Self-stabilizing Track
Konkan Railway has developed something they call self-stabilising track, which aims to reduce or even eliminate the problem of ballast being de-compacted and dispersing under the action of vibrations set up by moving trains.
The ballast in this system is laid on the track bed pre-compacted with constraining 'cages' that hold large amounts of...
more... ballast together. These cages or ballast elements are of several modular shapes, 'L' or 'T', etc., and are placed in interlocking ways on the track bed. The effect is not only to prevent the ballast from spreading under the action of vibrations, but to improve ride quality by changing the vibration characteristics since the inertial mass responding to the impact from the train is larger.
A thin sheet of rubber or polyethylene between the sleepers and the top of the track bed further modifies the vibration characteristics. The ballast elements are constructed of such a shape that the vibrations tend to wedge them more firmly together. The expectation is that ballast maintenance will be much reduced for such tracks.
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