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Maintenance Of Way
Maintenance of way (commonly abbreviated to MOW, also known as "Permanent Way Maintenance" or "PWM" in Britain) refers to the maintenance, construction, and improvement of rail infrastructure, including tracks, ballast, grade, and lineside infrastructure such as signals and signs. Track Railroad tracks consist of multiple key components: a track bed, and ballast forming the foundation of the tracks. Then the tracks themselves are place on the ballast, the tracks consist of a railroad tie, fasteners to secure the rails to the ties, such as spikes or clips, rails, which are assembled on a bed of ballast, which is in turn on a track bed that supports it all. Ballast is a material used to support the ties and rails, and keep them in place. It is also a key part of drainage along railway lines to ensure the integrity of the tracks during rain and other wet weather. Ballast is often a crushed stone. Stones need to be irregularly shaped, in order to increase friction that holds th ...
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Maintenance Of Seibu Ikebukuro Line
The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installations. Terms such as "predictive" or "planned" maintenance describe various cost-effective practices aimed at keeping equipment operational; these activities occur either before or after a potential failure. Definitions Maintenance functions can be defined as maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), and MRO is also used for maintenance, repair and operations. Over time, the terminology of maintenance and MRO has begun to become standardized. The United States Department of Defense uses the following definitions:Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188 and from the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms * Any activity—such as tests, measurements, replacements, adjustments, and repairs—intended to retain or r ...
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Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways. Network Rail's main customers are the private train operating company, train operating companies (TOCs), responsible for passenger transport, and freight operating company, freight operating companies (FOCs), who provide train services on the infrastructure that the company owns and maintains. Since 1 September 2014, Network Rail has been classified as a "public sector body". To cope with history of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to date, rapidly increasing passenger numbers, () Network Rail has been undertaking a £38 billion History of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to date#Timelin ...
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Railroad Switch
A railroad switch (American English, AE), turnout, or (set of) points (Commonwealth English, CE) is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one Rail tracks, track to another, such as at a Junction (rail), railway junction or where a Branch line, spur or Siding (rail), siding branches off. Design The parts of a turnout are known by different names in different jurisdictions. The main terms in U.S. and UK usage are shown in the selectable diagrams. In this article, the U.S. term is listed first and UK second, in parentheses. The most common type of switch consists of a pair of linked tapering rails, known as ''points'' (''switch rails'' or ''point blades''), lying between the diverging outer rails (the ''stock rails''). These points can be moved laterally into one of two positions to direct a train coming from the point blades toward the straight path or the diverging path. A train moving from the narrow end toward the point blades (i.e. it ...
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Crane (rail)
A railway crane (North America: railroad crane, crane car or wrecker; UK: breakdown crane) is a type of Crane (machine), crane used on a rail transport, railway for one of three primary purposes: freight handling in goods yards, maintenance of way, permanent way (PW) maintenance, and accident recovery work. Although the design differs according to the type of work, the basic configuration is similar in all cases: a rotating crane body is mounted on a sturdy chassis fitted with flanged wheels. The body supports the jib (UK; North America: Crane (machine), boom) and provides all the lifting and operating mechanisms; on larger cranes, an operator's cabin is usually provided. The chassis is fitted with buffing (UK) and/or coupling gear to allow the crane to be moved by a locomotive, although many are also self-propelled to allow limited movement about a work site. For cranes with a jib that extends beyond the length of the chassis, an Flatcar#Idler flatcars, idler car (also known ...
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Ballast Regulator
A ballast regulator (also known as a ballast spreader or ballast sweeper) is a piece of maintenance of way, railway maintenance equipment used to shape and distribute the gravel track ballast that supports the railroad tie, ties in rail tracks. They are often used in conjunction with ballast tampers when maintaining track. Ballast regulators are versatile machines, and may also be used by railroads for duties such as plowing snow, removing vegetation from the right-of-way, and digging ditches. Purpose Track ballast gradually shifts over time, both from natural forces and as a result of the passage of trains. If this is not addressed, the quality of the track will decrease, resulting in a less smooth ride for trains. Unregulated ballast may also result in the rails shifting out of alignment, which in the worst cases can lead to Derailment, derailments. Conversely, regular maintenance of ballast can prolong the life of railroad tracks. For these reasons, railroads use ballast regul ...
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Tamping Machine
A tamping machine or ballast tamper, informally simply a tamper, is a self-propelled, rail-mounted machine used to pack (or tamp) the track ballast under railway tracks to make the tracks and roadbed more durable and level. Prior to the introduction of mechanical tampers, this task was done by manual labour with the help of beaters. As well as being faster, more accurate, more efficient and less labour-intensive, tamping machines are essential for the use of concrete sleepers since they are too heavy (usually over ) to be lifted by hand. At its most basic, a tamping machine only packs the ballast. Some modern machines, sometimes known as tamper-liners or tamping and lining machines, also correct the alignment of the rails to make them parallel and level, in order to achieve a more comfortable ride for passengers and freight and to reduce the mechanical strain applied to the rails by passing trains. This is done by finding places where the sleepers have sunk from the weight o ...
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Track Ballast
Track ballast is the material which forms the trackbed upon which railroad ties (UK: sleepers) are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to bear the compression load of the railroad ties, rails, and rolling stock; to facilitate drainage; and keep down vegetation that can compromise the integrity of the combined track structure. Ballast also physically holds the track in place as the trains roll over it. Not all types of railway tracks use ballast. A variety of materials have been used as track ballast, including crushed stone, washed gravel, bank run (unwashed) gravel, torpedo gravel (a mixture of coarse sand and small gravel), slag, chats, coal cinders, sand, and burnt clay. The term "ballast" comes from a nautical term for the stones used to stabilize a ship. Construction The appropriate thickness of a layer of track ballast depends on the size and spacing of the ties, the amount of traffic on the line, and various other factors. Track ballast ...
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Spike Driver
A spike driver (also known as a spiker) is a piece of rail transport maintenance of way equipment. Its purpose is to drive rail spikes into the railroad tie, ties on a rail tracks, rail track to hold the rail in place. Many different sizes of spikers are manufactured and in use around the world. History Historically, spikers was the slang-name for the rail workers who drove in the spikes after the gandy dancers laid the track on the tie. Spikes are used to hold the rail in gauge and keep it connected to the ties. Before the development of automated spikers, this task was done entirely by hand using pickaxes to drive the spikes into the ties. This process was slow and not easy to learn (at the driving of the golden spike that marked the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, several executives of the companies building the railroad tried and failed to drive in the final spike, showing how difficult a task it was). To make the process of driving spikes faster an ...
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Spike Maul
A spike maul is a hand tool used to drive railroad spikes in railroad track work. It is also known as a spiking hammer. Description Spike mauls are akin to sledge hammers, typically weighing from with handles long. They have elongated double faced hardened steel heads. The head is typically over long to allow the user to drive spikes on the opposite side of the rail without breaking the handle. Some spike mauls have symmetrical heads, but most have a slightly longer thinner side and a shorter larger diameter side of equal weight. The long side allows a user to spike over abnormally tall rails, and to drive spikes down next to highway crossing planks. The shorter side provides more surface area which requires less accuracy for normal spiking. There are two typical patterns of spike mauls: * Bell: The more common, bell spike mauls are mostly cylindrical in shape. * Standard: Which feature a square cross section, and a squared tapered end opposite the normal driving face ...
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Tie Exchanger
A tie exchanger (also known as a TKO for Tie Knock Out, or by various combinations of tie exchanger, extractor, replacer, or inserter) is a self-propelled railroad maintenance of way vehicle that removes old railroad ties (also known as sleepers) from tracks and inserts new ones. By using mechanical and hydraulic force, a tie extractor/inserter can replace ties much faster and with more precision than is possible by hand. The TKO is distinct from the track renewal train, a much more complex machine which replaces the entirety of the rails and ties at once. History While wooden railroad ties are treated with preservatives such as creosote to resist decay, they do not last forever and must be replaced every 20 to 40 years, depending on factors such as climate and the type of wood used. In particularly wet climates, replacement must occur more frequently as the ties rot faster. Ties may also need to be replaced regardless of age after derailments, washouts, or other events that c ...
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Spike Puller
A spike puller is a railroad maintenance of way machine designed to remove rail spikes from ties. The spike puller automates the task of spike removal, allowing it to be done at a rate greater than can be achieved by hand. Spike pullers range from small hand operated hydraulic machines to self propelled machines controlled by an operator in an enclosed cab. History Traditionally, spikes were pulled by hand with Spike maul, spike mauls, which act similar to the claw on a claw hammer on a larger scale. This task was labor-intensive and slow, requiring multiple track workers to be done in a reasonable amount of time. For small-scale jobs, spikes may still be removed by hand today, but larger projects will instead use mechanized spike pullers. By using hydraulic force and pulling directly upwards, spike pullers are both faster and more powerful than a worker with a spike maul, and extract spikes vertically to avoid damaging them, to allow them to be reused. Spikes must be removed be ...
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