Rails, Creep, Failures, Joints and

Welding

Prepared By
Khushbu Bhatt
Parul University
Vadodara
Definition
 Rails are the members of the track laid in two parallel lines
to provide an unchanging, continuous, and level surface for
the movement of trains.
 To be able to withstand high amount of stresses these are
made of high carbon steel.
Functions of Rails
 Rails are similar to steel girders. These are provided to
perform the following functions in a track.
 Rails provide a continuous and level surface for the movement
of trains.
 Rails provide a pathway which is smooth and has very little
friction.
 Rails serve as a lateral guide for the wheels.
Functions of Rails
 Rails bear the stresses developed due to vertical loads
transmitted to them through axles and wheels of rolling stock as
well as due to braking and thermal forces.
 Rails carry out the function of transmitting the load to a large
area of the formation through sleepers and the ballast.
Components of Rail
Requirements of Ideal rail
 The section of the rail should be such that the load of each
wheels is transferred to the sleepers without exceeding the
permissible stresses
 The section of the rail should be able to withstand the lateral
forces caused due to fast moving trains.
 The bottom of head and top of foot should be given such
shapes that fishplates can be easily fitted.
Requirements of Ideal rail
 The centre of gravity of the rail section should preferably
coincide the centre of the height of the rail so that maximum
tensile and compressive stresses are nearly equal.
 The web of the rail section should be such that it can safely
bear the vertical load without buckling.
 The head of the rail should be sufficiently thick for adequate
margin of vertical wear.
Requirements of Ideal Rail
 The foot of rail should provide sufficient bearing area on the
underlying sleepers so that the compressive stresses on the
timber sleeper remain within permissible limits.
 The section of the rails should be such that the ends of two
adjacent rails can be efficiently jointed with a pair of fish
plates.
 The surfaces for rail table and gauge face should be
sufficiently hard to resist the wear.
Requirements of Ideal Rail
 The contact area between the rail and wheel flange should be
as large as possible to reduce the contact stresses.
 The specimen of rail should be able to withstand the blow of
a falling weight in the test specified by the specifications
 The composition of the steel should conform to the
specifications adopted for its manufacture by Open Hearth of
Duplex Process
Requirements of Ideal Rail
 The overall height of the rail should be adequate to provide
sufficient stiffness and strength as a simply supported beam.
 The foot of the rail should be wide enough so that the rail is
stable against overturning.
 There should be balanced distribution of metal in head, web
and foot.
Track components
Types of Rails
 Formerly wooden rails are used with thin plates. Later
 Cast – iron
 Malleable iron
 Wrought iron
 steel
 At present, Classified mainly into 3 types
 Double headed rail
 Bull headed rail
 Flat footed rail
Double headed Rail
 Consists of 3 parts
 Upper table
 Web
 Lower table
 Upper and lower tables are identical
 Idea was to double the life of rails – failed
 Long contact with chairs made the surface of lower table
very rough and smooth running of trains is not possible with
them.
Double headed Rails
 Now practically out of use
 Length varies from 610 to
732cm
 Wrought iron was used to
manufacture these rails
Double headed Rails
Bull Headed Rails
 The rails sections having their head of more dimension then
that of their foot are known as bull headed rails.
 These rails consist of
 Head
 Web
 Foot
Bull Headed Rails
 The foot is designed only
to properly hold the
wooden keys with which
the rails are secured to
chairs.
 Only to provide necessary
strength to the rail
 2 cast iron chairs are
required for each sleeper.
Bull Headed Rails
Bull headed rails
 Extensively used in England and in some parts of Europe
 Weight of standard rail of this type is 47kg per metre on
main lines and 42kg for branch lines
 Length of rail is generally 18.29m.
Flat footed rails
 Invented by Charles Vignoles in 1836.
 Also called as Vignoles rails.
 In this type of rail, foot is spread out to form a base.
 Highly popular and most used in railways.
 90% of the present railway track consists of flat footed rails.
 Flat footed rails
Advantages
 Chairs: No chairs are required in this form of rails. Foot of rail is
directly spiked to sleepers.
 Economical
 Stiffness: This form of rail is more stiffer both vertically and
laterally than the bull-headed rail of equal weight.
 Kinks: Less liable to develop kinks and provides a uniform and
more regular surface than bull headed rails.
Flat footed rails
 The flat footed rails are
found to be cheaper than
the bull-headed rails.
 Load Distribution: The flat
footed rail distributes the
train load over a great
number of sleepers. This
results in greater track
stability.
 Longer life than bull
headed rails
Flat footed rail
Standard Rail Section
 Rail designated by its weight for unit length
 Ex: 60kg/m or 60lb/yard etc.,
 Weight and section of rail governed by many factors
 Gauge of track
 Max. permissible speed
 Type and spacing of sleepers
 Depth of ballast cushion
 Heaviest moving load likely to cross over the rail
 Spacing of sleepers
 Maximum axle load that can be carried by a rail depends on
its weight
 In India the capacity will be calculated as follows:
 Max axle load = 560 x sectional weight of rail in lb/yard or
kg/m
 For 52 kg rail, max. axle load = 560 x 52 = 29.12 tonnes
Standard sections used in Indian
railways
 Standard rails used in Indian railways are 60kg, 52kg, 90R,
75R, 60R, and 50R
 60kg and 52 kg are introduced recently
 Other rails have units in FPS but now their dimensions are
talked in SI at present.
 R stands for revised british specifications
 IR stands for Indian railwaya
Standard rail sections
Standard rail sections
5kg/m and 60kg/m standard sections
 Rail sections of type 90R are able to carry only 10GMT of
annual traffic
 Due to increase in traffic heavier sections i.e., 52 kg and 60
kg are introduced.
 They can withstand annual traffic of 20 to 25GMT and speed
of 130kmph. (52kg)
 35GMT and 160kmph for 60kg section
Advantages of heavier rails
 Economical to have durable track by using heavier rails rather
than increasing no of sleepers
 Cost varies as depth of rail, Strength varies square of depth.
Hence heavy rail is economical.
 Stiffness varies as square of weight, strength as 3/2 power of
weight.
Advantages of heavier rails
 If wheels move over rails of insufficient capacity, depression
and there by additional dragging of locomotive. Causes
wastage of power and capacity.
 Experiment in USA resulted in the following things:
 65kg track used over 32km length
 Saving in initial cost over 55.6kg/m rail
 Maintenance (13.4%), sleeper renewals (56.9%), ballast
renewal (23.3%)
 Deflection between 2 sleepers is less in case of heavy rails for a
given load.
Criteria for determining length of rails
 Longer the rail lesser the joints and fittings
 Longer rails provide smoother and comfortable riding of
trains
 Following factors govern the length of a rail
 Cost of production
 Difficulties in handling long rails
 lack of facilities for transporting longer rails
 Difficulties in having a bigger expansion joint for long rails
 Heavy internal thermal stresses
 Minimum rail length is 3.6m. Standard rail length is different in
different countries.
Wear on Rails
 Due to the load and movement of wheels on the surface of
rails, rail head gets worn out.
 Main reasons:
 Impact of moving loads
 Effect of the forces of acceleration and deceleration
 braking of wheels
 Abrasion due to rail wheel interaction
 Effects of weather conditions
 Presence of materials such as sand
 Lack of maintenance
Wear on Rails
 Lot of material of rail head worn out, causing a decrease in
the weight of rail.
 Loss of weight should not be excessive
 Stresses will exceed permissible values otherwise.
 Rail renewal has to be done in such cases.
Types of Wear on Rails
 Wear of Rail on the top or head of the rail (vertical wear)
 Wear of rails at the end of rails (battering of rail ends)
 Wear of rails on the sides of the head of rail (lateral wear)
 Wear of rail is more prominent at some special locations of
the track.
 On sharp curves, due to centrifugal forces
 On steep gradients due to the extra force applied by the engine
 On approach zones of stations, possibly due to acceleration and
deceleration
 In tunnels and coastal areas, due to humidity and weather
effects.
1. Wear of Rail on the top of Rail Head
 The metal from the top of rail flows and forms projections.
 These projections are known as burrs.
 Causes of vertical wear
 Rails worn out on the top due to abrasion of the rolling wheels
over them
 Heavy wheel loads are concentrated on very small areas. High
stresses exceeding the elastic limit are developed as a result.
1. Wear of Rail on the top of Rail Head
• Impact of heavy loads
• Grinding action of the sand particles between wheels and rails
• Corrosion of metal on the rails
• Metal of top rail burns during the starting when wheels slip or
when brakes are applied.
Wear of Rails at Ends of Rails
 Takes place at end of rails
 Much greater than the top of rails
 At expansion gaps, train jumps -> impact load
 Causes battering i.e., wear of end
 Other effects seen are as follows:
 Fish plates become loose
 Contact surface between sleepers and rails are worn out
 Sleepers at expansion joints depressed due to settlement of
ballast
3. Wear of Rail on the Sides of the
head of rail
 Most destructive type of wear
 Occurs mainly at the curves
 Causes are as follows:
 At curvature, due to centrifugal force grinding action of wheel
flanges on the inner side of head
 Vehicles do not bend to the shape of curvature while moving on
the curve resulting in the biting of the inner side of curve
 Slipping action of wheels on the curves. Outer wheel has to
cover longer distance compared to inner wheel. But due to
rigidity of the wheels they will cover(rotate) same distance.
Hence, inner wheel slips over inner rail, resulting a wear on the
inner side of the head of inner rail.
Methods to Reduce Wear
1. Use of Special alloy steel
o Special alloy rails are used at places where wear is more
o Cost is more
o But wear is greatly reduced
o Life of rail is increased by 2 to 3 folds on the curves
o These type of rails are also used for manufacture of switches
and crossings
2. Good maintenance of track
o Proper maintenance like ballast checking, using lubricants at
places etc.,
o Tightening of joints and fittings to decrease wear
3. Reduction of Expansion Gaps
 Should be reduced by increasing no of sleepers at joints, by
tightening fish bolts
 Usage of welded rails to get higher length rails also
decreases expansion joints
4. Exchange of inner and outer rails
 Inner rail and outer rail exchanged at curves to increase the
life of rails
5. Introducing check rails
 Check rail is kept parallel to inner rail all the way at the curves
 It holds back the flange of inner wheel to move and prevents
damage of outer wheel
 Gap between inner rail and check rail should be equal to the
thickness of the wheel thickness and side clearance
 44mm for BG and 41mm for MG
 Connected to inner rails with suitable fastenings
 Used when curvature is min 8 degrees in case of BG and 14
degree in case of MG
 Normally worn rails are used as check rails
6. Use of lubricating oil
 Usage of lubricating oil on curves on the side of head cases
decrease in wear
 Can be done manually or with mechanical equipment attached
to the locomotives or rails
 Allows free expansion of joints and also smooth flowing of
traffic
 Requirements are as follows:
 Should be in the form of paste of workable consistency at high and low
temperatures.
  Efficiency should not be affected by dirt, dust and other atmospheric
agencies
 Should be applied only after cleaning the gauge face
 Should not be done at extreme temperatures
 Commonly used lubricants are
 Lime saponified types of grease on a mineral oil base
 Mixture of grease and graphite
 Mixture of plumbago and axle oil in proportion 4:1
7. Head hardened rails
 Used in advanced railway systems
 Increases life time by 2 to 3 folds
 Hardening is done at iso thermal treatment plant
 A depth of 12 to 14mm from top is hardened
 Heat results in improvement of following characteristics
 Impact strength 100%
 Relative elongation 50%
 Ultimate strength 50%
 Yield point 75%
Measuring wear of rails
 Weighing the worn out rail
 Rail is removed, weighed and fixed after knowing the wear
 Max. limit is 5%
 If lost more than 10%, should not be used anywhere on track
 Drawing profile of rail
 Comparison of profile of new rail and old rail to check the
wearing
Renewal of rails
 After expiry rails are renewed
 Factors affecting renewal of rails
 Wear of rails
 Max 5%
 Use of heavier locomotives
 Construction of branch lines
 New rails for main track, older ones for branch line
 Bending of rails
Rail failures - Reasons
 Sometimes rails fail suddenly without any notice. Factors that
influence the failure are as follows.
 Axle load of locomotive
 Constant reversal of stresses
 Defects in manufacture
 Design of rail joints
 Fatigue caused by shearing stresses
 Frequency of rail renewal
 Maintenance of rail joints
  Rail length
 Rail quality
 Rail section
 Rail welding
 Speed of trains etc.,
 The above are some of the main reasons of the rail failure
Rail failures - Types
1. Crushed head
2. Transverse fissure
3. Split head
4. Horizontal fissure
5. Square of angular breaks
 Crushed head
 Head gets crushed, metal flows on the head of rail
 Defects in manufacture, flat spots on wheels, slipping of wheels,
week support at the rail end etc.,
 Skidding causes flat spots, loose fish bolts cause week support at
ends
 Transverse fissure
 Fissure or hole in the head
 In the form of a cross wire crack starts inside head and spreads
gradually
 Poor manufacture, excessive straining
 Very dangerous, rail breaks with out any sign often
 Split head
 Head is split into 2 parts
 If the surface of crack appears smooth and dark, it is called as piped
rail
 Formed due to cavity during manufacture, or shrinkage of metal
 Horizontal fissure
 A fissure developed keeps on increasing
 Outcome of worn fish plates or insufficient ballast
 Square or angular breaks
 Rail breaks either in vertical plane or angular plane
 Coning of Wheels
 Flanges of wheels are never made flat
 Present in the shape of cone with a slope of 1 in 20.
 When wheel are moving on track there is a chance of lateral
movement
 Without coning it will cause a sudden impact on the sides of rails
 Coning of wheels is mainly done to maintain the vehicle in the
central position w.r.t to the track
Coning of Wheels
Coning of wheels - Disadvantages
 Smooth riding possible, but the pressure on the inner edge
may cause its wearing
 Gauge widening happens some times
 If base plates are not provided sleepers under outer rails may
damage
 To minimize these effects, tilting of rails is done by the use of
inclined base plates
 Proper gauge
 Wear is uniform on head
 Increased life of sleepers
Creep of rails
 Longitudinal movement of rails in a track is termed as creep
 Common to all railway tracks
 Value changes from 0 to 130mm per month
Creep - causes
 Brakes
 Due to forces while starting or stopping
 Starting – rails pushed backward
 Stopping – rails pushed forward
 Wave motion of wheels
 Due to wheel loads rails deflect as continuous beam
 Crests at supports (i.e., sleepers)
 Changes in temperature
 Unequal expansion and contraction
 Happens more during hot weather
Creep on rails
Creep - causes
 Following are some of the minor causes
 rails not tightly fixed
 Bad quality sleepers
 Bad drainage
 No proper consolidation of the bed of track
 Gauge maintained tight
 Improper super elevation at curves
 Over capacity of traffic on rails
 Bad joints due to poor maintenance
 Allowance of rail expansion joints
 Decaying sleepers
 Uneven spacing of sleepers
 Defective packing
 Insufficient ballast
 Improper usage of brakes
Factors determining the magnitude of
creep
 Alignment of track
 Greater on the curves
 Gradient of track
 More on down gradient
 Direction of motion of trains
 One way or 2 way, no of lanes, load of trains
 Embankments
 Creep more on newly constructed embankments
 Weight and type of rail
 Light weight rails creep more than heavy weight rails
 Results of creep
 Sleepers move out of position
 Gauge disturbance
 Gap variation at joints and other
parts, results in uneven stresses
 Points and crossings will be
disturbed
 Difficult to refix rail with creep
 Interlocking mechanism also gets
disturbed
 Ballast gets disturbed
Measurement of creep
 Measured using creep indicator
 On the side of bottom flange of rail on either sides, a mark is
made by chisel
 Two posts of rail are driven in the formation and their tops are
in level with top of sleeper
 String fastened to the post and passed through markings
towards rail
 Distance between string and the marks on the bottom of rails
will indicate creep during a course of time
Creep measurement
Methods for correcting creep
 Pulling back of rails method
 Rails are pulled back equal to the amount of creep
 Manually or using jacks
 Sleeper fittings are made loose, fish bolts are removed at one end
while at the other end are made loose
 At the other end a liner is placed and the rail is pushed or pulled as
required
 Following points should be noted
 Track should be packed properly after pushing/pulling
 Facility should be there to avoid restrictions to existing traffic
 Labour should be procured
 All fish plates, bolts should be cleaned, oiled and refixed
 Good to adjust creep before summer
 Usage of Creep anchors
 Pulling back method is tedious, costly
 75% decreased using creep anchor
 Creep anchor is a cast iron piece which is made to grip the rail
 The arrangement of anchors prevent the movement of rails
there by creep, because the sleepers which are embedded in the
ballast should move for movement to take place
Methods for correcting creep
 Different types of anchors are available
 Following points should be kept in mind while using creep
anchors
 Creep anchor should be strong enough to resist stresses
 No of anchors are determined by the intensity of creep. 4 anchors per rail
are provided for a creep of 7.5 to 15cm
 Creep anchors should be placed at points where the creep originates
 Should be avoided on railway bridges
Methods for correcting creep
 Additional creep anchors should be provided on level crossings,
at places where heavy brake applications are made
 Defective creep anchors should be replaced
 Anchors fixed to rails by using clamping, wedging and other
methods
 Creep anchors should be fixed to good and sound sleepers
Methods for correcting creep
 Use of steel sleepers
 Use of steel sleepers on a track minimizes creep
 Sleepers are provided with fittings which do not easily allow the
creep to occur
 They will also have a good grip with ballast to resist their
movement in ballast
 Increase in number of sleepers will also help in prevention of
sleep.
Rail joints
 Joints are made between 2 rails
 Forms the weakest part
 Characteristics of Ideal Joint
 Rail joint should hold the two ends of the rails as nearly as
possible. The two ends should be at the same level and in the
same straight line.
 Rail joint should have same strength and stiffness as rails
which it joins
 Joint should provide space for the expansion and contraction
of rails
 Joint should be such that any rail can be taken out easily or
disconnected without disconnecting entire track
 Fishplates, rail contact surfaces wear gradually. Joints should
be able to cope up with this adjustment.
 Ideal joint should be cheap and economical for setting up and
maintenance.
 It should be durable
 Should provide sufficient elasticity so that vibrations and
shocks can be absorbed.
 It should provide resistance to longitudinal forces developed
due to acceleration, deceleration to reduce creeping effect.
 Joints should be universal type so that they can be used for all
type of sleepers.
Avoidance of joints
 In order to obtain better and smooth running of trains joints
are avoided at the following situations.
 Bridge spans of 6m and below
 Level crossings
 Within 3m of approach of the bridge abutment
Types of Rail Joints
 Types according to position of joints
 Square joints
 Staggered joints
 Types according to position of sleepers
 Suspended joints
 Supported joints
 Bridge joints
 Square joints
 When a joint in one rail is exactly opposite to the joint in the
parallel rail it is called as square joint.
 Very common type of joint in straight track.
 Also most preferred.
 Staggered joints
 When a joint in one rail is exactly opposite to the center of the
parallel rail length it is called as staggered joint.
 Advantages of staggered joints
 Centrifugal force has a tendency to push the track out of line.
Since the joints are weakest points they are more vulnerable.
But staggered joints resist them to a great extent.
 More uniform vertical continuity of the track is formed
 Produce more smooth running than square joints
 Possibility of forming kinks will be decreases
  Decreases the vertical disturbance of wheels
 Number of impacts at joints are doubled but intensity is halved
 Number sleepers per rail length will be increased by one.
 Staggered joints are more adopted on sharp curves and not
favoured on straight track.
 It is not a rigid rule to fix the rail exactly at the center.
Suspended Joints
 The rail joint when placed at the center of 2 consecutive
sleepers is known as suspended joint.
 Load is equally distributed on sleepers
 When the joint is pressed down both the rail ends are pressed
down evenly.
 More commonly adopted
 Provide greater elasticity to the track
 Cause less disturbance to the wave motion of track
 Require more maintenance
Supported Joints
 Sleeper is placed exactly below the joint
 It appears like rails are supported at weakest part.
 These are not used at present
 Supported joint did not give sufficient support to the heavy axle
loads
 If the joint is packed too hard it prevents it from settling at
times
 It leads to the battering of rails as wave motion is not carried
uniformly.
Bridge joints
 It is similar to suspended joint.
 Difference is here, a sufficient length of metal is used to
connect the ends of 2 rails, so that there is no bending stress
in the rail.
 Bridge is placed at bottom of rails and rests on sleepers
 Sleepers at the end will have to be notched out at the sides or
will have to be placed at a lower level than other sleepers to
accommodate bridge.
Bridge joints
 The end sleepers are supposed to work as unyielding fixed
supports.
 But practically they are not working as fixed unyielding
supports.
 As a compromise between supported and bridge joints Indian
railways provide semi-supported joints.
 Sleepers at rail joints are bought close here in this case.
Welding of rails
 To join two rails and thus increase the length of rail
 To repair the worn out or damaged rails and thus increase
their life
 To built up the damaged components of points and crossings
Advantages of Welding
 Increases the life of rails due to decrease in wear at ends
 Decrease in maintenance cost to 25%
 Smooth functioning of track
 Decrease in creep
 Welded rails better for electrified tracks
 Better for large bridges as rails of length equal to each span
give better performance and reduce the effect of impact
 Welding of rails result in decrease in construction cost due to
less number of joints
 Fast and heavy traffic can be permitted on the track
 Tractive effort is reduced due to elimination of energy losses
at joints
 Risks of sabotages and accidents are reduced
 More stability in lateral, longitudinal, vertical directions of
track
Welding of Rails
 Welding methods
 Gas pressure welding
 Electric arc welding/Metal arc welding
 Flash butt welding
 Thermit welding
 Looking at the advantages, requirements and facilities
available one of the methods is chosen.
Gas Pressure Welding
 2 different types of gases – oxygen, acetylene
 Kept in 2 different cylinders
 Burned at 1200C temperature
 Metal rails butted together and welding done.
 Metal flows from rails to form a single section
 Cheaper, good quality but limited outputs
Electric Arc Welding
 2 rails are treated as 2 different terminals.
 Electric current is passed across the gap of butted rails using
different techniques.
 Insert plate technique
 Scheron process
 Enclosed space technique
 Current produces heat to melt the electrode kept in the gap
 Electrode will have same metal composition as rail
 This method can also be used for repair works
Comparison of flash butt and thermit
welding
Flash butt welding Chemical/Thermit welding
 Principle of welding:  Exothermic chemical
passing 35000 amp of reaction between fe 2O3
electric current and Al at a temp of 2450C
 Quality of weld: excellent  Good
 Strength of weld: good in  Weak in fatigue
fatigue
 Time required: 3 – 6 mins  10 – 12 mins/ 30-45mins
conventional
Comparison of flash butt and thermit
welding
Flash butt welding Thermit welding
 Place of welding:  At site
workshop/site
 Cost of welding: less
 High

 Tolerances: Very tight

 Control on quality:
controlled using welding  No monitoring possible
recorder
Sleepers
and
Ballast
Sleepers
 Functions : in a railway track sleepers add to the stability of
the pavement. Following are the functions.
 Supports the rails firmly
 Maintains the uniform gauge on track
 Distributes the weight coming on the rails over a sufficiently
large area of ballast
 Acts as an elastic medium between rails and ballast to absorb
vibrations of trains
 Provides for easy replacement of rail fastenings without
disturbing traffic
Sleepers
 Functions…contd.
 Permits insulation of track for electrified sections
 Maintain the track at proper grade by allowing raising of the
rails and tamping the required quantity of ballast
 To maintain the alignment of track
 Transfers the load from rails to ballast
Requirement of sleepers
 Following are the requirement of good sleepers
 They should maintain correct gauge
 Rails should be easily fixed and taken out from the sleepers
without moving them
 Sleepers should provide sufficient bearing area for the rail
 Sleepers should provide sufficient weight for the stability
 They should be sufficiently strong to act as a beam under loads
 They should provide sufficient effective bearing area on the
ballast
 They should not be pushed out easily of their position in any
direction even under the maximum forces of moving trains
Requirement of sleepers…contd..
 Design should be such that packing and tamping should not
damage them
 Should be economical in initial as well as in maintenance cost
 Fittings of the sleepers should be such that rails can be easily
adjusted during maintenance operations
 If track circuiting is required, it should be possible to insulate
them from rails
 They should be able to bear the stresses
 Should not be too heavy, nor too light
 Design and spacing should be such that ballast packing can be
done easily and effectively in less time.
Types of Sleepers
 Depending upon the position in a railway track, the
sleepers may be classified as follows
 Longitudinal sleepers
 Transverse sleepers
 Timber or Wooden sleepers
 Steel sleepers
 Cast iron sleepers
 Concrete sleepers
Longitudinal sleepers
 Early form of sleepers
 Consisted of slabs of stones or pieces of timber placed
parallel to rails
 Cross pieces were provided at intervals to maintain the
correct gauge of track
 At present these sleepers are not in use because,
 Running of train not smooth
 Cost is more
 More noise is created
 Etc.,
Transverse sleepers
 Also called as cross-sleepers
 First introduced in UK in year 1835
 Highly popular, and most used in railways at present
 Most of the disadvantages of longitudinal sleepers are taken
care
 Depending on the type of material used for manufacturing these
sleepers, classified into different types:
 Timber sleepers
 Steel sleepers
 Cast iron sleepers
 Concrete sleepers
Timber sleepers
 Also called as wooden sleepers
 Fulfils most of the requirements of ideal sleeper
 Used universally
 Teak wood is considered as best
 But due to high cost, mainly used as sleepers for girder
bridges
 Salwood, Deodar, fir and chirwood are used as alternatives
where those are easily available
 At present usage and manufacturing decreased because of the
advent of new type of sleepers
Timber Sleepers - Features
 Utility:
 Very much useful for heavy loads and high speeds
 Life:
 Depends on various factors such as climatic conditions, intensity
and nature of traffic, quality of wood, method of packing, type
of fastening, protection against mechanical wear etc.,
 Treatment:
 Liable to be attacked by vermins hence treatment required to
have more resistance.
 Preservatives are used for this purpose.
 Solutions used for timber sleepers are zinc chloride, creosote
solution, salt solution or bi chloride of mercury salt.
Timber sleepers - Features
 The methods of zinc chloride solution and mercury salt
solutions are known as burnettising and kyanizing respectively.
 Some times sleepers are just painted.
 Corrosion:
 Not corroded
 Insulation:
 Ideal for track circuited section as they are good insulators
 Size:
 Depends on the load coming and quality of wood.
 Depending on the treatment i.e., treated or not, size of wooden
sleepers are standardized by Indian railways.
 However, longer sleepers
upto length 488cm are
used for bridges with open
flooring, points and
crossings.
 Section of sleepers is also
increased by 300x160mm.
 Rectangular, half round
shapes are used often.
Timber sleepers - Features
 Driving of spikes:
 spikes should be driven carefully through the sleeper
 Else damaged, gauge will be disturbed
 Name and year:
 Name of wood used and year of laying the sleepers is normally
marked on the top surface of sleeper.
 Normally nails with letters and markings were used before but
not used these days
 Adzing:
 Wooden sleepers are adzed or cut at rail seat to get a slope of 1
in 20 when un canted bearing plates are used.
Timber sleepers - Features
 Adzed surface will be treated normally with tar or creosote
 Improper adzing leads to uneven surface for the rails.
 Further creeping and other types of damage will occur
 Storage:
 Large area exposed to air and ventilation is normally used
 Care will be taken so that sun do not fall directly on the
sleepers
 Stack is some times covered with earth to prevent fire accidents
 Ground on which sleepers stack are placed should be above
ground on platform supported by moisture proof surface.
Timber Sleepers as Bridge sleepers
 Thicker than standard sleepers. Minimum depth of sleepers
without fastenings should be 150, 125 and 125 mm for BG,
MG and NG respectively
 Length of sleepers is D+30 cm. D is out side distance
between edges of parallel girders
 Should not be adzed
 Necessary to provide bearing plates
 Should be placed sufficiently close to prevent the wheels of
derailed train falling through the space between the adjacent
sleepers. Max space is 50, 30, 25 cm for BG, MG and NG
respectively.
Composite Sleeper Index (CSI)
 Forest research institute, Dehradun arrived at a formula
taking different strength parameters into account for the use
of timber for sleepers
 An index number is worked out using this formula with
which we can identify whether a timber can be used or not
for sleeper
 Chir – 54
 Deodar – 63
 Fir – 58
 Sal – 112
 Teak - 82
Composite Sleeper Index (CSI)
 Minimum CSI values for different sleepers are as follows
 Bridge sleepers – 1455
 Crossing sleepers – 1352
 Track sleepers –783
 Bearing plates are used in case timber has a CSI value less
than 82.
 CSI = (S+10H)/20
 S = strength index of timber at 12% moisture
 H = Hardness index of timber at 12% moisture
Timber Sleepers - Advantages
 Less no of fittings
 Simplistic design
 Suitable for all types of ballast
 Easy to lay, relay, pack, lift and maintain
 Less noisy track
 Economical overall
 Obtained in different sized and lengths for easy
adoptability at certain locations viz., bridges, crossings etc
 Permits track circuiting
 Damage during derailments is less
 Can be placed on yielding formations because of more
bearing area
 Possible to widen the gauge easily with wooden sleepers
Timber Sleepers - Disadvantages
 Difficult to maintain gauge
 High maintenance cost
 Less useful period
 Easily disturbed from their positions
 Easily subjected to wear and decay due to various forces and
causes
 Require special treatment for protection
 Possess less scrap value
 Steel Sleepers
 Extensively used in Indian railways
 Consist of steel troughs made of 6mm thick steel sheets
 Both ends bent down to check the running out of ballast
 2 types
 1. Jaws or lugs pressed out of metal and keys are used for holding
the rail. At the time of pressing cant of 1 in 20 is also provided for
the rails
 2. holes are made in the sleepers and clips, bolts are used for
fixing the rail.
 For fixing the rails, first rails are inserted into the lugs and
wedges/keys are fixed on both sides of rails. Gauge can be
adjusted with the help of keys.
Steel Sleepers
Steel Sleepers - Characteristics
 Life:
 Useful life of steel sleepers is taken as 30 to 40 years on a
normal route
 On high density traffic routes it can be taken as about 20 years
 Track provide with steel sleepers doesn’t require much
attention as renewal is not frequent.
 Corrosion:
 Steel sleepers not liable to be attacked by vermins
 But easily corroded due to moisture. Hence, treatment is done
to protect against corrosion.
Steel Sleepers - Characteristics
 Insulation:
 Cannot be used in electrification of track. As they are not good
insulators.
 Details:
 Consist of a trough or channel made of steel plate about 6mm
thick.
 Ends bent down to prevent running of ballast
 Rails are fixed with steel sleepers by the help of keys to the
pressed up lugs.
Steel Sleepers - Requirements
 Should be possible to fix the rails easily in sleepers with out
disturbing the sleepers
 Should be possible to insulate them easily incase at place
where track circuiting exists.
 Rail should have enough bearing area
 Thickness and shape should be such that they will be strong
as beams
 Capable of maintaining correct gauge
 Should be designed in such a way that tamping or packing
should not damage the edges
Steel Sleepers - Requirements
 Should be sufficiently heavy for the purpose of stability
 Should have effective bearing area on the ballast
 Should not be capable of being easily pushed out of position.
 Etc.,
Steel Sleepers - Advantages
 Less fastenings, simple in nature
 Maintenance and adjustment of gauge are easy with steel sleepers
 Manufacturing process of steel sleepers is simple in design and
operation
 Are available in one piece
 Possess good scrap value
 Light in weight, easy handling
 Meets requirement of long welded track in cases
 Good anti creep sleeper
 Behaves better in the case of yielding formation.
Steel Sleepers - Disadvantages
 Cost of steel sleepers is high
 Cracks develop at rail seat
 Rounded ends of sleepers prevent lateral shift
 Liable to corrosion
 Are not good insulators
 Excess damage during derailment
 Steel sleepers are difficult to pack at the rail joints because of
their close spacing.
 Leads to battering of rails
Cast-iron sleepers
 Were adopted on indian railways since 1870
 More than 50 % of the sleepers are made of cast iron as of
2000
 They are generally of the following types
 Pot sleepers
 Plate sleepers
 Box sleepers
 C.S.T.- 9 sleepers
 Duplex sleepers
 Pot sleepers are in the form of two bowls placed under each
rail and connected together by a tie-bar
 Total effective area of the both pot sleepers is kept 0.46sq.m
which is equal to effective bearing area of a wooden sleeper.
 Two holes are provided under each sleeper for inspection and
packing ballast
 And the rail seat is given a slope of 1 in 20.
 Both the pots are connected together with a tie bar with
necessary fittings such as keys, gibs and cotters.
 Plate sleepers consist of a plate of 851x254mm in
dimensions, with 254mm side parallel to the rails.
 Both sleepers provide an effective bearing area of 0.46sq.m
under each rail.
 Plate is provided with projecting rib in the bottom to provide
a grip in the ballast to check the lateral movement of sleeper.
 At the top plate stiffeners are provided to increase the
strength.
 Sleeper plates are connected by means of a tie rod.
 C.S.T. – 9 Sleepers: These are more satisfactory than other
type of CI sleepers.
 It is actually a combination of plate, pot and box sleeper.
 It essentially consists of a triangular inverted pot on either
side of the rail seat.
 Suitable rail seat or rail chair is provided at the top to hold
rails at 1 in 20 cant.
 Two pieces of sleeper are connected by means of a tie rod.
 Cast-iron sleepers - characteristics
 Details:
 C.I sleepers consists of 2 pots or plates with ribs below and
connected by a wrought iron tie bar of section of about
51x13mm.
 Each pot or plate is placed below each rail.
 Shape of pot or plate is used to be circular prior. But present,
oval shape with larger diameter 610mm and smaller diameter
508mm is preferred.
 Each pot is provided with holes for packing ballast and
inspection.
 Plate sleepers consist of rectangular plates of size about
864x305mm.
 The projecting ribs are kept below for their lateral stability.
 Tie bars can be fixed by keys, gibs, cotters and distance pieces.
Cast-iron sleepers - characteristics
 Scrap value:
 Possess considerable scrap value. Broken pots and plates can be
melted and reused for preparing new pots and plates.
 Maintenance of gauge:
 In case of CI sleepers there is no rigid connection between 2
separate supports. Hence difficult to maintain the correct
gauge.
 Fittings:
 The cast iron sleepers require a large number of fittings than
any other type of sleepers.
Cast-iron sleepers - characteristics
 Handling:
 The C.I. Sleepers are liable to be broken and seriously damaged,
if roughly handled.
 Life:
 The usual life of C.I. Sleepers may be taken as 35 to 50 years in
normal routes.
 15 to 20 years in heavy traffic routes.
 The service life can be increased by proper packing , clean
ballast, providing coal tar to tie-bar etc.
Cast-iron sleepers - Advantages
 It can be easily dismantled and assembled. Hence, transport
is easy even though it is heavy.
 Can tolerate certain amount of rough handling.
 Possess high scrap value
 Good longitudinal and lateral resistance
 Shape is well suited for ballast packing and skill required for
its maintenance is minimum
 Adjustment in gauge can be done ( about 5mm) with help of
cotters in case if it is needed.
 Sleeper is not affected by the random or irregular dropping
of fire by the steam engines.
Cast-iron sleepers - Disadvantages
 During derailment damage is excessive and it requires more time
for restoration.
 Not suitable for circuiting of track.
 Leads to early wear of sleeper because of small bearing area at the
rail seat.
 Not suitable for modern methods of maintenance
 Possess poor ability to retain the packing due to its rigid
fastenings.
 It takes about 6 months for proper consolidation after complete
track renewal and sleeper renewal.
 When these sleepers are used, rails have longer unsupported
length and may therefore lead to battering of rails.
Concrete Sleepers - characteristics
 Type:
 Can be made of R.C.C or pre-stressed concrete.
 Weight:
 Weight of concrete sleepers varies from 150 to 300kg which is
more than wooden or metal sleepers.
 This provides more stability to track.
 Life:
 Good durability
 Useful life of about 30 to 25 years on high density routes
Concrete sleepers - characteristics
 Suitability:
 Most suitable for welded tracks
 Dead weight of entire track assembly including sleepers play an
important role in the design of welded rail track.
 Since, weight is more they perform better under welded rails
 Fastenings:
 Should firmly hold the rail to resist creep
 Should be easily dis-engaged and re-engaged
 Different types of fastening equipment is available for concrete
sleepers.
 Ideal fastenings for sleepers and rails will differ according to the
type of track, type of traffic and the climatic conditions.
Concrete sleepers - characteristics
 Special PSC sleepers have been developed to meet with the
special requirement of different locations such as sharp
curves, level crossings with facilities for providing check rails,
guard rails etc.,
 Mass production:
 Mass production techniques are to be adopted for the design and
manufacture of sleepers.
 Economical production of concrete of high strength, handling of
sleepers, good plant design, accelerated hardening of sleepers
etc., have to be taken care off.
 Initial cost of concrete sleepers will be very high, but
maintenance and other things will be economical because of
long life.
 Concrete sleepers - characteristics
 Environmental protection:
 These PSC sleepers are environmental friendly.
 Conserves forest.
 Structural advantages:
 Have lot of structural advantages
 Center to center distance can be increased by 20% compared to
timber sleepers
 Deflection under loading is much less
 Improves lateral, longitudinal and vertical stability
 Reduced bending stresses, reduced wear of rolling track, less
chance of derailment, reduction in tractive effort etc.
Concrete sleepers - Advantages
 High electrical resistance
 Good resistance to abrasion
 Increased bond resulting in shorter transmission length.
 Increased impermeability
 Reduction in loss of pre-stress due to reduction in shrinkage,
creep and elastic shortening
 Very high fatigue strength.
Concrete sleepers - Drawbacks
 The damage during derailment is excessive
 Possess no scrap value
 Require complete machanisation in handling
 Requires use of superior and costly technology for
manufacture.
Sleeper Density
 No of sleepers present in a given length of rail
 Spacing of sleepers is indicated by formula n+x
 n = length of rail
 x = no of sleepers more than n.
 Sleepers density depends on several factors:
 Lateral thrust of locomotives to which the track is subjected
 Axle –load which the track is expected to carry
 Sleepers density cannot be increased indefinitely – minimum
spacing is required for packing ballast and maintenance.
 Wooden sleepers 300mm (for BG), 250mm (for MG)
 Metal sleepers 380mm (for BG), 330mm (for MG)
Sleeper density
 In case of staggered joints an extra sleeper is required
 Sleepers are placed nearer at rail joints compared to other
locations.
 In n+x expression, x value is fixed by indian railway
considering the following:
 Axle load and speed
 Type of ballast and ballast cushion
 Type and section of rails
 Type of sleeper and its bearing area on the ballast.
Ballast
 Material placed between the sleeper and top of the formation
is known as ballast.
 Load from the wheels will be taken up by the ballast through
rails and sleepers.
 Ballast serves as foundation of railway track and is present
just below the sleepers.
Ballast - Functions
 To provide a hard and smooth surface for the ballast to rest
on
 Hold the sleepers in place during the passage of trains
 To transmit and distribute the load from sleepers to
formation
 Allow for maintaining correct track levels without disturbing
the rail road bed.
 Protect the surface of formation from direct exposure to sun,
frost or rain.
 To form an elastic bed
Ballast - Functions
 To drain the water immediately and keep the sleepers in dry
condition
 To discourage the growth of vegetation
 To resist lateral, longitudinal and vertical displacement of
track.
 Requirements of ideal material for
ballast
 Should be possible to main uniform depth of material for
uniformly distributing the load to formation
 Should provide sufficient grip over the sleepers to prevent their
movement
 Ballast should not be too rigid, it should be elastic in nature.
 Material of ballast should not be brittle, should possess required
compressive strength.
 Should provide good drainage facility.
 Should be cheap and easily available.
 Should not have any chemical action on rail and metal sleepers
 Should be durable and abrasion resistant
Ballast Materials
 Broken stone
 Gravel
 Ashes or cinders
 Sand
 Kankar
 Moorum
 Brickbats
 Selected earth
Broken stone
 One of the best material, but expensive.
 Many important tracks are having stone ballast
 Possesses all characteristics of good ballast
 It has good interlocking characteristics, due to that it holds
track in correct alignment and gradient
 It is resistant to abrasion, provides good drainage.
 Stones which are non-porous, hard and tough should be used
as ballast
 Granite is best material. But quartize, sandstone, limestone
are also used.
Gravel
 It is next best material after broken stone. It consists of smooth
rounded fragments obtained from river beds and other natural
deposits.
 Washing should be done for the material obtained from pits
 Uniform and required size of aggregates should be used.
 Rounded pieces are sometimes broken to improve interlocking
properties.
 Advantages:
 Cheaper than stone ballast
 Good drainage property
 Disadvantages:
 Easily rolls down due to vibration
 Screening is required because of non uniformity in size
 Ashes or Cinders
 The residue from the coal used in locomotives and other furnaces
is known as the ashes or cinders.
 It is by product of railway systems which are run by coal fuel
 Advantages
 Good drainage properties. Used in yards to keep them dry
 Handling is easy
 Low cost and easily available.
 Can be used for repairing formation, and packing during emergency.
 Disadvantages:
 Very soft, easily becomes powder hence track becomes dusty.
 Corrosive in nature
 Foot of rail gets affected often when this ballast is used.
Sand
 Coarse sand is preferred to fine sand
 Not used in main and branch lines. Used only in some
unimportant lines, sidings, yards.
 Advantages:
 If sand is pure, possesses excellent drainage property
 Produces a silent track
 Cheap and easily available
 Disadvantages:
 Frequent renewal is required
 Disturbed easily by vibrations. More maintenance required.
 Causes more friction, and leads to abrasion and wearing.
Kankar
 Found in many places
 Suitable only if other types of material is not available and if
the traffic is less on metre gauge and narrow gauge
 It becomes powder very easily and hence not prefered
 More maintenance is required if used
 Moorum
 Decomposition of laterite results in the formation of moorum
 Present in red/yellow colour
 Used for unimportant lines and sidings
 Advantages:
 Can be safely used on newly laid track. It serves as soling when
the stone ballast is laid afterwards
 Possesses good drainage properties
 Disadvantages:
 Soft and turns into dust very easily
 Maintenance is very difficult
 Brick bats
 Over burnt bricks are broken into suitable sizes and used as
ballast
 Advantages:
 Useful at places where suitable material is not available
 Good drainage properties
 Disadvantages:
 Turns into powder form very easily
 Track becomes dusty and high maintenance is required.
 Rails are often corrugated on tracks where brick bats are used as
ballast
Selected earth
 For sidings and newly constructed tracks, selected earth of
suitable quantity is sometimes used as ballast
 The main purpose of using earth on new formation is to
prevent the loss of valuable and expensive ballast sinking into
the soft formation.
 Specifications of Stone ballast
 Quality:
 Should be durable, hard, resilient to impact and free from adherent
coatings.
 Should not contain more than 10% by weight of quarry dust,
rubbish or any other matter which passes through 5mm sieve
 Faces of ballast should result from crushing, only one smooth
surface is allowed
 Size:
 20 to 50mm size with reasonable proportion of intermediate sizes.
 50mm – wooden and CI spot sleepers
 40mm – CST -9 sleepers
 25mm – points and crossing
Specifications of
stone ballast
 grading:
 Ballast should be well graded
 Sampling:
 Sample of ballast is collected
at the rate of 1cu.m per 2000cu.m.
 Over sized ballast:
 When more than 10% of ballast retains on nominal size sieve it
is called over sized ballast
 Stacking:
 Ballast should be stacked along the quarry siding.
 Height of stack should not be less than 120cm.
Depth of Ballast Section
 Depth of ballast section can be calculated by using the below
formula
 D = (S-b)/2
 Where D – depth of ballast section
 S – sleeper spacing
 b – width of sleeper
 Normally the value ranges in between 20 to 25cm from the
above formula.
Section of Ballast
Screening of Ballast – Ballast Renewal
 Ballast used on the railway track is to be renewed from
time to time due to following reasons
 Ballast gets powdered due to hammering of wheels.
Fills voids in the ballast layer forming impermeability.
 Ballast gets pressed into formation. Available ballast
quantity gets reduced with time. Elasticity will also
gets disturbed.
 To avoid and remove all these effects ballast is cleaned
at regular intervals by means of screening.
Process of screening
 Surface will be normally clean. Hence ballast forks are used
for cleaning.
 Dirty ballast is made loose by means of equipment such as
picks.
 Frames of size 150x120cm with expanded metal mesh are
put parallel to the track.
 Dirty ballast thrown on to the mesh to separate the dirt and
aggregate ballast.
 Required quantity of additional ballast is added to screened
ballast to make up the deficiency.
Rail Fixture and Fastenings
Requirements of ideal fastening
 Good fastening connecting rail and sleeper plays a vital role
in improving the efficiency of railway track.
 Following are some of the requirements of ideal fastenings.
 Capable of absorbing shocks and vibrations
 Capable of giving protection to the sleeper against different
forces
 Provide insulation in case of electrified tracks
Requirements of ideal fastening
 Capable of resisting the creep
 Capable of securing the correct gauge
 Should be economical
 Consist minimum equipment
 Should be durable
 Should be easy to fix and adjust
 Should be non corrosive
 Should have sufficient strength to resist damage due to
derailment
Requirements of ideal fastening
 Should be possible to remove only using special tools
 Should safe guard the alignment in all aspects
 Should not adversely affect the rail and sleepers
 Should not be too rigid
 Adequate strength to resist lateral forces
 Should possess high torque resistance
Fastening for rails
 Following are the fastenings which are used to keep the rails
in their correct position.
 Fish plates
 Spikes, fang-bolts and hook-bolts
 Chairs and keys
 Bearing plates
Fish plates
 Purpose: connecting the rails at the ends
 Holes are drilled through web and rails and fish bolts, nuts
are provided in these holes.
 When bolts, nuts are tightened it forms a continuous track
 Design: The pair of fish plates should have the same strength
in bending as the original rail. This can be achieved by
improving section of fish plate or by using high tension steels.
 For details, types and failures: refer text book
Spikes, fang-bolts, hook-bolts
 Purpose: Spikes are required to hold the rails to the wooden
sleepers.
 Dog spikes
 Screw spikes
 Round spikes
 Elastic spikes
Chairs and keys
 For double headed and bull headed rails chairs are required
to hold them in position.
 These are made of cast iron and help in distributing the load
from rails to sleepers.
 Chairs are fixed with sleepers by means of spikes.
 Keys are required to keep the rail in proper position.