Railway Maintenance

Maintenance of Rail Joints

• Metal burrs at the end of rail joints should be removed in time to avoid short-circuiting.
• Fish bolts at insulated joints must be kept tight, and sleepers packed well in the vicinity of joints.
• Rail ends should be kept free from brake dust, dirt, sand, rust, and other foreign materials.

Maintenance of Glued Insulated Joints

• Ballast used in track in the vicinity of glued insulated joints should be clean to ensure efficient packing and drainage.
• Care should be taken to ensure that the ballast is clear of rails and rail fastenings.
• In glued joints, no relative movement occurs between rails and fishplates; if failure occurs, the damaged joint shall be refurbished/replaced.

Laying of PSC Plain Track Sleepers

• PSC Sleepers shall be laid and maintained square to the rails on straights and radially on curves, and rail joints should be suspended.
• Relaying with Mechanical Equipment should be adopted while carrying out track renewals with concrete sleepers.
• The preliminary work prior to relaying at site, the actual relaying process, and the post-relaying operations are described in detail in “IRTMM”.

Systematic Tamping of Plain Track and Points & Crossings

• Systematic tamping of plain track and Points & Crossings should be planned on long continuous lengths based on results of TRC/OMS.
• Deployment of Tamping Machines should be based on results of TRC/OMS, past history of deterioration of track, traffic GMT, type of formation, condition of track and its components.

Pre-requisites to Introduction of Mechanical Maintenance

• A minimum depth of 150 mm of clean ballast cushion below the bottom of the sleepers is recommended for the proper functioning of the tie tampers.
• Adequate ballast should be available in the shoulders and cribs.
• Time allowance for working the machines should be provided in the working timetable.
• It is the responsibility of both the Operating Department and the Engineering Department to ensure provision of adequate time for economical working of machines.

Pre-tamping Attention

• Ballasting where there is a shortage of ballast.
• Heaping up of ballast in the tamping zone to ensure effective packing.
• Making up of low cess.
• Cleaning of pumping joints and providing additional clean ballast, where necessary.
• Attention to hogged joints before tamping.
• Tightening of all fittings and fastenings like fish bolts and elastic fastenings and replacement of worn-out fittings.
• Renewing broken and damaged sleepers.
• Squaring of sleepers and spacing adjustment; re-gauging to be done as necessary.
• Adjusting creep and expansion gap in rails.
• Examination of rails for cracks, sleepers, and fastenings, etc.
• Survey for Realignment of curves, which are badly out of alignment.
• Clearing of ballast on sleepers to make them visible to the operator.
• All obstructions such as signal rods, cables, pipes, level crossing check rails, joggled fish plates, etc., likely to be damaged by the tampers should be preferably removed.

Observance of Sleepers under Passage of Traffic

• Gang Mate and Track Maintainers should stand on the cess each about one rail-length apart on either side of the portion of track they are attending to, and observe the movement of sleepers under load.
• Immediately after the passing of the train, loose sleepers should be marked, packed uniformly, and the packing tested.

Systematic Overhauling

• The length of the section to be overhauled shall be such that complete overhauling of track will be accomplished within a specific period (normally 3 to 5 years).
• Overhauling should be done using SBCM for cleaning of shoulder ballast.
• The crib ballast should also be shifted to shoulders for screening by the machine, which should again be put back in crib portion.