When rails are laid in a railway track, small gaps are left between the ends of adjoining rails to allow for the expansion of the rails when the temperature rises. Rail joints are provided to form a continuous rail path which are normally laid in standard lengths bolted together by fishplates. When two rail joints are exactly opposing each other, they are called square (side by side) joints...

Resonance of railway bridges is a matter major concern in high-speed railways because it reduces riding comfort, damages the attached structures, and decreases strength girder bodies. Although this abnormal behavior can be inspected using situ displacement measurements taken from ground, its investigation tedious and, consequently, very expensive. In study, authors developed novel drive-by syst...

Railway tracks undergo plastic settlement when subject to repeated train loading. This occurs differentially along the track rather than in a uniform manner, and profile is key parameter scheduling maintenance operations. Therefore this paper presents novel numerical approach predict irregularity evolution. The model combines empirical laws with finite element theory, where track-ground structu...

One of the goals of the UK research project SafeCap (Overcoming the railway capacity challenges without undermining railway network safety) is to provide railway engineers with a formal modelling framework for analysing safety and capacity of railway systems. To this end, we have proposed a “natural modelling” approach for specifying railway networks in CSP||B [4], and we are developing the cap...

This article gives an overview of the results of the author’s PhD thesis Schlechte [2012]. The thesis deals with the mathematical optimization for the efficient use of railway infrastructure. We address the optimal allocation of the available railway track capacity the track allocation problem. This track allocation problem is a major challenge for a railway company, independent of whether a fr...

the track stiffness experienced by a train will vary along the track. sometimes the stiffness variation may be very large within a short distance. one example is when an unsupported sleeper is hanging in the rail. track stiffness is then, locally at that sleeper, very low. at insulated joints the bending stiffness of the rail has a discontinuity implying a discontinuity also of the track stiffn...

Railway scheduling is a complex task of rail operators that involves the generation of a conflict-free train timetable. This paper presents a discrete-event simulation-based optimization approach for solving the train timetabling problem to minimize total weighted unplanned stop time in a hybrid single and double track railway networks. The designed simulation model is used as a platform for ge...

Laying ballastless track on railway bridges has the advantages of reducing the train noise problem, improving passenger comfort, and reducing track maintenance costs. Therefore, railway bridges with ballastless track have gradually turned into a major trend in railway systems all over the world. In Taiwan, railway bridges with ballastless track have been in use for many years, with ballastless ...