GRDAMAND MOHAMMED

grdamand.mohammed@epu.edu.iq

Introduction
Introduction
Module Title : Airport and Railway Engineering
First‐Half Semester: Railway Engineering
No. of Lecture Hrs/ Week : 04/5weeks

Second‐Half Semester: Airport Engineering
No. of Lecture Hrs/ Week : 04/4weeks

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Introduction
Summary of Content: 
• This module will introduce the components of railway track
structures, conventional and otherwise.
• It will include analysis of forces on a railway track and
consequent deflections, stresses etc.
• Alignment design principles.
• An overview of the railway as a total system including
operational issues, signalling and control.

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Introduction
Method and Frequency of Class:

Number of Duration of a
Activity Number Of Weeks
sessions session
Lecture 10 weeks 2 per week 2 hour

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Module Aims
Education Aims:
 To give requisite grounding for those considering employment in the
railway industry.
 It is intended that a good understanding of railway track structure is
achieved. By the end of the module, students should have:

• Familiarity with systems used to control train movements;

• An understanding of requirements of railway alignment design;
• Gained an insight into railway construction and maintenance processes;
• A basic knowledge of rail & fastening technologies;
• An understanding of rail track design and performance;
• Been introduced to rail track analysis techniques;
• Acquaintance with ballast less track.

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Module Outcomes
Learning Outcomes: 
On successfully completing the module, students will be able to:
1. Select and design appropriate track maintenance treatments depending 
on measured condition;
2. Carry out analysis of forces applied to a railway track and resulting 
stresses, strains, deflections and failure mechanisms.
3. Demonstrate an ability to appraise and understand the railway as a 
system

A diagram showing 
the standard names 
for passenger coach 
parts.

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Introduction
Historic development
• The rail was first utilised in the sixteenth century. 
• England used wooden roadways to reduce the resistance of the 
mining vehicles. 
• The running surface was provided with an uprising edge in order 
to keep the vehicles on the track.
• The wooden rails were covered with cast iron plates in England in 
1760.
• About 1800 the first free bearing rails were applied (Outram), 
which were supported at the ends by cast iron sockets on 
wooden sleepers.
• Flanged iron wheels took care of the guiding, as we still practice 
now. 
• In the beginning the vehicles were moved forward by manpower
or by horses.
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Introduction
Historic development
• George Stephenson built the first steam locomotive with tubular boiler
in 1814.
• In 1825 the first railway for passengers was opened between Stockton
and Darlington.
• On the mainland of Europe Belgium was the first country to open a
railway (Mechelen ‐ Brussels).
• Belgium was quick to create a connection with the German hinterland
by passing the Dutch waterways.
• The first railway in The Netherlands (Amsterdam ‐ Haarlem) came into
existence much later: only in 1839.
• The railways formed a brand new means of transportation with up till
then unknown capacity, speed, and reliability.
• Large areas were opened which could not be developed earlier because
of the primitive road and water connections.
• The railways formed an enormous stimulus to the political, economical
and social development in the nineteenth century.
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Introduction
Historic development
• In countries like Russia and China the railway still plays a crucial roll.
• The railway companies were also the first line of business which
developed careful planning, organisation and control systems to enable
efficient management.
• Moreover, they gave the impulse to big developments in the area of
civil engineering (railway track building, bridges, tunnels, station
roofing).

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Introduction
Railways:
• Mass motorization after World War II expressed by the growing 
prosperity brought about many problems, especially in densely 
populated areas: 

(lack of space, congestion, lack of safety, emission of
harmful substances and noise pollution). 
• Exactly in these cases railways can be advantageous as they are 
characterized by the following:
a) Limited use of space compared to large transport capacity;
b) Reliability and safety;
c) High degree of automation and management;
d) Moderate environmental impact.
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Introduction
e) Track must be constructed in such a way that running on it do not 
cause excessive environmental pollution in the form of noise and 
ground vibration. 
f) Costs of the total service life of the track must be as low as possible
g) Maintenance should be low and as inexpensive as possible.

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Source http://www.esveld.com/MRT_Selection.pdf
Introduction
Load‐bearing function of the track

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Source http://www.esveld.com/MRT_Selection.pdf
Introduction
Track gauge
In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails 
on a railway track and is measured between the inner 
faces of the load‐bearing rails.

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Module References
1. Vuchic, V R “Urban Transit Operations, Planning and Economics”, New York: Wiley, 
2005, 644pp. 
2. Harris, N G & Anderson, R J “An International Comparison of Urban Rail Boarding 
and Alighting Rates”, Jnl. Rail & Rapid Transit 221 F4 2007, pp. 521‐526. 
3. Harris, N G “Train Boarding and Alighting Rates at High Passenger Loads”, Jnl. Adv. 
Transpn. 40 (3) 2006 pp. 249‐263.
4. Harris, N G, Graham, D J, Anderson, R J & Haojie, L “The Impact of Urban Rail 
Boarding and Alighting Factors”, TRB 3rd Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA, 
2014.
5. Harris, N G, Mjosund, C S & Haugland, H “Improving Railway Performance in 
Norway”, Jnl. of Rail Trans. Plan. & Man. 3 2014 pp. 172‐180. 
6. Weidmann, U “Der Fahrgastwechsel im öffentlichen Personenverkehr”, 
Schriftenreihe des IVT, Zurich, 1994, no. 99. (in German)
7. Daamen, W & Hooghendoorn, S P “Pedestrian Traffic Flow Operations on a 
Platform”, Proc. COMPRAIL 2004 pp. 125‐134, WITpress, Southampton, UK. 
8. Coxon, S, Burns, K & de Bono, A “Design Strategies for Mitigating Passenger Door 
Holding Behaviour on Suburban Trains in Paris”, 33rd Australasian Transport 
Research Forum Conference, Canberra, 29 Sep – 1 Oct 2010. 

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Data Sharing
1. Handout  
2. Via email grdamand.mohammed@epu.edu.iq
3. Through EPU Moodle

15
 M. GRDAMAND MOHAMMED
grdamand_etc@yahoo.co.uk

Lecture 1
Lecture Contents

 Introduction
 RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
 RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES

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Introduction
• Transportation has been an essential factor for the development of
most societies world over.
• Transportation system is a fair index of country’s economical growth.

Modes of Transports
1. Rail transport ; is best suited for the carriage of bulk commodities and
large passenger traffic over long distances with greater safety,
comfort and convenience.
2. Road transport; is best suited for the carriage of lighter weight
commodities of lesser volumes and also small passenger traffic over
short distances.
3. Air transport; is best suited for the carriage of valuable goods and
important passengers who are required to reach their destination in
shortest possible period of time.
4. Water‐way transport; is best suited for the carriage of heavy and
bulky goods over long distances without consideration of time factor
across the water.
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 RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
1. The Track Structure

The basic railway track structure, as invented in the early 1800s, is as shown above. This
is fundamentally unchanged today. The following components are involved.
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RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
1. The Track Structure
The following components are involved.
a. Rails: Provide even ride with low
frictional energy loss, guide the
vehicle safely and spread loads to
sleepers

b. Pads: Reduce rail / sleeper contact

forces Reduce vibrations and noise
Insulate electrically

c. Fastening System: Attach rail firmly to

sleeper.
d. Sleepers: Spread load from rail to
ballast Maintain gauge

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RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES

1. The Track Structure
The following components are involved.
e. Ballast: Resists forces from sleepers, Absorbs energy (including noise),
Provides voids (to ‘lose’ dirt), Spreads load to subgrade, facilitates
maintenance, alleviates frost problems, allows drainage

f. Subgrade: You have to work with the subgrade you have!

g. Other terms:
Sub‐ballast = lower part of ballast – can be lower quality
Blanket = drainage layer + stops subgrade and ballast mixing
Trackbed = everything below the sleeper

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RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
2. Construction Operations
• At it’s simplest:
a) Prepare the subgrade
b) Place and compact all layers up to underside of ballast
c) Place part of the ballast
d) Seat sleepers on ballast
e) Place pads on sleepers
f) Place rails in correct alignment

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RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
2. Construction Operations
g) Attach fastening devices
h) Weld up / bolt rail sections
i) Place more ballast around the sleepers
j) ‘Tamp’ (see later) – essentially a levelling process
k) Let the trains compact the ballast for you!

• Several of these processes can

be automated. Clearly it is
important to achieve a good
smooth alignment and
machines assist greatly.

Placing sleepers in batches 23

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
3. What does it cost?
• All materials are relatively widely available.
• e.g.   Ballast @ $20/ m³                          $44,000 per track km
Steel Rail @ $22 / m                     $44,000 per track km
Concrete Sleepers @ $25            $38,300 per track km 
(inc. fittings)
+ extra costs due to difficulty working on a railway site
+ earthworks, which can be the major cost of a line;
+ drainage, services, structures …….
 $100,000 to $300,000 per km for straightforward track
Now double it for two-track lines
And if you want electrification, you are talking real money!
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RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES
4. How long does it last?

Rails: 10‐20 years typically
Sleepers: indefinitely – under the right conditions
Fastenings: also indefinitely except for a few failures
Ballast: probably only a few months before it goes out 
of shape
10‐20 years before it gets too dirty to perform 
properly
• So, a railway is designed to be maintained. It is not like a 
road which you can go away and leave for several years. It 
has to be carefully MANAGED.
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RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES

• Somehow, the whole shape of the track has to be corrected

every year or so! On heavily used lines or on lines where
geometry is absolutely critical (eg high speed) this can
become every few months or even every few weeks!

• If you don’t maintain:

Loss of shape  poor ride  speed
restrictions  extra force on track  quicker
deterioration  more rail breaks  more
accidents; etc; etc.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
1. What Maintenance is Needed?
1st Maintenance requirement = correct track levels
• A railway trackbed is not rigid. Ballast, sub‐ballast and subgrade are
unbound materials. This means that long‐term movements are
expected, most notably settlement.

Vertical SD (mm)

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
• Settlement alone is no problem. It just means that the level
of the line is slowly becoming lower and lower.
• But we are only talking in millimetres so this is not a
problem.
• The problem is that, if settlement occurs, then it is certain
that some differential settlement will be present.
• Perhaps the ballast itself is pretty uniform but the
underlying subgrade certainly is not – neither are the rails.
• The result is that some sleepers will settle more quickly
than others.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
2nd Maintenance requirement = clean or replace ballast
• Railway ballast is not protected. Dirt gets in from the atmosphere and
from trains. In many poorly designed tracks, the ballast also becomes
contaminated from the subgrade soil underneath. The ballast can even
break down itself, generating increasing quantities of smaller size
pieces. The result: ‘Fouled Ballast’.
• Put all these effects together and ballast slowly changes in nature,
becoming more like soil. This should take many years.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
3rd Maintenance requirement = restore shape of rail head
• Steel rails are put under enormous stress from train wheels. 
Sometimes this causes changes to the shape of the rail 
head. 
• If this is allowed to develop too far, then it affects the ride 
quality and, eventually, the safety of trains.

Change
of shape

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
4th Maintenance requirement = rerail
• Rail head shape can only be corrected (by grinding) a certain
number of times. If too much material is lost from the rail
head, it can no longer safely fulfil its role of supporting train
loads. Not only that but cracks will eventually initiate in the
rails, particularly as damage occurs. These cracks can only
be allowed to propagate so far before the rail has to be
replaced for safety reasons.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
2. Tamping
The tamping machine is the most important track
maintenance device. It restores the line and level of the track
by lifting the rails into their correct position and vibrating the
ballast underneath so that it re‐forms itself to support the
track at its new level, the whole process is automated.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
Summary of Effect of Tamping:
a) The automated process is relatively rapid (c. 2km/hr)
b) It restores the line and level of the track
BUT
c) It leaves the ballast in a loosened state
d) This means that some almost immediate settlement is expected
e) It also means that the stability of the track is reduced, requiring 
temporary speed restrictions
f) It also physically damages the ballast stones, creating more fine 
material
Vertical SD (mm)

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
3. Stone Blowing
This process may eventually replace tamping but is much
harder to automate. Productivity is therefore lower. It has the
advantage that, since no reworking of the existing ballast is
involved, it does not induce any degree of ballast breakdown.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
The Principle:

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
4. Ballast Compaction
To minimise the effect of looseness of the ballast following tamping,
machines are available to give a degree of early compaction avoiding the
need for speed restrictions. It is obviously not possible to roll the ballast
like a road base, so another technique has to be found. For example, the
Dynamic Track Stabiliser grips the rails and shakes the whole track
structure, vibrating the ballast stones and inducing a degree of immediate
settlement and giving the track some stability.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
5. Ballast Cleaning
Eventually, after several cycles of tamping and years of train load
application, the ballast will need to be cleaned and, probably, partially
replaced. This is carried out using a ballast cleaning machine.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
The principle:

• The ballast cleaner is a self‐contained unit. It progresses along the track 
at about 0.1m/sec. Being slow, it is therefore expensive and disruptive.
• Ballast cleaning would normally be followed by tamping to restore the 
correct track level.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
6. Correcting Rail Head Shape
Because the steel of the rails is continually deforming, it is
necessary to grind the top and side surfaces of the rail head smooth from
time to time.
This is particularly important in locations where corrugations (see
later) tend to form. Grinding will commonly be carried out many times
during the life of a rail, until it gets to the point where its strength has
been reduced too much and it needs to be replaced.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
7. Track Memory
It is an unfortunate fact that a section of railway track which is
susceptible to settlement and unevenness will tend to repeat
the same pattern of unevenness after each tamping cycle.
This is because:
1. The subgrade has an important influence and tamping does nothing 
for the subgrade.
2. The ballast is not being cleaned; damaged areas are therefore still 
present.
3. The rail has built‐in stresses which tend to lead to long‐term bending.

Settlement = function {traffic, existing unevenness, 
subgrade stiffness, ballast quality & thickness, 
built‐in stress}
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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
• Even after ballast‐cleaning, variations in subgrade and in 
stresses from rails are still present; the track will still 
‘remember’ where to settle.
• Even after rail replacement, subgrade variation is still there.
• Only full reconstruction will really destroy the effect of track 
memory.

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RAILWAY MAINTENANCE PROCESSES
A Practical Answer:      Design Lift Tamping
Normal Tamping: (on an extremely exaggerated scale)

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…next lecture 
 TRACKBED DETERIORATION / MEASUREMENT
 BALLAST PROPERTIES
 PERMANENT DEFORMATIONWITHIN BALLAST
 BALLAST FOULING 

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