Traveling by train is an amazing experience in itself. You get an amazing view of nature. One more thing that you almost always see throughout your train-journey are those small stones lying alongside the track on which your train races?
Have you ever given any thought as to why there are almost always stones alongside a railway track? We will discuss the reason behind this in this article.
The crushed stones you see alongside railroad tracks are what is known as ballast. Track ballast is packed between the sleepers, in the areas below, and on the sides of railway tracks. A railway sleeper is a rectangular support that is usually kept perpendicular to the tracks. These are usually made of wood or pre-stressed concrete, although the latter is more widely used today. The function of railway sleepers is to hold the rails upright and properly spaced. In short, their purpose is to hold the sleeper ties in place, which in turn hold the rails in place.
The rail track is subjected to heat expansion and contraction, ground movement and vibration, precipitation build-up from rough weather, and plant growth from underneath. The ballast distributes the load of the sleepers (which in turn bear the load of the train on the track, held by clips) across the foundation, allows for ground movement, thermal expansion and weight variance, allows rain and snow to drain through the track, and prevent the growth of vegetation that would quickly take over the track.
Have you ever given any thought as to why there are almost always stones alongside a railway track? We will discuss the reason behind this in this article.
The crushed stones you see alongside railroad tracks are what is known as ballast. Track ballast is packed between the sleepers, in the areas below, and on the sides of railway tracks. A railway sleeper is a rectangular support that is usually kept perpendicular to the tracks. These are usually made of wood or pre-stressed concrete, although the latter is more widely used today. The function of railway sleepers is to hold the rails upright and properly spaced. In short, their purpose is to hold the sleeper ties in place, which in turn hold the rails in place.
The rail track is subjected to heat expansion and contraction, ground movement and vibration, precipitation build-up from rough weather, and plant growth from underneath. The ballast distributes the load of the sleepers (which in turn bear the load of the train on the track, held by clips) across the foundation, allows for ground movement, thermal expansion and weight variance, allows rain and snow to drain through the track, and prevent the growth of vegetation that would quickly take over the track.
WHY CRUSHED POINTED STONES ARE USED??
If you put smooth, round pebbles in the ballast, then they might roll or slide over each other when a train passes over the tracks; therefore, they would fail at their main job – providing solidarity to the tracks. Given that fact, you need stones of a specific type that won’t move around too much, except by kids chucking stones near the tracks, of course!
In order to guarantee that the stones stay in place, they use sharp and edged stones in the ballast.
No comments:
Post a Comment