Essential Information About Rail Track Inspection

Trains are used to move people and goods from one place to another. Many railroads are heavily used and old and this makes it important for them to be inspected to enhance safety. The process in which railroads are examined for any flaws that may lead to catastrophic accidents is known as rail track inspection. Railroad defects may occur as a result of various effects including shear stresses, dynamic effects, thermal stresses, residual stresses and rail or wheel contact stresses.

The defects that are caused by rolling contact failure or contact stresses include gauge corner cracking, tongue lipping and squats. Other kinds of internal and surface defects that can take place on a railway include inclusions, corrosion, shelling, seams, wheel burn and transverse fissures. If water and other liquids are present on railway tracks, they can cause crack propagation.

Flaws can occur on many different parts of a railway such as the welds, foot, bolt holes, head, web and switchblades. Even though most defects take place in the head, the entire railroad should be inspected. Railroad inspectors use various methods to detect flaws on railroads. They may use ultrasound, magnetic flux leakage, radiography, eddy current inspection, magnetic particle inspection or electromagnetic acoustic transducer techniques.

Railroad inspection techniques are used in different ways. The transducers and probes can be utilized in a hand pushed trolley and in a handheld setup. Transducers and probes are ideal to use when small sections of a railroad needs to be inspected or to inspect a precise location. Most often, these devices are used to follow up on the indications made by rail inspection cars.

Engineers find handheld devices useful for inspecting railway tracts that are heavily used since they can easily be removed. However, they may not use these devices to inspect thousands of miles of railroad since they are considered to be slow and tedious. Rail inspection cars are the preferred method when it comes to examining thousands of miles of railroad.

Railroad inspection cars use several non destructive testing techniques. Induction and ultrasound testing methods can be used in cars, which operate at speeds exceeding 30 miles per hour. These vehicles are equipped with high speed computers, which utilize advanced programs to recognize patterns. They also have storage space, tool cabinets, and workbenches.

Specialized laser scanners are also used to perform railroad inspections. They are usually used to measure the rail gauge. After railroad inspections identify potential problems, work crews are hired to rectify the problems. All trains that are using that particular stretch of railway are notified that repair crews are in the area. Special warning and speed limits are issued to train crews.

In most cases, trains that are scheduled to use a particular stretch of railroad are requested to use alternate routes. If the repairs that need to be performed are extensive such as tie replacement, crossing repairs or switch repairs, train traffic can be halted until the repairs are complete. If a derailment has taken place, the recent track inspections are examined to determine if a pre existing defect may have contributed to the accident. In some cases, repeated problems may occur on a certain stretch of rail track. In such a case, special inspections are carried out to examine the problem and seek to resolve it.