List view / Grid view
26 September 2007 | By Ton Bontekoe, Product Manager – Gotcha, Lloyds Register Rail
Achieving high levels of rail system reliability in all the phases of the life cycle at an optimal cost requires sound information, robust risk based analysis, proper implementation of asset management activities and on-going critical review.
30 July 2007 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor
Recent research has underlined the importance of maintaining rails with regular grinding. The behaviour of the railhead under load used to be an imperfectly understood subject. Research work has broadened the rail industry’s knowledge; now, the question of how rail deteriorates over time and the way in which grinding can…
3 April 2007 | By Klaus Stahl, Manager of Process Maintenance, DB Netz AG
Ensuring efficient breakdown repair management for DB Netz AG means the guarantee of availability of the track system around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
6 February 2007 | By Anders Frick, Track Engineer and Per-Olof Larsson-Kråik, Research and Development Coordinator, Banverket
Over the last few years, rail grinding operations at Banverket in Sweden has become a natural and important part of the total maintenance track work. The number of track metres that were ground during 2006 was almost 1 million (exactly 997272 track metres) and almost 400 switches. The way of…
28 November 2006 | By Andrew McNaughton, Chief Engineer, Network Rail and Global Railway Review Editorial Board Member and Bob Cummings, Head of Track Engineering, Network Rail
The strategy for the maintenance and renewal of track on the Great British network has been transformed over recent years. There is now a well embedded pro-active engineering culture of ‘predict and prevent’, rather than a reactive one of ‘find and fix’.
28 November 2006 | By Neil Jones, Territory Structures Engineer, Network Rail
A £14 million scheme to replace and refurbish the Leven viaduct in South Cumbria was successfully completed by Network Rail on time and within budget in July 2006. The 16 week project is the largest civil engineering bridge scheme in a five-year programme of work in the London North Western…
28 November 2006 | By Philippe Mugg, Technical Director, Vossloh Cogifer SA / Vossloh Switch Systems
At InnoTrans 2006 in Berlin, Vossloh Cogifer SA, a subsidiary of the Vossloh Group, pre-sented not one, but two innovations in turnout technology primarily for high-speed turnouts. These are, on the one hand, a totally new turnout system for slab tracks, and, on the other, a turnout drive system with…
28 November 2006 | By Coenraad Esveld, Professor of Railway Engineering and Global Railway Review Editorial Board Member and Valéri Markine, Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology
Currently, all over the world, non-ballasted track concepts are being applied, although still at a moderate volume. If the low maintenance characteristics of slab track on open line are to be retained, great care must be taken to ensure that the subgrade layers are homogenous and capable of bearing the…
15 September 2006 | By James Abbott, Technical Editor
Keeping on top of the condition of your track can pay dividends in terms of improved ride and reduced maintenance bills. Modern monitoring equipment allows engineers to plan predictive maintenance. Europe’s railways are stepping up spending on track testing and monitoring. Traditionally, track maintenance has been reactive: in this case,…
28 July 2006 | By Dr. Stephan Freudenstein, General Manager of Engineering and Development and Mr. Franz Haban, Project Engineer, RAIL.ONE GmbH
The basis for design work for prestressed-concrete sleepers in Europe is EN 13230, valid since October 2002: “Concrete sleepers and bearers.” A supplement to this standard is UIC 713: “Design of Monoblock Concrete Sleepers,” which provides a design example for a prestressed-concrete sleeper. The design bending moment calculated here accounts…
3 April 2006 | By
The increasing change in traffic towards rail, the opening of the market in European railway traffic and the increasing responsibility for providers of railways make heavy demands on the quality and the availability of the rail infrastructure. Effective and efficient maintenance concepts are sought after more than ever. New ways,…
3 April 2006 | By Ing. Rainer Wenty, General Manager Marketing and Technical Sales, Plasser & Theurer Bahnbaumaschinen GmbH
Whenever the speed or capacity of a line is increased or a new line is built, the application of appropriate track maintenance and upgrading procedures is very important to enable optimal and efficient use of the lines. In addition to that, a high level of comfort and safety has to…
3 April 2006 | By Coenraad Esveld, Professor of Railway Engineering and Valery L. Markine, Assistant Professor of Railway Engineering and Ivan Y. Shevtsov, Researcher of Railway Engineering, TU Delft
Delft University of Technology has developed and successfully implemented a procedure for optimisation of a railway wheel profile. An optimised wheel profile reduces wheel/rail wear and prevents vehicle instability.
3 April 2006 | By Craig Waters
The railway infrastructure market needs excellent, sustainable and economical track solutions – these are the words of Klaus Meusel, Member of the Managing Board, voestalpine Bahnsysteme GmbH & Co KG. However this is not merely commentary; voestalpine Schienen GmbH have invested more than €330m in a new rail manufacturing plant.…
14 February 2006 | By Helmut Zanzinger, SKZ-TeConA GmbH, Würzburg, Germany
The bearing performance of railway embankments on soft ground can be improved by high strength geosynthetic reinforcement products. Under operating conditions, the reinforcement is submitted to static and dynamic forces. The geosynthetic reinforcement products are made out of polymer materials, which show visco-elastic behaviour. Their long term deformation and strength…
