On the Benefits of Rail Maintenance

Date
1997-03
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Railway Engineering Association
Abstract
Rail grinding is the process of removal of metal from the top surface of the rail head through the use of abrasive grinding materials. Rail grinding has been used by freight railroads and transit systems since the late 1930's for the elimination of rail surface defects. Those early applications used relatively unsophisticated rail grinding cars for the elimination of corrugations, engine burns, and batter at rail ends. During the next 4+ decades, grinding techniques improved, using primarily rotating grinding stones mounted on dedicated rail grinding cars or sets of cars, referred to as grinding trains. During this period, the application of rail grinding was extended to numerous types of rail surface defects to include; corrugations, joint batter, weld batter, engine burns, flaking and shelling, as well as for the grinding of mill scale from new rail [1]1. This mode of grinding for defect elimination, often referred to as “rail rectification”, remained the primary use of rail grinding from the early applications in the 1930's until the 1980's. [2]. During the period starting in early 1980, however, this defect elimination or rectification approach started to give way to the rail "maintenance" or "preventive" grinding approach. This latter approach does not allow surface defects to develop to any significant extent, but rather attempts to eliminate the development of these surface defects before they emerge on the rail head. It also makes extensive use of rail profile grinding techniques to control the shape of the rail head and the wheel/rail contact zones. A key driver to the development and implementation of this new approach was the development of a new generation of higher speed fully automatic rail grinding equipment that allowed for use of multiple grinding patterns and the real time variation of those patterns while grinding. This evolution from traditional grinding to maintenance grinding and the concurrent use of profile control has resulted in a significant broadening of the use of rail maintenance grinding techniques to increasing the service life and reduce the overall cost of rail in track. It has also led to improvements in wheel/rail dynamic interaction and the reduction of wheel/rail forces in both the vertical and horizontal plane (depending on specific profiles used). This reduction in dynamic interaction (and forces) results in improved rail life, noise reduction, and reduced damage to both the track structure and the rolling stock.
Description
Keywords
Rail Grinding, Rail Maintenance
Citation
Zarembski, A. M., “On the Benefits of Rail Maintenance Grinding”, American Railway Engineering Association Annual Technical Conference, Bulletin 760, Volume 98, Chicago, IL, March 1997.