport and laying of sleepers.
 The fastenings should be secure enough to forestall Theft and Sabotage.
 Should be able to withstand Derailments without excessive damage

Types of sleepers –

 Wooden sleepers
Wooden sleepers are mostly made from logs of hard wood. Depending upon
the girth of log, one to four cross-ties are made out of a single log. As regards
the life of a cross-tie it depends upon its ability to resist (a) wear from the
rail/rail-seat and rail to sleeper fastenings, (b) wear caused by the track
maintenance tools, (c) decay and (d) attack by vermin. Therefore they’re not
very durable and not widely used by IR now. The specifications of wooden
sleepers used in India are –
 Metal sleepers
 Cast Iron sleepers –
Cast iron plate-sleepers have been extensively used by Indian Railways in
the last seven decades. It is essentially a composite sleeper with cast iron
plates jointed by a flexible steel tie-bar. These are rarely used in Indian
railways now.

 Steel trough sleepers –

These are made from rolled trough sections of steel, cut to proper length
and hot pressed to obtain the desired shape. There are three different
rolled sections of sleeper-plates, wherefrom the standard sleepers for
various BG and MG rail sections are pressed. In these sleepers holes are
drilled and punched in the plate to accommodate loose jaws or modified
loose jaws. However, they're rarely used by IR BG railways as well.

 Pre-stressed concrete (PSC) sleepers

This is the most predominant sleeper used in IR presently. There are two
types of PSC concrete sleepers mono-block and two-block sleepers. The
majority of concrete sleepers produced in India are mono-block pre-stressed
concrete sleepers. The dimensional requirements for mono-block sleepers
are–

 The sleeper underside must be such that the average ballast pressure
under full load does not exceed a certain value, normally 6 kg/cm².
  The end faces should be preferable of a size and shape to provide
maximum resistance to lateral movement.

As the pre-stressing wires (tendons) are straight (i.e. parallel to the bottom
surface), the cross section can be varied so that the geometry of a particular
section may be used to provide pre-stress eccentricity to best match the
bending moments, positive or negative. Consequently the shape of sleeper
body is tapered from both ends to the center in height and sometimes width
gentle changes of sectional profile to prevent stress concentrations.

PSC Sleepers have the majority of the advantages a sleeper should have but
unfortunately they have are very heavy to transport, are very less elastic and
cause excessive damage during derailments.

Rail Joints
A rail joint can be either welded or unwelded –

Welded rail joints – continuous/long welded rail (CWR/LWR) –

A Long Welded Rail (LWR) is a rail, whose central part does not undergo any
longitudinal movement with temperature variation. The minimum length of a rail to
function as an LWR depends upon the range of temperature variations, the section
of the rail, resistance offered by the rail-sleeper fastenings to the longitudinal
movement of the rail and the resistance offered by the ballast to the sleepers.
Normally any length greater than 250 m on BG will function as LWR. Thus a LWR of
more than 250m length on BG will move under changing temperature at either ends
on a length of only about 60-100 m depending on the track structure. This length on
either ends is called “Breathing Length”. This setup is used because in a restrained rail
this movement would exert a huge force.

The force P due to temperature change of 10 C in a standard 52 kg/m rail is:

P = E x A x α x t, where

E = Modulus of Elasticity of rail steel = 21,500 KN/cm²

A = Cross-sectional area of rail in cm2 = 66.15 cm²
α = Coefficient of liner expansion of steel = 0.00001152/° C
t = Temperature change in Centigrade.
= 21,500 x 66.15 x 0.00001152 x 1 = 16.38 KN.

Which exceeds the sleeper's withstanding limit (about 10 KN) and would lead to
buckling of rails, therefore the two breathing lengths compensates this force by
displacing. For standard 52 Kg/m rail, expansion gap of 40 mm is provided.

Unwelded rail joints – Fish plates –

Rail-joints throughout the world employ presently two solid steel bars called “Fish-
Plates”. Together with fish-bolts and nuts the rails get fastened to length. The rail-
ends between the fish-plates are held at the time of fastening in required position
w.r.t their horizontal and vertical planes. A lot of various different fish plates are
used all over the world out of which following are the ones used in India.

 Standard Fish plates

The standard fishplate is generally in use. It is the channel shape like the letter
‘C’. There are two holes on the either of the side of the rail joint. There are
two fishplates and four bolts and four nuts at one joint. Some joints also use
fishplates with 6 bolts and 6 nuts.
 Combination Fish plates
When rails of different sections have to be joined together, special fish-plates
are used. These are known as combination, junction or compound fish-plates.
The Indian Railways Standard (IRS) combination fish-plates have been
designed with an adequate thickening up of the section in the middle portion,
where the change in rail section takes place.

 Joggled Fish plates

Joggled fish-plates are usually made out of old/released standard fish-plates
by providing a suitable bulge in the central part of the plates. This helps in
avoiding interference with the weld collars of thermite welds. Elongated holes
are made in the fish-plates to take care of varying degrees of gaps, which may
exist at the weld fractures. As an emergency clamp, it enables fast and
temporary repair allowing continuous movements through the section at
reduced line speed.
  Insulated rail joints
Modern signalling system depends on track circuits wherein a portion of the
track is insulated from the adjoining track. This is accomplished with the help
of insulated rail-joints. Two types of insulating joints being used presently by
Indian Railways are –

 Conventional Insulated Joint

 Glued Insulated Joint

Supported and Suspended joints –

In supported joints the rail-ends are supported directly on a single sleeper
or on two sleepers bolted together whereas in suspended joints the rail-
ends project beyond the joint sleepers.

In case of suspended joint, the setup

shown in image is attained by Indian
Railways.
 Track Insulating Liner
Insulating liners form an integral part of the elastic Rail Fastening System for
concrete sleepers. They are interposed between the elastic rail-Clip, rail-foot and
the cast iron shoulders. They prevent electrical contact between the rail-foot and
the cast iron inserts, which is an essential requirement in track circuited areas.
Insulating liners vary greatly in size and shape and are made from plain nylon or
glass filled nylon. Indian have now standardized glass filled nylon liners of a thickness
of 8 to 10.5 mm.

Rail Clips
This is of course the prime part of E-clip rail anchorage system. The elastic Rail-Clips
used on Indian Railways have their origin in the self-stressing British Pandrol-Clip of
the left-handed installation assembly as mentioned before and with an anti-
clockwise bended geometry. Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO)
has carried out certain changes in the spring steel rod diameter and the spatial curve
geometry keeping the first arch lower and the second arch higher, resulting in
various types of Elastic Rail-Clips for BG and MG. As typical for left-handed clips, the
RDSO evolution Mark-III, clamps with its middle-part the rail-foot. Out of the RDSO
evolutions the MARK-III ERC has become the Standard-Clip of IR.
 Rail Pads
These are rubber pads installed b/w steel rail and sleepers. The essential function of
a rail-pad is to cushion the effect of vertical loading (particularly impact loading).
This has two aspects:

 By providing a conforming
layer between the rail and the
sleeper, the pad ensures even
pressure between on the rail-
seat area and
 By acting as a spring the pad
reduces the transmission of
vibration and impact from the
rail into the sleeper.

On the Indian Railways pads of 6.0

mm thickness have been induced
(introduced) with the concrete
sleepers. They are also being provided with horns, which hold the pad in position
against slippage. However they have poor service life.

Rail Shoulders/Inserts
To hold the rail in position the elastic rail fastening system is anchored to the
concrete sleeper by a shoulder, which is cast into the sleeper during manufacture.
The in-casted anchorages cannot be renewed. It’s important that they should last as
long as the sleeper, and remain securely fixed throughout their lifetime. These
anchored inserts are generally made out of ductile cast iron, typically out of
malleable or SG iron, resistant to corrosion and to be formed into complex
geometric shapes.
 Rail Turnouts
A turnout is a track structure composed of a switch, a crossing and closure rails
permitting a train to leave a given track for branching off to another track. A
diamond crossing is also a turnout.

Types of turnouts –

Switches –
A set of switch consists of four rails, the outer two are known as “Stock-
Rails” and the inner two as “Switch” or “Tongue-Rails”. A stock-rail and
tongue-rail matches together to form a switch. A pair of tongue-rails with
their stock-rails is commonly known as a “Point”. The switch rails are
firmly held by stretcher bars and can be set to give a passage for traffic to
either one track or the other. The switch rails pivot about a point is known
as the “Heel”. In IR the switch movement is done automatically as well as
with manual lever, at many places.

Crossing –
There are two setups for crossings, for acute crossing, a single component called
“manganese frog rail” is used, but for obtuse crossing the setup consists of wing rails
with the main left and right rails and is called “combined frog rail”. Majority of Indian
rail crossing uses the acute angle setup.
Gauge rod –
Rail gauge rod, also named gauge tie or gauge tie
bar, is a member bar which is specially designed to
join two steel rails at the rail bottom to protect the
rails from tilting and keep the rails in certain rail
gauge.

Diamond crossing -
 Simple diamond crossing
When one track crosses another at an angle, a diamond is formed comprising
two acute and two obtuse crossings.

 Diamond crossing with slips

An arrangement of tracks to allow a train to cross to another track as well as
diverted to that track, when required, can be achieved by installing diamond
crossing slips. This is made by including two to four pairs of switches with the
connecting lead-rails. Such an arrangement is called “Single Slip”, when the
permitted diversion is one way only and “Double Slips” if it is two ways.
 Construction Procedure
Generally each part of the railway track belongs to substructure, which has to fulfil
the tasks as below:
 To implement of the railway track position in space.
 To tolerate the forces generated by the traffic.
 To protect against weather influences, meteoric and ground water.
 To ensure transition over/under natural and artificial hindrances.
 To ensure the connecting conditions.

Track Pre-Construction Activities

Drainage
Foremost process in track construction is drainage construction.

 Surface drainage
Surface-drainage works consist of trench type open drains. These remove
surface run-off water before it enters the track structure, as well as carrying
off water percolating out of the track structure. The two types of surface
drains used are:

 Cess drains –
Cess-drains are surface-drains located at formation level at the side of
tracks, to remove water that has percolated through the ballast and is
flowing along the capping layer towards the outside of the track
formation.

 Catch drains –
These may also be called “Top-
Drains” or “Surface-Drains”. The
purpose of catch-drains is to
intercept overland flow or run-off
water before it reaches the track
and causes damage to the track or
 related structures, such as cuttings or embankments.

In a track construction site where there is space for surface, a combination of

both cess and catch drains can be used, as in the following image.

 Sub surface drainage

Surface-drainage works adequate sub-surface drainage is necessary for

maintaining the integrity of the track formation and ensuring the stability of
earth slopes. Sub-surface drainage is used, where there is not enough room
for open cess-drain systems, as for example at through platforms, under
multiple tracks or at narrow cuttings.

Sub-surface drainage is used for:

 Drainage of the track structure.
 Control of ground water.
 Drainage of slopes.

Sub-surface drainage systems perform the function of collecting infiltration

water, which seeps into the formation (capping layer) as shown in figure.
Preparation of construction materials
 Preparation of Steel rail
In the modern steel rail making process through concast route, the newly
smelted iron from the blast furnace is taken in the liquid form to the convertor
by employing “ladles” (heavy steel cylinders with refractory lining). The
convertors through a continuous concast process convert the liquid steel
directly into blooms. A bloom, which started off around 4 meter long, will roll
out at least 36 m of finished rail. This process eliminates energy loss, which
normally occurs in the conventional steel making and thus is quite cost
effective, apart from its other technical advantages.

 Preparation of Sleepers
The long-line method describes the process in which ties are produced end to
end in a line, with continuous strands of pre-stressing steel running through
the ties. Casting beds containing the forms are stationary and equipment
moves along the length of each bed. The long line method is a production
where sleepers are cast in a line using 100 to 150 m long beds. Typically in a
sleeper production plant there are four or more casting beds in which a
number of casting moulds are placed.

 Preparation of Ballasts
Ballast profile:

 Ballasts –
Ballast is an important constituent of conventional track structure. It
is the granular material consisting usually of broken stones or bricks,
shingles or kankar, gravel or sand placed and packed below and
around the sleepers to transmit load from sleepers to the 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 level and position, preventing their displacement by
lateral or longitudinal thrusts. Granite, quartz, trap, sandstone,
 limestone etc. have been used as stone ballast in India. The
appropriate thickness of a layer of track ballast depends on the size
and spacing of the ties, the amount of traffic on the line, and various
other factors. Track ballast should never be laid down less than
150 mm (6 inches) thick, and high-speed railway lines may require
ballast up to 0.5 meters (20 inches) thick.

 Sub ballasts –
The sub-ballast layer gives a solid support for the top ballast, and
reduces the ingress of water from the underlying ground. Sometimes
an elastic mat is placed on the layer of sub-ballast and beneath the
ballast, thereby significantly reducing vibration.

The size gradation of ballasts and sub ballasts are –

 Width of Formation
 Laying of Bottom Ballast
For the first ballast laying of railway track
construction, only the bottom layer should be
laid, mainly the ballast belt laid in the area
below the two rails. The remaining ballasts are
transported by trains after the railway line is
laid. The bottom ballast is transported to the
track and unloaded equably as planned. The
compaction is realized by manual spreading
and mini road roller.

Installation of Sleepers
This process have a lot of modern mechanized methods of installation, however
only very few parts of India have such technology and therefore this part is still done
manually by labours at majority places. Two important factors that come into play
here is “Sleeper spacing” & “sleeper density”.

The sleeper spacing provided on a particular railway line depends upon (a) the
strength of the rail, (b) the type and design of sleeper, (c) depth of the ballast
cushion, (d) the bearing capacity of the formation and (e) the axle-loads, volume and
speed of traffic.

The sleeper density on a standard track structure is based on the volume (GMT) of
traffic and the maximum permissible speed, the two factors which affect the
maintainability of track. Although closer sleeper spacing is considered desirable, in
some cases this spacing proves too narrow to allow effective use of maintenance
tools in-between the sleepers.
 Laying of Steel Rail
The fore most preparation for this is to place and align the rail pads on the sleepers,
after this the rail span is carried using machines and placed properly on the sleeper
between the two shoulders. It’s made sure that the spans are properly aligned, after
that e clips need to be fixed. Normally in India the clips are fastened by sledge
hammers hits manually by the labours. In modern railway systems, this whole
process can be carried out using modern technology machines only. However, India
still follows the traditional method due lack of availability of such machines.

Rail laying starts from the rear end of turnout.

The length of non-standard rails can be
determined by the location of insulation joints.
Convey steel rails by the monorail vehicle, then
lift them to rail ditch manually. It is suitable to use
rails with length deviation less than 3mm, and
cumulative deviation less than 15mm.

Welding of rails
 Flash butt welding
In case of rail welding a so called flash butt welding technology is used, where
the front surfaces are heated until they melt using an electric arc, after that
crush force is applied, which is required to remove oxides and other
contamination from the pressed together surfaces with a liquid film. In this
way a very good quality, purely metallic joint evolves .The types of flash butt
welding are the followings:
 Aligning – The rails to be welded are checked for suitability, if suitable,
then they are aligned properly first.
 Initial burn off - Relevant to the specifications of rail and welding
machine, controls shall be adjusted so that at the end of this phase
weld interface has good overall contact
 Preheating - In case of pre-heating flush butt welding the rail ends are
touched with quick light alternating method that generates an electric
arc, it causes rail ends are heated until in melting stage.
 Flashing – Flashing consists of moving the rail in continuous manner
initially at a fired speed but during the last few seconds at an
accelerated rate.
 Forging (upsetting) - This is where the but crushing force gets applied
 Stripping – Removal of excess weld for smooth result
  Alumino-thermite welding
The procedure is based in the high affinity of aluminum (Al) and oxygen
(O2).Fe2O3 is reduced by aluminum getting high quantity of heat. The
reaction equation is the following:

Fe2O3 + 2Al = Al2O3 + 2Fe + 831kJ

For making welds, the work-pieces are clamped and held with a gap at the
joint. A refractory mould is placed around the joint and the thermite portion is
ignited in a refractory crucible positioned above the moulds. The portion is a
combination of powders, which after reaction will produce a weld metal,
which matches the chemistry and metallurgy of the rails, which are being
welded. When the reaction is complete, the crucible is tapped, and steel pours
into the moulds to form the weld.

Check & Guard rails

Check-rails and guard-rails are lengths of rails laid parallel to a track. They are either
attached to the track or laid apart at a fixed distance and then fastened to the track.
Check-rails are used in location as follows:
 On points and crossings at the crossing assembly where they serve the
purpose of guiding the wheels through the narrow clearance (flange-way) at
the nose.
 On sharp curves, where they prevent the curving wheels from causing
excessive wear of the outer rails and to prevent derailments
 On curved bridge approaches as a positive safeguard against derailment.

Guard-Rails are employed at the under-mentioned as follows:

 On level-crossings where they help in providing pathway clearance to the
running wheels. The gap between the extended portions of the guard-rails
beyond the roadway should be filled with ballast or other suitable material to
level with the contiguous road surface.
  On all girder bridges, including pre-stressed concrete girder bridges without
deck slab, with open floor.
 In all major and important ballasted deck bridges as also on such other minor
ballasted deck bridges where derailments may cause serious damages.

Laying of Top Ballast

At first the first top ballast is added to the track after laying the steel and fastening
the components. The methods followed are –

 Spread ballast to the track.

 Track lifting: Lifting each rail up to right place and padded with ballast.
Maintain every point of steel rail at same level.
 Track lining: Switch road to the centerline, make straight line and curve
smooth.
 Tamping: Once the top ballast is ready, the tamping machine starts to work.
The tamping is continues three or four times. In India mainly Plasser and
Theurer machines are used.
 Filling ballast: Filling crib with ballast.

After that, the second top ballast laying starts after some trains pass. Compared to
the first top ballast laying, most procedures are same.
 Innovations in Indian Railway Track
Construction
There are many new proposed innovations that may be taken up by Indian Railway
for easier track constructions –

Use of Ballast-less Tracks

A ballast-less track also known as slab track, is a type of railway track infrastructure
in which the traditional elastic combination of ties/sleepers and ballast is replaced by
a rigid construction of concrete or asphalt. The negative impact of the ballast on the
service life of the track led to initial designs of ballast-less tracks. The use of ballast-
less track requires settlement free or low settlement subsoil.
Many different types of ballast-less track
are currently in use around the world. Only
a small number of these have been
specially developed for high speed track,
such as those in Japan, Germany, France
and Italy. The image shows the
specification of Japanese Shinkansen
ballast-less track slab. In India RDSO
department is making progresses on
ballast-less tracks.

Use of LiDAR
LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), a form of remote sensing, uses laser light
pulses to gather information from surfaces in the form of “points” (3D coordinates).
The data is processed with point cloud software to form a digital CAD model of the
scanned environment. Data gathered during LiDAR surveys and the resulting 3D
digital model can be used to analyse current railroad conditions, identify safety risks
and plan the construction of new lines and facilities. The data gathered during
LiDAR scans provides detailed information, such as degraded ballast condition.
Identifying problems quickly means they can be addressed immediately, before
track conditions create a service interruption or worse, a derailment. This
technology is slowly finding its place in Indian railways. Developments on using this
technology have started in the southern sections of India.

Twin Block Washable Aprons

Provisions for twin block washable were made on eight platforms at New Delhi
station and two platforms at Varanasi
station. Existing washable aprons at
New Delhi and Varanasi were of
standard design with normal PSC
sleeper and raft construction. Due to
heavy moment of trains, most of these
washable aprons had deteriorated in
condition. Northern Railway prepared a
new design of washable apron by
making improvement in ballast-less
track design of RDSO.

This design is a better design consisting of partly casted twin block sleepers which
are casted in railways departmental concrete sleeper plant in factory conditions and
finally casted with the raft of washable apron.

Newer Technology Track Construction Machines

Many newer technology machines have been developed for track renewal as well as
for new construction. In 2018, TATA delivered such NTC machine imported from
Austria, to Indian railway which is being currently being used for construction of
Eastern – Western Dedicated Freight
corridor (DFC) railway tracks. This
machine can lay sleepers, la rail spans
and fix the arrangements all at one go.
The cost of machine is close to rupees 70
Crores and the efficiency is 1.5 – 2 kms of
track works per day which itself is a
massive upgradation from the traditional
manual method in which a maximum of
just 200 meters of track works can be
executed in a single day.
 Conclusion

S
o, the project came to its conclusion, but through
this we have learnt a lot of things which we were
unaware of, like types of gauges in Indian railway
and how they transform with time. We got familiar with
the basic components used to construct railway tracks by
learning about rail joints, rail clips, rail pads, rail inserts and
rail turnouts. We have also learned about construction
procedure of rail tracks and the procedure of constructing
its materials and then we were able to state the newer
innovations that changes track construction efficiency.
 References
https://www.metrorailnews.in/dedicated-freight-corridor-and-the-new-track-construction-
machine/

Private edition of
“INDIAN RAILWAY TRACKS, A TRACK ENGINEERING COMPENDIUM”
Evolved from the Drafts of J.S. MUNDREY:
Railway Track Engineering.
Revised and modified by F.A. WINGLER.

“INNOVATIONS IN RAILWAY TRACK”

Coenraad Esveld ,Professor of Railway Engineering, TU Delft

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1129963/viewer

LiDAR, a tool for the “virtual world”

Written by Elaine Ball, TopoDot®

“RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION”
Szabolcs Fischer
Széchenyi István University, Gyor · Department of Transport Infrastructure and Water
Resources Engineering.
ISBN – 978-615-5298-69-1.