This year, the months of June, July and August have been characterised by excessively high temperatures and lack of humidity on the entire territory of Romania and in a large part of Europe.
In this period, the persons who travelled by passenger trains on the CFR line network had unpleasant surprises during the day, with train delays from several minutes to several hundred minutes.
These delays caused the total dissatisfaction of passengers who, under the circumstances, lost connections with other trains, with flights, on links with other countries such as Spain, Italy, USA etc.
Meanwhile, information offices in railway stations also communicated to the interested people the cause of these unwanted delays: track dilatation due to excessive heat. This explanation has been regularly taken over and broadcast non-stop by the television channels during the daily news programmes. This erroneous information could only come from the staff of railway stations about which nobody knows whether it requested written conformations from competent persons able to give these verdicts, more precisely from infrastructure specialists.
But what are the real facts?
It is known that CFR main lines and even a large part of the sidings have butt-welded rails, over 85% of them, not being allowed to freely dilate, creating the so-called “jointless track”. This type of modern superstructure was introduced by CFR over 50 years ago, being preceded by serious theoretical and experimental studies, both abroad and in our country. The research focused on two fields:
– execution of rail welding procedures as secure as possible and with a cost as reduced as possible;
– behaviour of the jointless track in different temperature and operation conditions.
I would like to remind that the first welded track sections have been introduced in the CFR network ever since 1960, but the studies and the research in this new field, with many theoretical and practical aspects, have lasted for several decades, even within UIC-ERRI. In this activity, in our country, significant personalities from the academic education system have been involved and considerable amounts of money have been spent within the experiments from the bench test in Pipera and from many experimental sections in the network.
In order to ensure the welded line stability against the kink during summer time, it was established the optimal temperature range within which tracks should be definitively fastened to sleepers.
While in the first decade (1960 – 1970) this range went from +12° C to +22°C, since 1972 it was established between +17°C and +27°C. This growth by 5°C has offered the jointless track an increase degree of safety during high temperatures and the possibility of executing maintenance works in this period.
All conditions under which welded lines are executed and operated, are indicated in Instruction no. 341, for the execution, maintenance and surveillance of the jointless track, edition 1980.
This instruction stipulates in art. 20.2 the additional revision of the track during the entire period in which the track temperature remains at +40°C and more, with the explicit mention of the area that must be monitored in particular.
The practice of welded line operation in our country has confirmed these measures as being secure, with no significant cases of line kink, unlike other managements which faced such problems.
The introduction on a large scale of butt-welded rails and the removal of joints represented an important moment of the network modernisation, following the models of the countries with performing managements (Japan, France, Germany, former USSR etc).
It must also be noted that we benefited from the application of a rail butt-welding procedure by electrical contact and pressure among the most secure, due to the use of TAURUS installations, conceived by the academician Corneliu Micloşi, which at that time were among the most performing ones in Europe. The welding executed by the aluminothermic procedure, was especially applied in the Central Europe countries; in time, they proved to be inferior to those applied by us.
The data of Romania’s experiments, as in other countries, have confirmed that the fatigue strength is neatly superior to tracks welded by the aluminothermic procedure, as follows:
In conclusion, it is not the welded tracks that must be blamed for train delays, but other rail elements, more precisely the precarious conditions of the railway infrastructure, which is continuously degrading, because of the failure to execute in due time the maintenance and rehabilitation works (RK). Before 2010, there were 5700 km of remaining lines in terms of RK, and in 2008-2009 not a single km was repaired. The other main elements (bridges, tunnels, track beds, centralisation and electrification installations, buildings, etc.) are in the same inadequate situation, due to the continuous reduction of the funds from the state budget and at the same time with the decrease of railways.
It must be mentioned in particular the inadequate condition of tracks which indicates wear and a high degree of fatigue, being old in operation, as well as the fastening method by wooden plugs of rails to concrete sleepers.
The maintenance units (sections and districts) are overwhelmed by this situation, due to the dramatic reduction of the manpower. Even for the simplest works, such as the replacement of a track or of a part in points and crossing, several districts must be reunited!
It is known that the shift of the passenger and freight traffic to the road sector has occurred under the circumstances of a competition in which the railway did not find the necessary support. We could thus ask ourselves: what should be done, how could we get out of this dead-end? Currently, it is insistently mentioned the change of the management with a more efficient one. If this “miraculous” solution is known, why has not it been applied in the last decade, the signals regarding the general condition of the railway having been noticed for several years or even decades!
Optional bibliography:
Teodorescu, C.C Prof. Emeritus- Jointless Track
Radulescu, M.- Jointless Rail, Editura Transporturilor si Telecomunicatiilor-Bucharest 1963
Stafie, I.- Tracks for the Modern Railways, Editura Feroviara, Bucharest 2008
Stafie, I.- Four Decades of Jointless Track Execution, Revista Cailor Ferate Romane no. 1-2/2000
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