Track maintenance requirements are determined by the condition and subsequent performance of a track section. By being able to quantify the condition of a track functionally as well as structurally the performance of a track can be predicted and its maintenance can be planned pro-actively. Generally, maintenance is conducted on a reactive and/or preventative basis without investigating the cause of maintenance requirements. This usually results in the ineffective use of available maintenance resources. The goal of this dissertation is to provide a basis for determining the most cost effective means of track maintenance as influenced by the substructure. To achieve this goal the relationships between the functional condition of track, as represented by the rate of geometry deterioration, and substructure conditions were examined. To achieve the research goals data were obtained from investigations performed at sites in South Africa on the Heavy Haul Coal railway line and at sites in the United States on the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing, High Tonnage Loop in Pueblo, Colorado. This study provides a procedure to identify sections that perform badly and a measuring and interpretation technique to investigate the cause of substructure related problems. The procedures allow the track maintenance engineer to pro-actively evaluate his track substructure condition and maintenance requirements, allowing him to identify the cause of bad performance as well as the appropriate corrective actions. The geometry measurements are analyzed to identify sections of track with different performance characteristics, and continuous track deflection measurements are used to identify the source of the problem and the need for further investigation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-9093 |
| Date | 01 January 1995 |
| Creators | Ebersohn, Willem |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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