TRACK TECHNOLOGY
High output plant in action
In a continuous process, when working with the ballast cleaner too, the TRS: • unclips the old sleeper fastenings and removes them from the track, with a magnetic drum, for disposal; • removes the old rail from the sleeper housings; • removes the old sleepers from the track and transports them to the sleeper carrying wagons using gantry cranes and pallet style containers; • levels off the ballast bed and displaces the material to the side of the track; • places the new sleepers on the prepared ballast bed and spaces them correctly; • positions the new rail onto the new sleepers; • fastens the new rail to the new sleepers; • collects the new ballast and distributes it back to the newly installed track, ready for final geometry correction with a tamping machine.
The team plans far ahead to try to keep the systems in the same part of the country for as long as possible, rather than shifting it all over the network. Although the machine is self-powered when working, it is hauled by two locomotives to get to and from work sites.
Brooks said that for the next seven years, the two TRS machines provide the capacity needed, though the ballast cleaning volumes will increase – partly as a consequence of a new focus on single-component renewal, rather than renewing rail, sleepers and ballast altogether when the rail and sleepers don’t necessarily need replacing yet. There are plans
to upgrade one of the ‘medium output’ ballast cleaners into a high output, five nights a week system.
He explained that Network Rail’s commitment to high output plant shows how concerned it is to maximise the availability of the network to its customers and the train operators. It does this both through the commitment not to over- run on individual nights’ work, but also when negotiating the right access in the first place.
TRS2 is currently working its way up to Chesterfield then back down to Derby on the Midland Main Line in a six-month campaign, renewing about half of the sleepers on the route – the ones on plain line sections suitable for high output and that need renewing. It’s working four nights a week, then at weekends is being used on routes where there is weekend- only access, currently Derby-Birmingham.
When RTM went to see TRS2 in action, TRS4 was doing a stretch north of Carlisle at weekends, and was based on the ECML north of York mid-week.
Brooks and the track team were in the process of finalising the CP5 high output plan: each route puts in a submission for how much ballast cleaning and track replacement it needs, which is then built into an optimal plan for the whole control period. Brooks explained: “When we’re more than a year out, the strategy of where it’s going to be in however many years’ time is done by my team; but as soon as we’re less than a year out, it’s the Amey Colas guys who work out the details.”
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30 | rail technology magazine Dec/Jan 13
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