Keywords: railway track settlement, ballast, ballast fouling, tamping, monitoring, in-situ measurement, track stiffness.

The main goal of this study was to develop a long-term monitoring system for the measurement of track settlement, especially after a ballast tamping operation, and to evaluate the effect of track properties, such as ballast condition, on settlement. The final monitoring programme was conducted on three in-situ test sites where two potentiometers were used to measure the vertical level of both ends of a single sleeper. It was found that track settlement after tamping consists of two stages: quick initial settlement immediately after tamping followed by slower, almost linear settlement. Ballast condition affects settlement rate, slightly, but its impact remained a bit unclear since settlement is also influenced by several other factors such as track stiffness. Based on the experiences from this study, a new monitoring programme, including longer track sections, have recently been launched by the authors.

purchase the full-text of this paper (price £20)

go to the next paper
return to the table of contents
return to IJRT
purchase this issue (price £80 +P&P)