Sleepers for Turnouts

Sleepers for Turnouts

A railroad turnout is a mechanical installation that enables trains to be guided from one line of rail tracks to another. In this section we discuss sleepers and sleeper designs for turnouts.

Prestressed concrete sleepers for turnouts

Due to the acute shortage of wood, especially of long timbers required for points and crossings, it was felt necessary to develop PRC sleepers for use on turnouts in track-circuited areas. RDSO developed a PRC sleeper design with a rectangular cross section in July 1986 for 1 in 12 left-hand turnouts with a 7730-mm curved switch for use with 52-kg rails. These PRC sleepers for turnouts have been manufactured in the PRC sleeper factory at Khalispur, and these sleepers are on trial on Northern Railways at present. The salient features of these sleepers are the following.

(a)  The sleepers have a rectangular cross section.

(b) There are 74 sleepers comprising 2l sleepers in switch assembly, 3 in intermediate sub-assembly and 18 in crossing sub-assembly.

(c)  The sleepers are of varying lengths and design. There are 16 different turnout sleeper designs.

(d) These sleepers require the use of a number of fittings different from the existing standard fittings. The grooved rubber pads are of a standard 4.5 mm thickness, but of varying size.

New fan-type concrete sleeper for turnouts

The prestressed concrete sleepers discussed above are suitable only for 1 in 12 turnouts. RDSO has developed a new fan-type sleeper that can be used for 1 in 8.5 as well as 1 in 12 turnouts.

The new design of concrete sleepers has the following characteristics.

(a)  The cross section of the sleeper in the new design is trapezoidal instead of rectangular as in the earlier design.

(b) The layout of the sleepers is fan shaped and the same design of sleepers can be used for right-hand as well as left-hand turnouts by rotating them 10 o in a horizontal plane.

(c)  Apart from approach sleepers, 54 concrete sleepers are used for 1 in 8.5 turnouts and 83 concrete sleepers are used for 1 in 12 turnouts.

(d) The concrete used has a 28-day crushing strength of 600 kg/cm².

(a)  The sleepers are laid perpendicular to the main line on the switch portion. In the lead portion, sleepers are laid equally inclined to the straight and turnout tracks. In the crossing portion, the sleepers are laid perpendicular to the bisecting line of the crossing.

(f)  The sleepers under the switch portion have dowels for fixing slide chairs with the help of screws. These sleepers are laid perpendicular to the main line and, therefore, can be used for both left-hand and right-hand turnouts.

(g)  The mark 'RE' is provided on the fan-shaped PRC turnout sleepers at one end. The sleepers should be so laid that the end with the RE mark is always laid on the right-hand side.

Laying of the concrete sleepers on turnouts

The turnout locations where concrete sleepers are to be laid should have a clean ballast cushion of 30 cm thickness. Extra ballast should be available on the cess and the area should have good drainage. Depending upon the availability of space and various other site conditions, one of the following three methodologies or their combinations can be adopted for laying concrete sleeper turnouts.

l    Assembling the turnout at the site and replacing it during the block period by means of either cranes or rollers.

l    Carrying parts of the assembled turnout on dip lorries and replacing them during the block period.

l    Replacing the existing turnout sleeper by sleeper except for the switch portion, which can be assembled as one unit.

The assembling and laying should normally be done using a crane of suitable capacity. After removing old turnout sleepers, the ballast bed at the level of the bottom of the concrete sleepers for turnouts should be evened out. Vibrating rollers should be employed to the extent possible for compaction of ballast bed.

Turnouts with concrete sleepers can be maintained in any one of the following ways:

(a)  using points and crossing tamper,

(b) using off-track tampers with lifting jacks, or

(c)  measured shovel packing.

In the case of emergencies such as derailments, when the sleepers may be damaged, temporary repairs should be carried out by interlacing wooden sleepers for permitting traffic with restricted speed. The damaged concrete sleepers are replaced by a fresh lot of turnout concrete sleepers as a permanent measure as early as possible. The wooden sleepers and any other damaged sleepers are replaced one by one with new turnout sleepers.