October 1953

 

The track has been readied for a bulldozer to insert the plow.

Keeping Pace With Rail Maintenance

Ever since the days of Stephenson's "Rocket", the first steam locomotive, railroad men have been confronted with the ticklish and time-consuming job of renewing ballast under their tracks. Rock or gravel ballast is used under the rails to provide a uniform, firm, but to some extent yielding, support for the ribbons of steel which carry the heavy trains.

One of the knottiest problems to crop up is that, under traffic, of removing old ballast and replacing it with fresh material when the ballast has become "foul" or so saturated with dirt that it will no longer provide satisfactory drainage and solid support for the ties.

This summer in Western Canada, engineers of the Canadian Pacific Railway and specialists from Mannix Ltd. developed two units, actually a plow and a sled, and adapted them to railway conditions to do the job of removing and replacing ballast in a hurry.

Until recently, ballasting was mainly a pick and shovel job, but the new machines can dispense with the brigade of brawn and do a better job in faster time. Just the job of removing foul ballast from under a mile of track would take 100 men 10 hours, or 1,000 man hours of work.

The new units work on the following principle. When the ballast is in need of removal, a plow is inserted under the track and drawn along by a locomotive, raising the track, ties, and all and plowing the old ballast out from under.

Then a work train proceeds along the section of track, with a spreader to move the furrows of old ballast aside and hauling cars filled with new ballast. These cars are centre dump cars which spill the ballast out on the track.

The third and last step in the new procedure of ballasting is to insert a sled under the tracks and pull it along by locomotive. This sled raises the tracks and allows the new ballast to fall in place under the ties. The sled also has an attachment so that the depth of ballast wanted under the ties can be accurately measured.

The idea of the sled was first developed in Sweden about three years ago, but at that time was found unfeasible. However, research on the problem in North America has proved that something along the line of having a plow and sled dragged under the rails could be worked out.

This summer's work on Canadian Pacific lines in Western Canada shows every indication that work of this nature can be accomplished by the new type equipment much faster and more economically than by previous hand methods.
 

This Spanner article is copyright 1953 by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.