This post follows up from the Faith of TGSD Calculator. Before my four year too late discussion with David Marriott I wrongly believed that the TGSD Calculator computes a special kind of uncompensated accelerations that appear only at the points where any design element changes to another and turns those into a wave-like shape that…
Motto: “I am not the Messiah!”, Brian [Later edit: I wrote this during the pandemic, not in a very happy state of mind, nostalgic about good old and normal times, and dreaming of white whales. It is a personal opinion and, to a degree, an expression of powerless frustration. Don’t take it too seriously!] For…
Perhaps I’m splitting hairs here, but it is a fair question to ask: When a 20 m rail is 20 m long? Please, have your say and feel free to comment below, after voting! And this is not a trap question like “Which weighs more: 1 kg of steel rail or 1 kg of feathers?”. Later edit: By…
This is the presentation I gave to the West of England Section of the Permanent Way Institution:
There are three types of versines used for the track realignment and rectification methods (Radu, 2003): Measured (existing) versine – the versine measured with a real chord on the outer rail of the real existing track. This is the result of the versine (Hallade) survey and based on it are computed the track offsets (slues…
The running of the trains over the railway track is inducing vertical and lateral forces that, in time, are affecting the track alignment, changing incrementally the installed track and causing track irregularities. On curved track this deterioration process is more significant due to the additional effect of the lateral (centrifugal) acceleration. When the irregularities become…
Note: This article presents the Joint Closure Temperature (JCT) for free thermal expansion (FTE) track superstructure ; it is directly related and should be read in conjunction with the following articles: When can a rail be called long? presenting the definition of the concepts long rail and short rail, from thermal behaviour perspective. Track longitudinal resistance presenting the two…
General considerations The relative position of railway double or multiple adjacent lines is of critical importance for level crossings. On canted tracks, the road traffic is affected if the level crossing does not provide a good riding plane, especially for long vehicles or the (sometimes expensive) low profile ones. This is why the design of…
Motto: Tolle lege. Most of the railway track design standards around the world are presenting the particular issue of the reverse transition. All these standards are insisting on keeping a constant rate of change of curvature – a constant A. By doing this in fact the design will include a single continuous transition between the two opposite circular…
A good friend of mine, knowing I’m working in the United Kingdom and that I am a kind of a fan of the European Norms (not only) for track, asked me: Does Brexit means no more European Norms in UK? The simple answer: No.
A railway track blog 