What are the main parts of a Railroad Track?

A railroad track is mainly composed of rails, railroad ties (sleepers), fasteners, railway switch, ballast, subgrade. The components of railway track play different roles in providing support for trains. The track structure is built for rolling stock to roll upon safely and smoothly. Both passenger lines and freight lines are beneficial from this convenient fast running track transportation.

The main part of a railroad track is rails. Most modern rails have a profile that shaped like an I-beam vertically symmetric but horizontal asymmetric. To meet the needs of turnout, large bridges, and seamless lines and other structures, non-axisymmetric rails are produced as well.

Railroad rails are made from steels which can be subjected to very high stresses by the trains. To make the rail better withstand the forces from all sides, to ensure the necessary strength conditions, the rails should be fabricated with enough height. Its head and foot should have enough area and height, web and foot should not be too thin. Rails are classified according to rail size and rail weight. In general, the heavier rail supports greater axle loads and higher train speeds.

A railway sleeper is also called a railroad tie or crosstie. It is an easily overlooked component of railway tracks. The sleepers not only support the rail but also maintain the position of the rail. Besides, it helps to transmit the huge pressure by rail to the trackbed. It is required to have a certain degree of flexibility and elasticity. It can't be too hard or too soft. When the train passes by, it can be properly deformed to cushion the pressure. But, it has to be restored as much as possible. In the early days, railroad ties are made of wood while prestressed concrete is more common to see now. Sometimes plastic composite ties are also applied.

Fasteners are used for fixing rails to railway sleepers. It is also a very important component of railway track. Most commonly seen fasteners include spikes, screws, rail anchors, tie plates, chairs, etc. Various types of fasteners have been used over the years. Other track materials like rail clip, rail clamp, rail pad, rail joints also belong to railway fastening systems.

The main function of the rail fastening system is as follows.

• Effectively guarantee the reliable connection between rail and rail, rail and sleeper. Maintain the continuity and integrity of the rail to the most.

• Prevent the horizontal and vertical movement of the steel rail relative to the sleeper, ensure the normal gauge.

• Fully exert the buffering and vibration reduction performance under the power of the locomotive and vehicle to delay the accumulation of residual deformation of the line.

Rail elastic clip is used to fasten the rails to the underlying base plate together with the concrete sleeper. Usually rail clips are made of forged spring steel which is produced by hot forging process. Because of the uniform microstructure of forged clips, it is considered to be better than other metal forming process.

GNEE RAILWAY RAILWAY offer an extensive range of rail clips with optimum quality, these rail clips are designed with high precision and made up of premium grade spring steel. GNEE RAILWAY has been the largest and most competitive production base of rail clip in China after more than 18 years' rail clip producing experience, and have qualification to tender nationally large and medium scaled rail projects. What's more, our rail clip can be customized according to clients' requirements.

The main application of rail clamps is for cranes. For the installation method, they can be divided into bolted rail clamps and welded rail clamps.

A rail pad, also named rail rubber plate, is usually used between tie plates and sleepers or between rails and tie plate. The rail pad is made of elastic polyurethane mat and usually used on concrete sleepers. The rail pad can protect the concrete sleeper from abrasion and impaction, and it can also decrease the vibration from the passing train. It is believed that rail pad functions in two ways: diminish shock and distribute load. The thickness of our rail pads ranges from 5mm to 25mm,but usually the height should not to be so high in case the movement relative to the rails.

HDPE Rail Pad

EVA: Polyethylene 80%, Vinyl Acetate 20%.

Rubber Rail Pad

Rail joints, usually called fishplate, commonly known as the joint bar, is a component that joint rails end-to-end. According to different applications, rail joints can be divided into bolted rail joints, compromise rail joints and insulated rail joints.

Railway switch is also called turnout. As its name indicates, it is a component for rolling stocks to turn from one track to another. It is usually laid in large numbers at stop stations and marshalling stations. With turnouts, you can give full play to the passing capacity of the line. Even if it is a single-track railway, lay the turnouts and build a section of the fork line that is longer than the length of the train to split the train. Turnouts play an important role in railway lines.

GNEE RAILWAY RAILWAY offers different kinds of railway fasteners to meet client's requirements, such as Elastic Rail Clip and Clamp, Rail Screw Spike, Plastic Dowel, High Tensile Track Bolt with Nut, Rail Base(Tie) Plate, Rail Fish Plate, Railway Shoulder(Insert), Fish Bolt, Railroad Rubber and EVA Pad, etc. Samples and drawings provided by customer, we will manufacture qualified products accordingly.

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