What is Ballast

Ballast is the foundation of railway track and provide just below the sleepers. The loads from the wheels of trains ultimately come on the ballast through rails and sleepers.

Functions of Ballast
Some of the important functions of ballast are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. To provide firm and level bed for the sleepers to rest on To allow for maintaining correct track level without disturbing the rail road bed To drain off the water quickly and to keep the sleepers in dry conditions To discourage the growth of vegetation To protect the surface of formation and to form an elastic bed To hold the sleepers in position during the passage of trains To transmit and distribute the loads from the sleepers to the formation

Requirements for Ideal Ballast

The ideal material for ballast should fulfill the following requirements 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. It should be possible to maintain the required depth of the material in order to distribute the load of passing train on the formation ground The material to be used for ballast should not be too rigid but it should be elastic in nature The material for ballast should be of such nature that it grips the sleepers in position and prevent their horizontal movement during passage of train It should not allow the rain water to accumulate but should be able to drain off the water immediately without percolating It should be strong enough a resistance to abrasion

Materials for Ballast

The following materials are used for ballast on the railway track. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 8. Broken Stone Gravel Cinders / Ashes Sand Kankar Moorum Brick Ballast Selected Earth Read More To provide lateral stability to the track as a whole

To construct anything haphazardly is not engineering. Prior to survey the available maps of proposed area are studied. This helps in fixing suitable alignment facilitate various surveys work. The various engineering surveys which are carried out for the choice of route of a new railway line can broadly be divided in to three categories.

1. 2. 3.

Reconnaissance Survey Preliminary Survey Location Survey

1. Reconnaissance Survey
A reconnaissance survey is the first engineering survey which is carried out in territory which has not been previously surveyed for the purpose of laying a new railway line. The main objects of reconnaissance survey are as follows:

To obtain a general knowledge of the whole territory and To obtain information regarding the salient feature of the territory.

Importance of Reconnaissance Survey

By reconnaissance survey, a number of possible alternative routes between two points can be worked out. This information becomes useful at a later stage in the selection of best possible route between two points. The successful conduct of the reconnaissance survey entirely depends on the personal qualities and abilities of engineers such as training and experience, capacity of observation and interpretation of the features of the territory etc.

Reconnaissance Survey and Information Gathered

The information are generally gathered in the following two categories

Traffic Reconnaissance Survey Engineering Reconnaissance Survey

Traffic Reconnaissance Survey

This consists of collection of the information regarding the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. General character of the country and extent of cultivation Local industries and religious festivals The general conditions such as prosperity of people in the locality and density of population and its distribution The probable amount of traffic to be served by a new railway line The probable new traffic lines to be opened up to join large trade centers Nature and volume of exports and their destination and origin The amount of imports and centers of their distribution Possibilities of development of new industries and irrigation schemes as a result of new railway lines

Engineering Reconnaissance Survey

Engineering Reconnaissance Survey, the following information is collected 1. 2. 3. Physical features of a country The surface formation of the ground Nature of soil

4. 5.

Streams and rivers in the area especially those likely to be crossed by the track, their direction of flow, approximate width and depth Positions of hills and lakes

Instruments Used in Reconnaissance Survey

Aneroid Barometer Prismatic Compass Binocular telescope Pedometer

2. Preliminary Survey
The object of preliminary survey is 1. 2. 3. To conduct the survey work along the alternative routes (found out by reconnaissance survey) with the help of theodolite and leveling instruments To determine the greater accuracy the cost of railway line along these alternative routes involving cost of removing obstruction, construction of bridges etc To decide the most economical and efficient route

Importance of Preliminary Survey

The preliminary surveys decide the final route and recommend only one particular route in preference to other alternative routes. Thus, the preliminary survey should be carried out with greater precision as the alignment of final route depends on it.

Works of Preliminary Survey

The x-sections of all representative points along the route and feature of the country are marked. The cross sections are taken at 500ft interval normally. Similarly where the route crosses a river, the river is surveyed in detail for about one mile on either the upstream and downstream sides. The detail maps are prepared and the cost of different alternatives is calculated accurately to select the most economic routes.

Instrument Used in Preliminary Survey

Dumpy level Prismatic compass Tachometer Plane table Appropriate helping instruments

3. Location Survey
It is the final survey used to locate the centre line of the railway line the main object of this survey is to carry out the detaile3d survey along the route which has been fixed as the most economical route from the data of preliminary survey.

Importance of Location Survey

The location survey established the center line of actual track to be laid and hence as soon as the location survey is completed, the construction work is started.

Work of Location Survey

The location survey is carried out in two stages

Paper Location Field Location

Paper Location
The final route selected is put up on paper and details such as gradient, curves, contours etc are worked out. The long sections and formation levels are sorted out and working drawings are prepared for all small and large structures.

Field Location
The field location transfers the paper location to the ground to have a good profile as in paper location. It also gives the requirements of the construction engineer such as benchmarks, levels, measurements etc. The centre line pegs are driven at every 1000 ft or 300 m along the centre line of the track. Every change in direction, the beginning and end of a curve and the intersection of tangents are clearly marked. Sufficient benchmarks are established at a distance not more than miles along the alignment to which levels can be referred and gradients can be transferred. The centre line and other pegs are surrounded by stone masonry or concrete pillars on which the changes and levels are marked. The centre lines of culverts, bridges, tunnels, stations buildings, yards, signal cabins etc should also be fixed. The construction work should also be possible after completion of location survey.

Instruments Used in Location Survey

Theodolite Precise Level Steel Tape

Coning of Wheel
The rim or flanges of the wheels are never made flat but they are in the shape of a cone with a slope of about 1 to 20. This is known as coning of wheels. The coning of wheels is manly done to maintain the vehicle in the central position with respect to the track. When the vehicle is moving on leveled track then the flanges of wheels have equal circumference. But when the vehicle is moving along a curved path then in this case the outer wheel has to cover a greater distance then that of inner wheel. Also as the vehicle has a tendency to move sideways towards the outer rail, the circumferences of the flanges of the inner wheel and this will help the outer wheel to cover a longer distance than the inner wheel. In this ways smooth riding is produced by means of coning of wheels.

Coning Wheels Disadvantages

Coning wheels has the following disadvantages: 1. In order to minimize the above below disadvantages the tilting of rails is done. i.e. the rails are not laid flat but tilted inwards by using inclined base plates sloped at 1 in 20 which is also the slope of coned surface of wheels. The pressure of the horizontal component near the inner edge of the rail has a tendency to wear the rail quickly. The horizontal components tend to turn the rail outwardly and hence the gauge is widened sometimes. If no base plates are provided, sleepers under the outer edge of the rails are damaged. In order to minimize the above mentioned disadvantages the tilting of rails is done. i.e. the rails are not laid flat but tilted inwards by using inclined base plates sloped at 1 in 20 which is also the slope of coned surface of wheels.

2. 3. 4. 5.

Advantages of Tilting of Rails

1. 2. 3. It maintains the gauge properly. The wear at the head of rail is uniform. It increases the life of sleepers and the rails.