How to Replace Thousands of Miles of Steel Rail?

How are the thousands of miles of steel rail transported to the line? How long can a rail be? And how did it get on the line? Where did the old track end up?

At present, the length of the common rail is mainly 25m, 75m, 100m. These rail in the welding rail factory according to the welding rail plan, after selection, all welded into a length of no more than 500m long rail.

Therefore, the longest rail is not more than 500m, more than 500m, the existing exclusive long rail car can not be loaded.

The qualified long rail welded in the rail welding plant is loaded to the dedicated transport vehicle through the group lifting, usually the transport vehicle is mainly composed of 35 flatbed vehicles and 2 safety vehicles, and the number of camping vehicles, power generation vehicles, operation vehicles and so on.

According to the rail unloading plan, the loaded train is pulled by the rail car and transported to the designated area. After the hoist of the working car drags the rail to the sleeper on both sides of the line, and then the rail end of the sleeper is fixed on the line. The locomotive moves slowly towards the position away from the fixed end, and the long rail will land safely.

Track changing operation

The replacement personnel will loosen the old rail fastenings, cut the long rail as far as the eye can see into lengths ranging from 25 meters to 500 meters, and then the construction team will pull out the old rail and then move the new rail to the old rail.

After the two ends of the new rail and the original section of the old rail are welded by flash welding, air pressure welding, thermite welding, etc., the buckle is locked. Thousands of miles of steel rail in this way completed section by section replacement.

The recovery of the old long rail is still dependent on the dedicated rail transporter, the end of the old long rail neatly placed in the middle of the line is slowly tilted, and the car runs slowly against the rail, relying on the weight of the rail on the transport car, after the end of the rail is removed from the roadbed, the hoist plays a role, and the long rail is thoroughly dragged to the car.

For older short rails of 25 meters, there are also dedicated short rail take-up cars.

The short rail pick-up car is operated by the heavy rail car. The train is mainly composed of the flat car, the power generator car, the camping car and the material car. Each operation unit is two flat cars plus two small gantry cranes. After the train reaches the rail collection position, the operator adjusts the rail to the loading position, lifts the rail to the flat car through the gantry crane, and then ties and fixes it, and transports it away from the site to complete the recovery of the old short rail.

The recovered old rail must be inspected and judged by professional personnel, and after excessive wear, it can be sentenced to waste treatment, and most of the rail has completed its mission. However, some 75kg/m heavy duty rails can continue to work on other ordinary non-main lines after being judged.