RT&S February 2019

RAIL GRINDING refining approaches to

Rail Milling Finds a Toehold

2019 CLASS 1 CAPEX

February 2019 | www.rtands.com

Overall spending slips a bit but track programs hold their own.

FIGHTING THE COLD

How railways deal with harsh winter weather

AND ALSO

rtands.com

AREMA NEWS p. 39​

February 2018 // Railway Track & Structures 1

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contents

February 2019

FEATURES FEATURES

14

Rail grinding and milling Railroads and transit systems adopt innovative approaches to improve efficiency and productivity.

Service providers look to better define grind quality.

14 NEWS

DEPARTMENTS

4

Industry Today Updates on Canadian Pacific, HDR Engineering and more

6

Supplier News Acquisitions, contracts and other news

7

People New hires, promotions and appointments

Cover photo: Corrective & Preventive Rail Grinding, Orgo-Thermit, Inc. Story on page 14.

Loram Maintenance-of-Way, Inc.

Credit: Jack Lindquist

Follow Us On Social Media @RTSMag

rtands.com

11

TTCI FAST Premium Rail Test Results: 2016-2018

39

AREMA News Message from the President, Committee Chair Q&A and more

43

Calendar

44

Products

45

Ad Index

45

Sales Representatives

46

Classifieds Advertising

46

Professional Directory

24

2019 CapEx expectations Capital spending by the Class 1s seems stuck in neutral. Not too hot.

Not too cold. Where can contractors and suppliers find growth in such an environment?

32

Winter challenges Transit systems and industry suppliers fight the winter conditions that threaten their timely, smooth service with new techniques and products.

Columns

3

On Track A brief word on safety briefings

10

NRC Chairman’s Column An extraordinary start to 2019

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 1

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On Track

A brief word on safety briefings Vol. 115, No. 21 Print ISSN # 0033-9016, Digital ISSN # 2160-2514 EDITORIAL OFFICES 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 Chicago, Ill. 60603 Telephone (312) 683-0130 Fax (312) 683-0131 Website www.rtands.com Paul Conley Editor-in-Chief pconley@sbpub.com Kyra Senese Managing Editor ksenese@sbpub.com Bob Tuzik Consulting Editor btuzik@sbpub.com btuzik@sbpub.comCORPORATE OFFICES CORPORATE OFFICES 55 Broad St 26th Fl. 55 Broad St 26th Fl. New York, N.Y. 10004 Telephone New York,(212) N.Y.620-7200 10004 Telephone Fax (212) (212) 633-1165 620-7200 Fax (212) 633-1165 Arthur J. McGinnis, Jr. J. and McGinnis, Jr. Arthur President Chairman President and Chairman Jonathan Chalon Chalon Publisher Jonathan Publisher Mary Conyers Production Mary Conyers Director Production Director Nicole D’Antona Art Director D’Antona Nicole Art Director Aleza Leinwand Graphic Leinwand Aleza Designer Graphic Designer Maureen Cooney Maureen CirculationCooney Director Circulation Director Michelle Zolkos Conference Michelle Zolkos Director Conference Director Customer Service: 800-895-4389 Reprints: PARS Service: International 800-895-4389 Corp.

Customer Reprints: 253 West PARS 35th International Street 7th Floor Corp.

253 West New 35th York,Street NY 10001 7th Floor 212-221-9595; New York, fax NY212-221-9195 10001 212-221-9595; curt.ciesinski@parsintl.com fax 212-221-9195 curt.ciesinski@parsintl.com

M

y Dad spent his working life as a roofer and waterproofer for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which operates the subway and commuter trains around Boston. He loved his job. He spent his days with guys he liked and trusted. And it paid enough to feed his family.

Some days he worked in subway tunnels.

Others he spent on top of buildings. It was hard work. Dirty. And dangerous.

What seems remarkable to me now is how complacent he was about the risks.

If he worried he would be hurt, he never talked about it. If he feared the effects of handling dangerous materials, he didn’t voice them.

He’d come home and sort of laugh it all off. He’d pull pieces of hot tar from his skin with a pen knife, cough up blood after breathing asbestos and fiberglass particles, and tell us not to worry.

But I was his oldest boy, so on occasion, he’d share the details of a particularly harrowing day. I remember the story of how a train operator failed to slow for a work crew in the tunnel. My Dad and his friends dove into a rat-filled trench to survive. I remember too how a friend of his died when he was pinned between two vehicles in a work yard.

And of course I remember the day the union called to tell us that my Dad, who refused to wear the primitive

rope-and-body-belts of that era because they were uncomfortable, had fallen four stories from a roof.

He survived, but lived the rest of his life in pain.

I thought of my Dad often at the NRC Conference and REMSA Exhibition.

Here’s why: Each session at the conference began with a “safety briefing.”

Someone takes the stage and walks the crowd through what to do in an emergency. Attendees are told where to find the exits, where to shelter during a storm, who is CPR certified, etc.

At first I found the briefings a bit silly.

I’m cynical like that. I suppose I inherited some of my father’s fatalistic leanings.

But as the conference wore on, I found myself looking forward to, and even enjoying, the safety briefings.

I came to appreciate them for what they are: a reminder there are simple steps we can take to ensure the people around us get home safely to their families.

And I’d like to think that, perhaps, had my Dad started his days with a safety briefing, he might have worn the damn rope-and-body belt.

Paul Conley Editor-in-Chief

Railway Track & Structures (Print ISSN 0033-9016, Digital ISSN 2160-2514), (USPS 860-560), (Canada Post Cust. #7204564; Agreement #40612608; IMEX P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2, Canada) is published monthly by Simmons-Boardman Publ. Corp, 55 Broad St. 26th Floor, New York, NY 10004. Printed in the U.S.A. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices.

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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Railway Track & Structures, PO Box 1407, Cedar Rapids, IA. 52406-1407.

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 3

Industry today

CP plans overhaul of Rogers Pass tunnel

T

he Canadian Pacific Railway is planning extensive work in its famed Mount MacDonald Tunnel, the longest railway tunnel in the western hemisphere.

It’s our current most important asset,” John Leonardo, general manager for wayside train control and communications, said of the tunnel, which carries trains through Rogers Pass. “But it’s tired. The hardware for power, communications, signaling — it’s obsolete.”

Perhaps more troubling is that the state

of the tunnel makes it difficult to increase capacity. Clearing the air through obsolete ventilation systems is a slow process. “It can take 45 minutes to purge after each train,” he said.

It’s unclear just how much work will be needed at Rogers Pass. A spokesperson from CP was unable to provide details on the cost and scope of the project by press time.

Nor is it clear what sort of solutions are even available. As a first step, “we’ll be hiring a consultant to see what tech is out there,” Leonardo told attendees at the NRC

Conference on Marco Island, Fla., earlier this month, estimating that it will “probably take us 5 to 10 years” to modernize the tunnel.

CP had earlier announced it is targeting 5 percent of its CA$1.6 billion (US$1.24 billion) in capital expenditure through 2020 toward information technology.

CP built the MacDonald Tunnel through Rogers Pass between 1982 and 1988. “It’s based on the capacity requirements we had in the 80s,” Leonardo said, “Our railroad is very different today.”

The Mount Macdonald Tunnel and the associated grade revision on the eastern approach to Rogers Pass lead to a significantly gentler slope for westbound trains.

The new track separates from the old grade at Rogers (approximately 15 miles east of the pass) and climbs at a lower grade. Numerous new bridges and the mile-long Mount Shaughnessy Tunnel were required to reach the pass. The Mount Macdonald Tunnel is nearly 300 feet lower than the Connaught Tunnel, which opened in 1916. On the west side of the pass, the Mount Macdonald Tunnel track rejoins the older line 3.4 miles west of the Connaught Tunnel. The reduction in the westbound ruling grades allowed the Canadian Pacific Railway to remove the pusher locomotives that had been required on the Connaught Tunnel route.

Chicago O’Hare People Mover to close until fall as renovations take place The O’Hare International Airport “People Mover,” the light-rail system that shuttles passengers around the airport grounds, will shut down completely next week and will not reopen until the fall of

2019, according to a Dec. 31 Chicago Tribune report.

The people mover, also known as the Automated Transportation Service (ATS), has not operated during weekdays since the

spring. The report states that beginning at 5 a.m. on Jan. 8, weekend service will be suspended and shuttle buses will be relied upon until train service picks up again in the fall.

Hawaii’s auditor raises questions about HDR’s role in transit A report from Hawaii’s state auditor suggests inadequate oversight of thirdparty consultant HDR Engineering, Inc. (HDR) may have contributed to cost overruns in the project to build a transit system for Honolulu.

At issue is that 19 employees of HDR were given key roles within the transit organization, including top positions overseeing project budget and cost management, in addition to design and construction. The 4 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) paid $9.6 million last year for the services of the HDR employees. That works out to $505,260 a year for each worker.

While HART “claims that HDR employees are completely integrated into its organizational structure, with no distinction between HDR and HART employees, the embedded HDR employees are paid and evaluated by their private employer, not HART,” a summary of the audit report says,

noting “that HART does not evaluate the performance of the embedded HDR employees and approves HDR monthly invoices that average about $800,000, or over $42,000 per HDR employee, with little substantive review.”

For its part, HART told the auditor’s office that it “hires third-party consultants because it is unable to find highly qualified candidates willing to accept a City and County of Honolulu (City) salary for the positions.” rtands.com

Industry today

Port of New York-New Jersey opens rail expansion for inland intermodal The Port of New York and New Jersey opened a major new expansion of its rail network, capping a five-year plan to expand capacity for cargo destined for outside the region.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey said the expansion of the portwide ExpressRail system will reduce congestion and emissions and get goods to their final destination more efficiently and at a lower cost.

The new rail facility, GCT (Global Container Terminals) Bayonne ExpressRail Port Jersey, caps a $600-million PA capital investment program dating to the 1990s that established direct rail access to on-dock and near-dock intermodal at all of its major marine terminals.

Baker trades NRC job for role at ASLRRA Chuck Baker, president of the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC), stepped down Feb. 4 to take on a new job as president and CEO of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA.) “It is with a heavy heart that I leave the NRC, as I truly love the rail construction and maintenance industry, NRC’s contractor, supplier, and associate members, the Board, and the NRC staff at Chambers, Conlon & Hartwell,” Baker said in a written statement.

“However, I leave confident that the NRC is in better shape than ever and poised nicely to continue to improve.”

Baker joined the NRC in February 2004 as the association’s manager, and later advanced to vice president, executive director, and, eventually, president.

Both the NRC and ASLRRA are clients of Chambers, Conlon & Hartwell, the Washington, DC-based lobbying and government affairs organization. Other CC&H employees with roles at NRC, including Matt Bell, Mike McGonagle, and Chana Elgin, will remain with NRC. In his role as NRC president, Baker is responsible for all of the association’s core financial, operational, and legal programs, including the federal legislative and

I leave confident that the NRC is in better shape than ever and POised Nicely to continue to improve

— Chuck Baker rtands.com

regulatory programs in front of both Congress and the Administration. Baker also leads a team at CC&H for ASLRRA, handling a wide array of short line railroad government affairs responsibilities.

ASLRRA Chair, Judy Petry, president and general manager of Farmrail System, Inc., said Baker’s rail experience made him the ideal choice. “As the lead partner on government affairs efforts for the ASLRRA … including on our key priority, permanence of the Short Line 45G Tax Credit, he has showcased his keen understanding of the needs of our industry. In addition, he has led multiple industry associations and high performing teams,” she said.

As of press time, the NRC had not yet chosen a replacement for Baker. “The executive committee is exploring options,” Mike Choat, the Wabtec executive who serves as NRC Chairman, told Railway Track & Structures. “We will work in concert with CC&H.” Baker’s departure comes just weeks after the NRC Conference and REMSA Exhibition in Marco Island, Fla. In a touching moment at that conference, Baker was on stage when Ray Chambers, the man who hired Baker for his first job at NRC, was inducted in to the NRC Hall of Fame. Chambers is a former NRC president and principal of CC&H. Baker is a native of Baltimore and a graduate of Rice University.

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 5

Industry today

Supplier News E llis Don I nf ras t ruc ture Tra nsit (EDIT) won a $175 million (C$239 million) design/build/finance deal to revamp GO Transit’s Rutherford Station in Vaughan, Ontario.

EDIT is a consor tium led by of E l l i s D o n . Pa r t i c i p a n t s i n c l u d e Wood, St ra s m a n A rc h itec ts Inc., and Condor Signals & Communications Inc.. Construction wi l l b e g i n i n s p ri n g 201 9, with completion expected in 2023.

A joint venture of Mott McDonald and PGH Wong Engineering won the contract to provide general engineering services for Phase II of the 16-mile, six-station Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Silicon Valley Extension, which when completed will connect Fremont (Warm Springs) with San José and Santa Clara.

Rideau Transit Group (RTG), the consortium building Ottawa’s light rail transit (LRT) Confederation Line, says it will finish construction work this quarter.

RTG m i s s e d d e a d l i n e s o n th e project in May and November of last year. After missing the November deadline, RTG was hit with a $1 million penalty.

Some of the biggest names in the rail and construction industries are participants in RTG, including ACS Inf rastruc ture Canada, EllisDon, SNC Lavalin, Alstom, and Thurber Engineering.

Sen. Schumer urges DOD attention on new railhead at Fort Drum U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan last week, and reportedly urged the Department of Defense (DOD) to focus on the construction of a new railhead project at Fort Drum in the Army’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Budget Request.

The Jefferson County, New York, location is home to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. Schumer said the current railhead on Fort Drum limits the installation’s ability to adhere to DOD standards, is limited by spatial restrictions and is incapable of supporting operations during winter months. That last item is particularly problematic given that the 10th Mountain Division is the only division in the Army specializing in winter warfare.

Schumer said the new railhead project, which would carry a price tag of about

$21 million, would be funded by the FY2020 Military Construction (MILCON) Appropriations bill.

Three MnDOT projects gain funding to improve state’s rail service The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) announced three projects aimed at improving rail service in the state.

According to a statement, $1.55 million in funding has been made available through the department’s Minnesota Rail Service Improvement (MRSI) program. The funds are expected to help strengthen the state’s shipping economy and help companies that ship by rail to bolster their operations.

THE

MnDOT states that the city of Becker, Minn., received a $1 million award for Northern Metal Recycling to add a 7,000foot rail spur to a new processing facility.

Additionally, Epitome Energy, LLC, Crookston, received $450,000 in grant funds for new rail infrastructure for a new soybean processing and biodiesel facility. Minnesota Commercial Railway is also expected to use its $101,139 award to replace a railroad bridge over Rice Creek in New Brighton, Minn.

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Industry today

People TranSystems Corp., which provides engineering and architectural planning, design and construction services to railroads, has added John Hovanec to its Board of Directors. Hovanec, PE, worked with Union Pacific Railroad (UP) for nearly 38 years, where he served i n va ri o u s l e a d e rs h i p ro l e s, m os t recently as assistant vice president – Engineering Design.

Shortline operator and rail services provider R . J. Corman Railroad Group appointed two longtime Class I railroad executives to its board of directors. Terry Evans joins the board af ter 38 years at Norfolk Southern (NS), where he held the position of vice president of Transportation. Vern Graham retired at the end of 2010 from his position as the vice president of United States Operations for Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), and president

of Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, a subsidiary of CP, after 37 years in the industry.

Hitendra (Hiten) Patel, PE, former Deputy Chief of Construction a n d D e s i g n En g i n e e ri n g with th e Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Aut horit y (WMATA), join e d global design and engineering firm Stantec as a principal and program manager at the firm’s Transportation division in the Mid-Atlantic region, based in Laurel, Md. Veteran transportation executive Sandy Bushue leads the new Washington D.C. office of national passenger and freight rail and rail transit firm Quandel C o n s u l ta n t s . B u s h u e, th e fo r m e r Acting and Deputy Administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, will identify national business development opportunities and also help the firm with strategic management initiatives.

Development and Operation of New York’s IRT and BMT

ATTENTION ALL COMPANIES AND FIRMS WITH EXPERTISE IN RAIL OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE

by Alfred E. Fazio, P.E. History does repeat itself. In his latest work, Fazio connects the dots for today’s operational officers by outlining the relevance of modern challenges to those faced by our forefathers of operational design. Many of these issues are brought to life by exploring examples learned from mitigating various issues and tactics used when the NYCTA assumed control of the BMT and IRT lines. It includes graphical analysis, technical drawings, and suggestions for further reading on critical topics.

BKNYIRT

Kari Gonzales has been named as vice president and Chief Financial O f f i c e r (C F O) a t Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n Te c h n o l o g y C e n t e r, I n c . ( T T C I ).

Gonzales has been with the facility for 16 years, having started at TTCI as an intern while she was earning her degree at the Colorado School of Mines in mechanical engineering.

Gonzales began her career at TTCI as an engineer in 2002 and was involved in the development of testing wayside detector systems and finite element modeling of railroad castings.

Pennsylvania Department of Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n S e c r e t a r y L e s l i e Richards was named vice chairman of the 2019 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Executive Committee.

The committee is the senior policy b o d y of th e TR B, wh ic h p rov id es leadership in transportation innovation.

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EVENT DETAILS: Friday, February 15th & Saturday, February 16th

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MAR. 12, 2019

Union League Club of Chicago

NRC Chairman’s Column

An extraordinary start to 2019

B

“

A special thanks goes to all of our sponsors and member companies for the success of your conference.

The National Railroad Construction & Maintenance Association, Inc. 410 1st Street, S.E. Suite 200 Washington D. C. 20003 Tel: 202-715-2920 www.nrcma.org info@nrcma.org 10 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

y all accounts, the 2019 NRC Conference was the best NRCMA Conference and REMSA Exhibition on record. We had great turnout with more than 1,100 in attendance and a great exhibit hall (thanks to REMSA for their partnership on the exhibits!) filled with more than 140 exhibitors.

Our featured speaker was Matt Rose, BNSF’s executive chairman. The “Fireside Chat” was fantastic. Thanks to Matt for spending his time with us. I would also like to personally thank Jim Hansen, vice chairman, for his assistance in making the interview a success, all the way down to his on-point NRC socks.

We had a world-class lineup of speakers from class 1 railroads, shortlines, and rail transit agencies. A big thank you to all of them including Jimmy Patterson of Watco, Jon Zillioux of NS, Bruce Marcheschi of METRA, Eric Gehringer of UP, Jim McLeod of CN, Kristine Storm of G&W, Craig Rasmussen of BNSF, Tod Echlerof CSX, Scott Bannwart of FEC, Mark Willeof KCS, John Dalton of MBTA, Zach Vallos and Robert Guinan of OmniTRAX, and John Leonardo of CP.The NRCMA Safety Awards Program, sponsored by Commercial Insurances Associates, remains an enormous success. Thanks to all companies that participated.

We also enjoyed four unique breakout sessions that were well attended: On Sunday, the “PTC/S&C” panel kicked off the conference with Carl Walker (CSX), Neal Hathaway and Jay McAndrew (UP), Jim LeVere (BNSF), John Leonardo (CP), Tom Hilliard (CN), and moderator Steve Bolte, NRC Secretary / Treasurer. Great insights were provided regarding PTC implementation from those class 1 S&C executives.

Thanks to all!

On Monday, during the general session, we observed a unique panel of Class 1 government affairs experts discussing political, legislative and regulatory prospects in this brave new world. Thanks to Andrew Brady of AAR, Arielle Giordano of CPR, Jamie Houton of UP and David Woodruff of CN. Also on Monday, we offered two additional break-out sessions: FRA Part 243 Minimum Training Standards Rule Seminar - due to the current partial government shutdown the FRA was unable to attend, so thanks to John Zuspan and Chip Frazier for conducting this seminar.

As for the Palmetto Railways Procurement & Project Overview, thanks to Tarek Ravenel, director of special projects for Palmetto Railways, for a presentation highlighting industrial development in South Carolina.

On Tuesday, we all enjoyed the Precision Scheduled Railroading Panel. Thanks to Moderator Dave Ferryman, of EVRAZ NA and panelists Mike Cory, EVP & COO CN, Jim Danielwicz, former VP Mechanical, CN, and Howard Green, Author of “Railroader: The Unfiltered Genius and Controversy of Four-Time CEO Hunter Harrison.”

The NRC special awards were, as always, a special part of the conference. Congratulations to each of the winners: Field Employee of the Year Joe Sudduth of Herzog; Large Railroad Construction Project of the Year winner SEMA Construction for the BNSF Alliance IMF Expansion Project, and Small Railroad Construction Project of the Year winner Fay/i+icon USA for the LIRC FlatRock River Bridge Project.

The NRC was also honored to induct three members into our Hall of Fame – once again our congratulations to: - Don and Diane Coleman, formerly of Coleman Industrial Construction.

- Ray Chambers, an industry icon, rail lobbying pioneer and past NRC president.

A special thanks also goes to all of our sponsors and member companies for the success of your conference. A huge thank you to the NRC Staff; Chuck Baker, Matt Bell, Mike McGonagle, and Chana Elgin for all of the hard work in making this year’s conference a great success! If you were at the conference, thanks for being there, and we trust that you found the event to be a productive and enjoyable start to your year.

And we hope you come back next year! If you missed it, you missed a great one. Please save the dates for out next NRCMA Conference January 5-8, 2020 in San Diego.

All details for important upcoming events and everything else NRC-related can be found on www.nrcma.org.

I hope everyone has a safe and productive month.

Mike Choat NRC Chairman rtands.com

TTCI r&d

FAST Premium Rail Test Results: 2016-2018 EFB weld failures were observed in this test involving all six rail types

by Ananyo Banerjee, Ph.D., Principal Investigator Joseph A. LoPresti, Scientist Transportation Technology Center, Inc.

I

n 2018, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) concluded testing of six premium rail types in a 5-degree reverse curve of the High Tonnage Loop (HTL) located at the Facility for Accelerated Service Testing (FAST) in Pueblo, Colo.

Six rail manufacturers participated and donated 40-foot rail segments. The manufacturers were ArcelorMittal Steelton LLC. (USA), Angang Group International

Panzhihua Co. Ltd. (China), British Steel (UK, France), voestalpine Schienen GMBH (Austria), JFE Steel Co. (Japan) and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Co. (Japan).

Dissimilar rail types were welded to one another by an electric flash butt (EFB) welding process by an external welding company and five rail profiles per rail segment were marked for data collection.

The test curve has 4 inches of superelevation and is not lubricated by any gage or top-of-rail (TOR) lubrication. The 39-ton axle load train at FAST operates at 40 mph resulting in 1.7 inches of overbalance for the train’s operating speed. Testing ended after the rails accumulated 651 million gross tons (MGT) of service. The test started in February 2014 and TTCI monitored rail wear, rolling contact fatigue (RCF), internal defects in rails and EFB weld failures that occurred between the test rails.

Rail wear Researchers compared metal loss of the high rail at the end of the test in terms of

head area loss and gage wear (as shown in Figure 1). Area loss included vertical head wear, gage corner wear and gage wear and thus gave an overall idea of the total metal loss due to wear and grinding. The gage wear data is shown in the same plot showing that it is the main contributor to the area loss data. Gage wear necessitated the completion of the test, and subsequent removal of the rails.

The yellow dots in each series represent the medians of each rail type. Based on the sample sizes of the test, Type E showed the highest median head area loss while Type C had the least. Type E was statistically more worn than type C with nominally 24 percent more head area loss. The median difference was expected to be between 19.7 and 26.0 percent at a 95 percent confidence interval.

The high and low rails were ground twice — at 255 MGT and 429 MGT — to remove RCF and spalls from all the rail types.

Corrective grinding on the head of the rail was done with approximately equal amounts of metal removed from all rails as the grinder

Figure 1: Area loss and gage wear of high rail at 651 MGT.

rtands.com

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 11

TTCI r&D

Figure 2: Defect initiation sites observed in failed EFB welds.

Figure 3: Fatigue defect at various magnifications.

made continuous passes. There was significantly lower wear of the low rail for all rail types. The low rail received an additional corrective grind at 590 MGT due to the formation of severe RCF and spalls.

EFB weld failures Eight EFB welds failed on the high rail during the course of the test. Type A rail was involved in five failures while type E rail was involved in four failures. Types C, D and F rails each were involved in two weld failures while type B rail was involved in one failure.

Five out of the eight EFB weld failures were recovered and examined and all had fatigue marks with defect initiation sites in the 12 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

region extending from the top half of the web up into the head-web radius.

Examples of three such EFB weld failures are shown in Figure 2. Microstructural examination of the defect initiation sites showed deformed pearlitic microstructure with no presence of martensite. No microstructural difference was observed from one rail type to the connecting rail type across the longitudinal EFB weld surface and thus it was impossible to determine any influence of differences in rail metallurgy on the EFB weld failures.

Internal rail defects Researchers observed two internal defects

during the four years of this test.

In a regularly scheduled ultrasonic rail scan of the entire HTL, a transverse defect of 4 percent of the head area was detected in a type D low rail. The head of the rail was carefully sectioned, and the detected area was re-scanned using ultrasonic scanning equipment. A thin hairline crack was observed 0.2 in. below TOR surface and the transverse defect was ruled out.

The second defect was a fatigue defect observed in a type F high rail that caused a vertical split head fracture. An EFB weld failure happened seven months earlier between the type F and a type C rail and was replaced by a thermite weld. The thermite weld failed, and the type F rail was temporarily joined to a non-test rail with joint bars. The fatigue defect initiated 1.5 inches away from the cross-sectional surfaces of the two rails towards the field side as shown in Figure 3.

The defect initiation location was examined at higher magnifications using scanning electron microscopy (black-and-white image in Figure 3) and chemistry was scanned using electro-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) at random spots at that location.

No contaminants were found but some scans showed high sulfur and oxygen contents indicating the possibility of presence of sulfide and oxide inclusions.

Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) analysis A subjective, visual RCF rating scale — where 0 is no RCF, 1 is mild, 2 is heavy, and 3 is severe — was used for regular RCF estimation of the rails during the test.1 RCF estimation was done on each rail at every tie and ratings were averaged for all six rail types. Change in head wear over particular tonnage intervals was analyzed and compared with the change in average RCF rating for all rail types. Considerable scatter in the data yielded no conclusive correlation.

RCF growth rates were different across the same rail of any rail type as well as different across the six different rail types.

Grinding of the test zone was done when the overall test zone showed severe RCF and spalling, although grinding did not completely remove RCF. Samples of RCF ratings 1, 2, and 3 of rail types C and E were sectioned, polished and viewed under the optical microscope. Figure 4 shows the RCF ratings of 1, 2 and 3 of the visual rating scale and cross-sectional images of crack depth observed in type E samples at the end of the test. At the rating of 1, the cracks are vertical with zero or some curvature, but the surface rtands.com

TTCI r&d

Figure 4: Comparison of RCF crack appearances along the cross-section of the rail head for different RCF ratings.

of the rail looks free of spalls. At the rating of 2, longer cracks start changing directions while more cracks are found to initiate. The rail loses some metal due to spalling caused by multiple cracks growing in close proximity. At the rating of 3, spalling appears to be more prominent as cracks continue to grow.

One arc-shaped crack left of the spalled area in Figure 4 is a probable location for impending spalling as the crack travels upwards and joins other cracks.

It is to be noted that the images shown in Figure 4 are three different spots on the same rail and the TOR images shown on the left are not images of the type E rail.

Conclusions The following conclusions were made from this analysis: • Out of the six different rail types, type E, with the highest median head area loss, was nominally 24 percent greater than rail type C with the least head area loss.

• Gage wear was the most dominant wear mechanism in this test compared to head wear (vertical wear) and gage corner wear.

High gage wear, and the availability of new test rails, were the main reasons for the conclusion of the test.

• EFB weld failures were observed in this test rtands.com

involving all six rail types. Most of the welds had fatigue initiation points in the region extending from the top half of the web up into the head-web radius. Four out of eight welds were examined microstruc-

No contaminants were found but some scans showed high sulfur and oxygen contents indicating the possibility of presence of sulfide and oxide inclusions. turally, and presence of martensite was not found at the defect initiation sites.

• Two internal defects were found and one led to a vertical split-head fracture at a rail

joint in one test rail. The other was detected as a transverse defect by ultrasonic testing but on further investigation was found to be a thin crack in the head of the rail.

• RCF visual ratings exhibited a complex pattern for all rail types throughout the test. Grinding was implemented to reduce RCF at 255 and 429 MGT when RCF got severe throughout the test zone, but grinding did not eliminate RCF completely.

• RCF cracks in two rails were examined microstructurally and the progress of RCF cracks through the cross-section of the TOR surface for various RCF visual ratings were analyzed with optical microscope.

Microscopic evaluation revealed that RCF cracks progress vertically downwards and often change the direction of growth.

Impending spalling starts occurring when these RCF sub-surface cracks change direction and join new cracks moving vertically downwards.

References 1. Banerjee A. and Davis D., February 2016. “FAST Premium Rail Wear Test Results: 2014-2015” Technology Digest TD-16-001.

Association of American Railroads, Transportation Technology Center, Inc., Pueblo, CO. February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 13

RAIL GRINDING

Refining Approaches to

CORRECTIVE & PREVENTATIVE

W

hen it comes to correcting or maintaining the profile and surface condition of rail on North American railroads, there is one primary method: rail grinding. Rail milling, an established method in other parts of the world was recently introduced in a transit application in Canada (see p. 16), but at present, rail grinding is the method of choice.

Freight railroads grind for two primary reasons: to maintain or manage rail shape (a fundamental aspect of wheel/rail interaction) and to minimize surface-initiated fatigue cracks that interfere with ultrasonic testing and can ultimately lead to rail

14 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

defects. Transit systems grind for the same reasons, but also to control wheel/rail noise induced by rail corrugation. So, the goals of most grinding programs are to correct or maintain the desired rail profile; to remove surface damage, such rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and shells, spalls and corrugation (SSCs), which interfere with the ability of ultrasonic rail flaw detection systems to inspect the rail for internal defects.

While there are shades of gray between them, the two primary approaches have been corrective and preventive grinding.

Corrective grinding typically implies the application of multiple passes with heavy metal removal at lower speeds to restore

the rail shape and/or surface to acceptable conditions; preventive grinding typically implies the application of fewer passes with less metal removal at higher grinding speeds to catch degrading surface and/or profile conditions on a more frequent basis before significant damage is done.

Most grinding programs are tonnage based, with intervals determined by a range of factors, such as the hardness and cleanliness of the rail, the extent of SSCs, the existing versus desired profile, among others.

While every railroad puts its own spin on grinding requirements, recommended practices for preventive grinding programs are in the range of: rtands.com

Photo Credit: Jack Lindquist

RAIL GRINDING

rail grinding

Railroads and transit systems adopt innovative approaches to improve efficiency and productivity.

Service providers look to better define grind quality.

By Bob Tuzik, consulting editor

• 15 – 25 MGT in sharp curves (3 degrees or greater) with rail hardness of 340 to 420 BHN; • 30 – 50 MGT in mild curves (less than 3 degrees) and 320 to 340 BHN; • 50 – 60 MGT in tangent track with 320 to 340 BHN, and 100 MGT with 340 to 420 BHN. While every railroad aspires to be in a preventive grinding mode, it’s essential to perform corrective grinding when rail conditions call for it. “By focusing too much on maintaining a preventive grinding mode, you can miss deeper defects,” Wolfgang Scheoch, former Director of External Affairs, Speno International SA, told rtands.com

members of the International Collaborative Research Initiative during a panel discussion on rail grinding at the ICRI meeting in Vancouver, BC, in 2017. Preventive grinding, which typically results in very little surface material removal, only works if the rail is in a defect-free state. But defects can be missed, they can be larger than expected, develop faster than expected, and can change position over time, Schoech said.

Brad Kerchof, Director of Research and Tests at Norfolk Southern, reported on an NS study in which a number of grinding passes on an apparently clean rail section uncovered both significant RCF and a nearly 0.21-inch deep spall that was

effectively invisible to ultrasonic testing due to interference from RCF at or near the rail surface. “There might be a lot of RCF out there that’s invisible until you begin to grind,” Kerchof said. And that RCF could be effectively concealing even bigger issues.

The take away, he said, is that an effective grinding plan must include RCF removal wherever it impacts rail testing, The goal of preventive grinding is to treat rail at regular intervals with few passes (ideally one pass) to maintain the target profile and acceptable rail surface conditions with minimal metal removal. Corrective grinding becomes necessary when RCF, SSCs or other surface conditions interfere with the ability of ultrasonic rail flaw detection systems to detect internal defects.

Experience and tests have shown that corrective grinding is effective at cleaning and potentially “saving” rail.

In one test, the Transportation Technology Center Inc., analyzed five rails with surface conditions that interfered with UT testing. Optical microscopy showed that the maximum depth of 90 percent of the cracks and spalls measured in the sample rails did not exceed 0.040 inch. “This is well within the range of corrective grinding with a large production grinder,” TTCI Engineer Scott Cummings reported in Testability and Corrective Grinding Depth of Rails with Poor Surface Condition (Technology Digest 18-027) last year.

Comparison of pre- and post-grind rail profiles shows that a large production grinder can remove as much as 0.014 inch per pass at slow speeds and 0.006 to 0.008 inch per pass at more typical speeds, Cummings said. “Based on these values, three to five grinder passes could have completely eliminated the majority of cracks and spalls in the five test rails and substantially reduced the depth of any remaining surface damage, thus resulting in improved UT confidence.”

Other grinding-related research is in the offing in the near future, as well. The TTCI plans to: • Evaluate rail grinding templates; especially, field-side relief.

• Survey grinding practices and results at switches and crossings.

• Create, evaluate and model rail profile template(s) designed specifically for turnouts.

The fact that these topics are on the TTCI’s research docket is a clear indication that Class 1s are looking for ways to improve their grinding programs. CSX is one of the Class 1s that has been honing its grinding February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 15

rail grinding

program over the past couple years, taking an innovative approach to how it utilizes grinding equipment.

Reducing the operational footprint CSX has initiated a joint grinding program in which it operates a 120-stone production unit followed by a 24-stone switch and crossing (S&C) grinder within the same window.

The production grinder handles the bulk of the work on standard track, while the S&C machine handles specialty assets and hot spots that may need additional passes, freeing the production machine to continue operating at maximum efficiency. CSX utilizes two joint grinding teams to cover

the network.

Prior to the joint grinding program, begun in 2016, CSX used a standalone S&C grinder for six months per year. Since it required its own work window and support staff the standalone S&C grinder was less effective and costlier to operate.

By operating in the wake of a production grinder, which gets high priority because of its cost to operate, the S&C grinder gets the same priority access. And by working them together, CSX has doubled the grinding program’s productivity and reduced its operating footprint (the number of track windows required) by 65 percent.

Last year, CSX incorporated the use of

Loram’s Rail Inspection Vehicle (RIV), which collects rail profile and surface condition data prior to production grinding, to also inspect switches and crossings.

By inspecting rail to be addressed by the production and S&C grinders, Loram is able to generate grinding plans for the out-offace and specialty grinds with one inspection, rather than the multiple inspections / track occupations required in the past.

Prior to using the RIV, CSX performed manual inspections at specialty assets with a star gauge, then used standard patterns to grind to a standard 8-inch radius—the same shape as new rail. Using information collected by the RIV, CSX is now able

Toronto adds Milling to the Rail Maintenance Mix The Toronto Transit Commission looks to European technology to meet its maintenance and service needs.

There has been talk for years about if and when rail milling technology would be coming to America. Well, the talking is over. A milling machine, the product of a joint venture between two Austrian companies, landed on these shores and began work in December of last year at the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).

The deployment, the culmination of several years of speculation and planning, is the start of a three-year service contract to address rail shape and surface conditions in the heavy rail TTC subway lines. The joint venture, formed by LINMAG, a global provider of rail milling services and Rhomberg Sersa, which provides rail grinding, ballast undercutting and project management services (in North America), will operate as Rhomberg Sersa North America.

I n o rd e r to m e et re q u i re m e nts to commence milling work in 2018, Rhomberg Sersa leased a SF02W-FS hi-rail milling machine from Austrian

A Rhomberg Sersa-leased LINSINGER SF02W-FS hi-rail milling machine is being used to complete the first year of the TTC contract.

16 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

manufacturer LINSINGER. The dieselhydraulic hi-rail unit, which has one cutting head per rail, will be used to complete the first year of the contract.

Rhomberg Sersa Nor th America purchased a higher-capacity dieselelectric railbound machine (SF02T-FS) that will be built by LINSINGER and delivered later this year to fulfill the subsequent years of the TTC contract.

The SF02T-FS, which will be able to remove as little as 0.1mm and as much as 1.5mm of metal from the top of rail in one pass, will provide extended chip storage capacity that will enable the machine to work continuously for up to 6 hours at a maximum processing speed of 840 meters per hour. The machine will also be equipped with state-ofthe-art measurement technology to provide electronic documentation of metal removal, profiles (transversal and longitudinal), and crack conditions on the rail surface.

Milling work in year one of the TTC contract will focus on damage removal and profile restoration on portions of the Line 2 Bloor-Danforth heavy rail subway line. “We are focusing on areas that have not been ground over the past few years—areas where there is surface damage, such as corrugation or RCF, and areas in which we are too far from the target profiles,” said Mostafa Nouri, Sr. Engineer, Noise and Vibration - Maintenance Engineering for TTC’s subway lines.

The TTC, which has used contract grinding services for the past 10 years, elected to incorporate milling into its rail maintenance programs after obser vin g spark- an d sm oke-free milling operations in Europe. Like most transit systems, the TTC is sensitive to any whiff of smoke. The TTC sometimes encountered service delays addressing reports of smoke or potential fires from the traveling public on the mornings af ter grinding. With milling, there’s only light grinding with a fine polishing stone following the milling operation; with no sparks, there is no smoke or fire (or related passenger complaints) to deal with. Impressions af ter the first half dozen shifts in December are favorable. “The machine is quiet, there are no sparks, there’s not much dust, and there’s not much smoke,” Nouri said.

Nor is there much heat. LINSINGER has observed low rail temperatures during milling under test conditions. “Since the rail has such a large volume, the heat is taken directly from the surface, leaving it warm to the touch right after milling,” said Richard Stock, Milling Technology Manager at LINSINGER. The first year of the TTC’s milling program essentially replaces what a corrective grinding program would do to remove surface damage and restore the desired profile. The TTC worked with the National Research Council of Canada to reduce the number of target profiles from five used in its grinding rtands.com

rail grinding

is to develop a custom grinding plan with the precise patterns and number of passes needed for each specialty asset. “By going directly to our NRC-designated custom rail profile, which better matches the typical worn wheel profiles, we’re reducing the contact stresses by 50 to 70 percent,” said Dan Hampton, CSX manager of contract services. This reduction in contact stress should result in similar rail life extension for these high-cost specialty assets.

The CSX grinding program uses a tonnage-based frequency with a weighted average for different segment lengths.

The grinding frequency for individual curves varies, depending on the degree of

curvature; tangent segments are typically ground half as frequently, or every other cycle. But rather than just skipping tangents every other cycle, all track segments are inspected every cycle. There are tangent segments with higher demands than the tonnage rule of thumb would indicate that need to be ground every cycle because of operational conditions, such as grade, signals, yard leads, etc., that cause a lot of stopping / starting, accelerating / braking— conditions that increase damage to the rail, Hampton said. To better address such conditions, CSX and Loram created algorithms for tangent track segments that look at tonnage since the last grind, the Grind

Quality Index (GQI) of the rail profiles, and any surface conditions. If all three condition thresholds—accumulated tonnage, profile GQI exceeding a specific threshold, and no surface conditions found during the inspection—are met, the planning software has an automated rule to skip it.

The Operations Research team in CSX Technology also developed a scheduling optimizer that assigns priority to hightonnage, passenger and hazmat routes to ensure that segments are ground as close to the optimum cycle as possible while minimizing non-productive travel. “By using the scheduling optimizer, we cut more than 10 travel days, which represents hundreds

Toronto adds Milling cont. program to two for the milling program.

Unlike grinding machines which can change the orientation of the grinding stones to generate multiple rail profiles, each cutting head on a milling machine produces only one, albeit very precise, profile; multiple profiles require multiple cutting heads. And since changing cutting heads during milling operations takes time out of the TTC’s scant 60- to 90-minute nightly work window, the TTC opted to use only two profiles for milling on the system—one biased toward the center and one biased toward the field side of the rail—regardless of the degree of curvature.

The milling work is being done in a one-pass operation. “TTC requires an average metal removal of 0.8mm of metal per pass at the top of rail, allowing about 450m of finished track per hour with the SF02W-FS hi-rail milling machine,” Stock said. The cutting head can accommodate the 100- and 115-pound rail sections in the subway.

Wh i l e it wa s n ot o n e of T TC ’s requirements, the very smooth surface finish that milling leaves on the rail is a welcome byproduct. Expectations are that surface finish will become more important and will work its way into specifications on rail transit systems.

T h e T TC ’s t h re e -ye a r c o n t ra c t includes 60 milling shifts per year. The program is designed to obtain the highest potential production during th e in itia l s ta g es. B e g in n in g n ex t year, TTC expects to direct milling efforts to corrective work. It will also in corporate a tradition al grin din g program to address localized areas with corrugation, which drives noiseand vibration-related complaints.

Working with milling equipment will be a learning experience, TTC’s Mostafa Nouri said. “It took us a decade to really understand rail grinding; we’re starting anew with milling.”

The Anatomy of a Cutting Head

The carbide inserts can be turned up to 7 times before they’re recycled.

Depending on rail conditions and metalremoval depth, the carbide inserts can stand up to 2 km of cutting rail before they must be turned or exchanged. If cutting inserts are worn or damaged, cutting heads are changed on track to best utilize the available track time.

The shape of the high-precision cutting head determines the resulting shape of the rail profile. Any pre-defined rail profile can be produced by the milling process. Multiple profiles can also be produced by changing cutting heads, which can be done on the fly or within a few minutes, depending on the number of milling units on the milling train.

The milling trains incorporate a polishing unit that includes a completely enclosed circumferential grinding wheel

with a small off-set angle in order to produce a finished surface roughness of Ra < 5µm and a smooth longitudinal profile that meets the most stringent noise standards.

Rail milling is a spark- and dust-free rotational cutting process. Each cutter head consists of 140 to 220 carbide inserts, depending on the diameter (400mm or 600mm) of the cutting head.

Depending on the type of machine, rail milling can remove as little as 0.1mm (0.004 in.) or as much as 5mm (0.2 in.) per pass at speeds up to 1.3 mph.

Heat from the milling process is transferred from the rail to the milling tool and the metal chips, which are collected on board the milling machine for recycling afterwards. The low heat generated by the milling process prevents bluing or the generation of martensite, an unwanted by product of heat-related material transformation at the surface of the rail. rtands.com

LINSINGER rail milling cutter-head showing the carbide inserts.

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 17

rail grinding

of thousands of dollars, from the grinding plan,” Hampton said.

While grinding to address rail surface conditions—RCF and SSCs—is a bigger driver than profile correction, CSX has found that profile conditions are a good guide to overall rail conditions. “We tend to find poor surface conditions wherever the profile is out,” Hampton said. “But we also find poor surface conditions in locations where the profile is fine.”

A lot of SSCs occur in the approaches to switches and crossings, an area in which production grinders generally pick up the stones to prevent damage to specialty assets.

S&C grinders are used to handle this. CSX determined that a minimum of 10 passes with an S&C grinder (two five-pass series consisting of two passes to gauge, two to field, one at the top) is required to remove enough metal for an inspector to determine if the SSCs were removed. An additional five to 10 passes (one or two five-pass series) may be required to completely remove them; then an additional one to three passes will be required correct the profile.

18 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

To better target SSCs, Loram, at the request of CSX, developed the NavPro application, which uploads data to the grinders and displays the length and GPS coordinates of SSCs on digital track charts. “With this information, we’re able to roll right up to the spot and grind it out. If it’s more than 250 feet, we hit it with the big production grinder, then follow up with the specialty grinder with as many passes as needed to clean it,” Hampton said. “It’s much more efficient than the previous approach.”

SSCs also occur on bridges. And like most railroads, CSX is wary of grinding on bridges—especially timber bridges. As a result, the railroad expanded the NavPro app to include the locations and types of bridges, whether they can be ground, and the requirements for fire protection. When the grinder operator sees a bridge coming up on the digital map, he knows what type of bridge it is and whether to grind it. And the support crew knows the fire-protection plan. “We don’t grind anything with a wood substructure, for example, but we treat a concrete ballast deck bridge just

like any other right of way,” Hampton said.

“Using this approach, we went from grinding bridges by exception to now grinding the vast majority of our bridges.” Along with the effectiveness of its joint grinding program, CSX has reduced the number of SSC on the property by 60 percent per year for the past three years, Hampton said.

The next piece of the puzzle is dynamic track segmentation, which will allow the grinders to change patterns wherever the rail profile changes, based on pre-inspection reports and analysis. CSX is also looking into ways to correlate GQI values with rail life extension. “Will a GQI score of 80 provide the same rail life extension as a score of 90?” Hampton said. “Better understanding of the relationship between rail profile and rail life extension will allow us to make better decisions, to optimize the program and maximize safety and efficiency.”

Rail Transit “With the instrumentation that’s available, it’s possible to monitor and manage rtands.com

CSX Transportation

CSX reduced manpower and equipment requirements by moving from independent operations for a production grinder [configuration (RG403 / RG414)] and a switch & crossing grinder [Specialty Grinder Configuration (RGS6 /RGS9)] to joint operations configuration, effectively shrinking its operational footprint and reducing the number of required work windows.

rail grinding

grinding with greater rigor,” said Eric Magel, Principal Engineer at the National Research Council of Canada. Comprehensive measurement of profile shape, rail surface condition, corrugation and wheel/ rail-related noise is being done on a few transit systems. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) , for example, regularly measures rail profile, surface cracks with eddy current measurement and corrugation with a Corrugation Analyzer Trolley (CAT). With this information to work with BART and its consultants are moving beyond a typical GQI assessment.

“The current approach to GQI is limited because it set limits based only on what the grinder is capable of achieving, not on whether the profiles are actually meeting a performance requirement,” Magel said. The idea behind the GQI is to put a reasonable tolerance around the shape you’re trying to achieve. As it stands, 100 percent means it’s within ±0.25 millimeters of the described shape. But if you’re high by 0.2 mm in one spot and low at another, you can generate very different contact conditions. We’d like to tighten the tolerances to indicate you’re at 100 percent if you’re spot on; short of that, you might be at 80 or 70 percent”.

The NRC, in collaboration with the University of Manitoba and Advanced Rail Management Corp., has begun a project to evaluate how to better determine when rail shape associated with the GQI is good enough, and whether there’s a reasonable return on investment to improve it from a 70 to an 80, or better. The consortium is looking to migrate away from the standard GQI toward three related indices: a profile quality index, a surface quality index (which could be called an RCF index), and a corrugation index.

Magel and Kevin Oldknow, Associate Dean - Faculty of Applied Sciences at Simon Fraser University, laid out their ideas on “Quality Indices for Managing Rail Through Grinding” at the 11th International Conference on Contact Mechanics and Wear of Rail/Wheel Systems, in September of last year. They proposed three related indices in place of the current GQI: 1. Profile Quality Index (PQI), which replaces the former GQI, to measure and evaluate efforts to move the rail profile toward the shapes prescribed by the rail grinding templates.

2. Surface Damage Index (SDI) to measure a grinding program’s effectiveness in: • immediately or progressively removing rail surface damage and expose clean rtands.com

material beneath; • minimizing the probability of an RCFcaused broken rail; • facilitating reliable ultrasonic testing.

3. Rail Corrugation Index (RCI), which measures the program’s effectiveness at removing corrugation that contributes to noise, vibration and track deterioration.

RCI will apply chiefly to rail transit systems.

Together, the PQI, SDI, and RCI indices can provide the basis for an equivalent grinding index (EGI), which in addition to the three indices would also take tonnage, track geometry, rail metallurgy and friction conditions into account, they said. Initial efforts will focus on transit, since a few of them are already collecting the necessary rail profile, surface and corrugation data to support all three indices. Acoustic data is also proving to be a useful variable in

“

By focusing too much on maintaining a preventive grinding mode, you can miss deeper defects -Wolfgang Scheoch, Speno International SA

identifying the presence of corrugation and the effectiveness of grinding programs to remove it.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is a pioneer in using acoustic data to guide its corrective grinding program.

BART combines acoustic data, which is collected by microphones on the trailing ends of revenue trains, with data from a Corrugation Analyzer Trolley to pinpoint locations that need to be ground. BART uses CoreTracker, a proprietary software used by ATS Consulting, BART’s acoustics consultant, to look at noise data in a graphical form, and to generates reports that identify priorities based on the decibel level.

“We tend to see roaring corrugation at frequencies between 400 and 600 Hertz,” said Greg Shivy, BART’s principal track engineer – maintenance and engineering.

Noise levels, along with complaints from passengers and nearby residents, increase in

tunnels and aerial structures, and at speeds above 50 mph.

Like most transit systems, BART gets precious little time for maintenance – about 90 minutes during the week and up to 4 hours on weekends. Near term, much of the grinding effort is spent chasing corrugation. But it has been effective. “We saw a 73 percent reduction in customer noise complaints, last year,” Shivy said.

But addressing hot spots is only one driver of the grinding plan. BART only recently completed a migration of its fleet from a cylindrical wheel shape to a conical BT3 wheel profile. New “interim” rail profiles have been designed and applied to correspond with the changing wheel shapes.

Using a pair of 12-stone in-house transit grinders, BART plans to grind nearly 4,000 pass miles across the 125-route-mile system to achieve the desired rail profile over a four-year period.

About 1,000 pass miles were completed last year. And by the end of this year, BART will have completed the interim rail profile across the system. It will then go back and install the final profile.

With all the wheels converted to the new cylindrical profile as of January of this year, BART start with a clean slate. “We’re going to look closely at corrugation growth rates to see how they correlate to curve radius, speed and track types,” Shivy said. “It will be interesting to see how corrugation growth rates change with the new wheel and rail profiles over time.”

And with the corrugation issues on the run, BART will be able to get its grinders over the system more quickly with less metal removal to address RCF and other surface conditions. A more efficient grinding program coupled with comprehensive pre- and post-grind measurement of surface conditions will go a long way toward improving conditions at BART and educating the industry, overall.

“The ability to measure rail profile, wear, surface cracks, and corrugation is enabling us to take a more scientific approach to rail grinding,” said Gordon Bachinsky, president of Advanced Rail Management Corp., which manages BART’s rail measurement and grinding programs. Monitoring noise levels, as is done at BART, will not only identify problem areas, but verify that they’ve been addressed, he said. “These improvements, along with more rigorous requirements for surface finish, will push grinding, and possibly milling, into an exciting new era.”

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 19

rail grinding

Equipment providers build on core competencies Rail grinding remains the tried-andtrue approach to rail maintenance.

Freight, passenger and urban transit systems around the world em ploy high-speed, corrective and specialty grinding to control rail shape and remove the inevitable damage that traffic and tonnage inflict on the rail surface. Until recently, grinding was the only option in North America. But as of this year, there’s a new kid in town. One service provider has begun rail milling operations in Toronto; another provider plans to add rail milling to its North American portfolio later this year. Here’s a look at what the major players in the market are up to.

Harsco Rail’s line of rail grinders se r ve s a l l se g m e nts of th e N o r th A m e rica n a n d g l o b a l m a rkets .

I m p rove m e n t to th e ra i l g r i n d i n g product lines is an ongoing process at Harsco, where grinding machines utilize a common control system that allows for dif ferent configurations, depending on the customer’s needs.

Ongoing development of its Jupiter control system allows the company to respond to custom specifications and global requirements.

Harsco’s C model grinders have been improved to the point that the life of high wear parts, such as grinding motors, exceed 5 years; head actuator life exceeds 10 years. A new, higher

Harsco - 96 stone production rail grinder.

Linsinger’s MG11 transit milling machine demonstrated its capabilities in New York.

20 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

horsepower grinding motor, which has increased metal removal rates at higher grinding speeds on its larger grinders, has a 3 to 5 times longer life than the previous grinding motors.

Sin ce obtain in g track tim e is always a challenge, Harsco takes the following into account when designing equipment: grinding machines must consistently perform at a high level.

They must be dependable, easy to operate; operators must be able to quickly identify and repair problems.

Factors driving equipment d eve l o p m e nt va r y, d e p e n d i n g o n the part of the world in which they operate. In heav y-haul operations, increased grinding speeds is a primary requirement. In Europe and Southeast Asia, equipment configuration and surface finish are more important. The flexibility of Harsco’s Jupiter control system allows the company to achieve high metal-removal rates and high speed when needed and provides the ability to achieve EN-standard surface finishes when required.

Stone life is also a consideration.

Longer-lasting stones typically remove l ess m eta l, i m p a c t su r fa ce f i n ish, and increase overall cost. Years ago, development of grinding stones was a necessity. While Harsco continues to test and improve grinding stones, the advanced control system on the latest grinders can better control stone positioning and behavior to obtain a high metal removal rate from one type of grinding stone, then use the same stone to meet a stringent surface finish requirement. “We can also introduce slightly different head lateral shif ts independently, which helps control acoustic noise on light rail metros or transit systems,” the company said.

Per form an ce an d ef f icie n cy are e s s e nti a l, b u t safet y i s th e m os t i m p o r ta nt fa c to r to co nsid e r, th e company said. Over the years Harsco has improved spark-containment, firedetection, fire-extinguishing, dustcollection, and operator-safety systems, along with systems that are easier to operate and troubleshoot, overall. “We have designed to some of the most

demanding EN and SEA standards,” the company said. Most of the grinding equipment use sealed cabins that control dust and hold noise to 68 dBa. LINSINGER offers a selection of rail milling machines that accommodate tight clearances on transit systems and high-capacity requirements on heavyhaul mainlines. In addition to treating mainline rail, LINSINGER milling machines can also treat switches and crossings (if equipped with the switch kit); no dedicated switch treatment machine is required. Turnouts can be milled in approximately 45-60 minutes with a one-pass operation.

As a dust- and spark-free process, milling can be used in tunnels, stations, on timber bridges and other areas with fire restrictions, without special p r e c a u t i o n s; f i r e c r e w s a n d f i r e suppression measures such as water tank cars are not required. While rail milling operates at a slower speed than rail grinding, the length of finished and completely regenerated track per shift can be significantly higher due to the variable metal-removal capabilities of the process. LINSINGER machines are also equipped with state-of-the-art measurement technology to determine transversal profile, achieved metal removal rates, longitudinal profile and surface crack condition.

In August 2018, LINSINGER demonstrated the MG11 transit milling machine to several U.S. Transit systems at a yard in New York. The MG11 is s p e c i f i c a l l y d e s i g n e d fo r f l ex i b l e deployment (delivered in a 40-foot container), small clearance envelopes, and short operational shutdowns.

LINSINGER also of fers several types / sizes of machines for heavyh a u l a p p l i c a ti o n s . Ty p i c a l l y, s u c h machines have higher metal-removal capabilities and higher process speeds as compared to transit milling machines. Machines like the MG31, which is the most efficient milling train currently available, can be equipped with multiple cutter heads per rail. All LINSINGER rail milling machines are self-propelled and meet the Nor th American environmental standards.

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rail grinding

Equipment providers cont.

Rhomberg Sersa and LINMAG have been operating transit and mainline milling machines in Europe and the Asia Pacific region over the past 10 years, per forming cyclic-preventive work for profile restoration and corrective work on mainline track and switches to remove surface damage, such as RCF, corrugation, wheel burns, and dipped welds. Services also include milling of newly installed rails and switches to remove mill scale, correct profile tolerances, and remove surface damage caused by track construction activities.

In December 2018, Rhomberg Sersa Canada Ltd., a consortium between Rhomberg Sersa and LINMAG, delivered a hi-rail LINSINGER milling machine (SF02W-FS Truck) to begin work on a three-year contract with the Toronto Transit Commission (see Toronto adds Milling to the Rail Maintenance Mix p.

16). LINSINGER is currently building a high-capacity railbound milling machine (SF02T-FS) for the consortium, which incorporates diesel-electric driven milling units that can remove 0.1mm to 1.5mm of metal at the top of rail in one pass, and chip storage capacity that allows up to 6 hours of operation at speeds of up to 840 meters per hour.

The SF02T-FS, which will fit within m os t N o r th A m e ri c a n tra n s it a n d Class 1 tunnel clearance envelopes, is scheduled to arrive in North America by the end of 2019. Rhomberg Sersa expects the SF02T-FS to be available for contract work in North America in April 2020. It will focus on transit and passenger systems but will also be available for demonstrations and spot milling activities, such as switches, crossings, bridges, heavily damaged curves, etc., on freight railroads.

Rail grinding is one of Loram M a i n t e n a n c e o f Wa y, I n c .’s c o re competencies. Loram’s expertise and wide range of products, which include the 400-series production grinders and specialty rail grinders, serve all segments of the U.S. and global market.

As the leading rail grinding services company in North America, Loram has directed development of its grinding fleet to meet the industry’s need for speed,

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performance, and reliability. Whether performing a preventive or corrective grinding program, proper inspection, scheduling, machine selection, grind ston e se le c tio n an d p e r fo rm an ce monitoring, are keys to maximizing a railroad’s return on investment.

While all customer requirements are demanding, transit customers require a unique configuration of grinding stones to achieve the desired post-grind finish.

“Longer lasting stones and superior metal removal continue to be at the forefront of development,” said Brandon Riddering, Loram’s director of marketing.

“Breakthroughs in technology allow Loram to achieve superior grind quality despite the challenge of decreasing dedicated track time.” And while all market segments can realize economic savings by harvesting data at a more gra n ular leve l, adj us tm e nts m ad e according to specific needs in any area of track on transit systems and metro lines, in particular, can result in the most efficient rail grinding program.

O r g o -T h e r m i t , I n c . h a s b e e n performing rail grinding services with its VM8000 on/off track rail grinding ve h i c l e o n s h o r t l i n e s , p a s s e n g e r railroads and rail transit systems over the past seven years.

Th e VM 8 0 0 0 is u se d to re m ove r u s t a n d m i l l s c a l e o n n ew tra c k construction. On the maintenance side, it is used to restore the desired profile and remove corrugation, head checks, squats, and wheel burns. The company’s grinding programs help extend the life cycle of the rail and reduce noise, leaving a 3- to 5-micron surface finish upon completion. With four-wheel steering, the VM8000 can be set on or off track within minutes at crossings closest to the work locations, reducing travel time and increasing the time available for grinding.

To accommodate increased business, Orgo-Thermit introduced a second VM8000 grinding vehicle. The new machine is equipped with a pre- and post-grind measurement system..

Orgo-Thermit, Inc. also introduced the RailShape Eco, a mobile grinding unit for use in dif ficult areas, such

as switches, and for re-profiling and deburring rails, and removing defects on the running edge of the rail that can lead to narrow gauge.

R a i l Wo r k s , w i t h i t s e q u i p m e n t provider Harsco, utilizes a 20-stone switch & crossing grinder to perform mainline and S&C rail grinding services to Class Is, shor tlines, and transit agen cies. “O ur com bined of fering provides up-to-date information to help keep the railroads operating safely and effectively,” the company said.

RailWorks, which averages 230 days of grinding per machine per year, is expanding its grinding ser vices to include inspection, analysis, grind planning, and evaluation to create a com prehensive turn key grinding solution, this year.

The transit m arket represents a p ote nti a l g row th a re a . I n c re a se d ridership is generating higher traffic frequencies, which increase rail wear and surface damage. This is driving the need to address rail conditions on a more frequent and consistent basis.

RailWorks reports that it was recently awarded a multi-year contract for corrective grinding and maintenance ser vices at a major transit system.

The contract provides an opportunity

Loram’s RGS15 high-production rail grinder.

Vossloh’s truckable milling machine will be available in North America in 2019.

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 21

rail grinding

Equipment providers cont. to further data collection and grind planning, the company said.

Freight railroads continue to increase th e n u m b e r of g rin d in g cyc l es to address rail wear and fatigue damage caused by heavy axle loads. Balancing MOW outages to allow for repairs and maintenance against the need to run revenue trains remains the single biggest opportunity to improve upon.

“We’re ensuring that our equipment is running at optimal levels and our crews are available for every track time opportunity,” the company said.

Vossloh’s maintenance products and services cover multiple railway markets. From a worldwide perspective, the current focus is on main corridors (often with mixed traffic), high-speed lines and urban transit systems, which correspond to Class 1 and rail transit

22 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

systems in the U.S. Examples of optimized technologies are Vossloh’s High Speed Grinding (HSG) trains, which by removing a thin layer of material at operating speeds up to 80 km/h (50 mph) is well suited to preventive grinding. Vossloh’s milling trains, on the other hand, normally operate at a walking pace with a continuous metal removal rate of up to 3mm (0.12 in).

“As a global rail maintenance supplier, we have observed over the years that different markets have developed in different ways with different needs,” said Brett Urquhart, vice president – sales & marketing for Vossloh, North America.

At Vossloh, equipment development is driven by the need for speed and p e r form an ce with o ut je o pardizin g quality. “Introducing too much energy

into the rail steel or leaving a rough surface finish can set up a breeding ground for new rail flaws,” Urquhart said. That’s why Vossloh advocates the use of different technologies for different conditions, rather than trying to ex ten d th e use of on e t ype of equipment to address conditions it was not designed for.

Vossloh used its HSG train to perform a non-stop preventive grinding program through the Swiss Federal Railway’s a p p r o x i m a te l y 3 7- m i l e G o t t h a r d tunnel (the world ´s longest railway tunnel) without disturbing traffic. In China, it used an HSG train to grind approximately 249 miles of a highspeed line in one shift.

Vossloh, which recently acquired STR ABAG Ra i l G m b H ’s ra i l m i l l i n g business, introduced the Multi-purpose

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rail grinding

Equipment providers cont.

Milling Machine (MMM), a compact multifunction milling machine at Innotrans in 2018. The MMM, which is able to address track and turnouts in freight or transit applications, is slated to be available in Europe and in North America in the second half of the year.

Designed to remove damage to rail and turnout hotspots on commuter and transit systems and in confined spaces, the MMM removes as much as 2 mm of material per machining run and can operate on either ballasted or slab tracks and on standard or grooved rails. With its adjustable wheel gauge, it can be used on all common track gauges. Its compact size and light weight make it easy to transport.

The MMM employs up-cut milling, in which the milling wheel rotates counter to the direction of travel. This transmits

more milling power into the rail. Milling quality is enhanced by the use of rubber tires on the drive wheels. MMM doesn’t use water, produce sparks or generate grinding dust. The milling chips are extracted during the process and stored in a chip bunker for disposal.

The covered operator’s console at the back of the vehicle is equipped with two 15-inch touch screens, a control panel and two camera monitors. The operator can also control the MMM remotely by means of a wireless panel, which provides access to all of the machine’s important functions and provides a good view of the track at the same time.

Though currently not scheduled for work in North America, Vossloh’s equipment portfolio also includes the High Performance Milling (HPM) machine, which can generate up to 3mm (0.12 in) of

continuous metal removal at speeds up to 3km/h (1.86 mph).

An increasing number of customers in various markets have realized the advantages of deploying a variety of rail machining technologies side by side, such as conventional grinding, milling and high-speed grinding, rather than sticking to one type of technology.

For example, railways may use highspeed grinding for preventive measures, conventional grinding trains to reprofile the rail, and milling to address RCF. Rail grinding and milling operations have been shown to extend the asset life of rail to its maximum value. “As a result, our customers today compare the cost/value of rail grinding or milling with the cost of rail replacement,” Urquhart said. “This was not the case 10 years ago.”

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Questions: Contact Brandon Koenig, Director of Operations 847-808-1818 or Brandon@wheel-rail-seminars.com February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 23

capital spending

The

New Normal/ Flat Capex Capital spending by Class 1 railroads to hold steady in 2019.

W

ith the rollout of positive train control (PTC) reaching completion, and with the era of precision scheduled railroading (PSR) in full swing, there seems to be little appetite among the Class 1s for boosting capital expenditures.

In recent weeks, railroad after railroad has forecast capital spending for 2019 that is lower than, or just equal to, what they spent in 2018. Only one railroad—Kansas City Southern—is boosting capital investment. But KCS’ numbers are skewed by plans to purchase locomotives. Cross the 24 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

locomotives off the spending plan, and KCS’ total spend is flat.

None of this is surprising to industry veterans.

“The railroad industry has seen massive swings in capital and maintenance spend in recent years. An attempt to extend the life of their assets, as well as better planning has reduced that spend significantly,” said Gabrielle Ollendick, president and partner, Nevada Railroad Materials and Services.

But even in a down cycle, not all is lost.

The bread-and-butter, everyday work of laying track and building structures

continues. There are millions of dollars on the table for maintenance and inspection work; plus it’s not unreasonable to assume that inspection/maintenance needs will rise as railroad assets are worked harder under Precision Scheduled Railroading.

That can spell opportunity.

“When spending falls flat with our customers, we try to identify ways we can help our customers save money or resources,” said Tim Brake, vice president for sales and marketing at Pandrol. “Maintenance requirements never cease, so we do everything possible to minimize the rtands.com

Photo Credit: Jack Lindquist

By Paul Conley

to be part of history are waiting for contractors, vendors and suppliers who can attach themselves to such work.

That leads many in the industry to view 2019 with confidence.

“We are expecting healthy capex levels that will bounce around 2018 levels,” said Greg Grissom, president of Georgetown Rail Equipment Co. (GREX) “More importantly we are seeing technology data streams creating more surgical capital programs providing railroads with even better ROIC, efficiency, and improved safety. We continue to see investment in strategic capacity projects to improve velocity while also seeing a strong commitment to maintenance. Solutions to improve gang efficiency and reduce maintenance windows are game changers for our customers.”

Here’s a look at what’s in store for 2019.

impact of a reduced budget. This includes minimizing cost impacts to the customer, ramping up training with all levels of railroad employees, and bringing optional solutions that could help to drive efficiencies.”

Outside of everyday maintenance, there are also projects coming in 2019 that exist only because of PSR: removing humps, adding double track on lines that can scale, and tearing up track in locations deemed less-than-desirable.

More interestingly, there are also a few once-in-a-lifetime projects planned by the Class 1s in 2019. Big paychecks and a chance rtands.com

BNSF Although the railroad had not released its official capital spending forecast by presstime, BNSF is expected to keep its capital spending at about $3.3 billion - the same level seen in both 2018 and 2017.

Despite that flat spending, attendees at the NRC conference heard reasons to be optimistic.

The railroad will put in 10 more miles of track this year than last, according to Craig Rasmussen, BNSF, assistant vice president, engineering services and structures, as the Class 1 moves ahead with an expansion project that includes • extending mains 1 through 4 at Belen • 2 miles of track on the Fort Worth sub • converting Hebron to centralized traffic control (CTC) and extending • building new siding near Sherman Other big-ticket items in BNSF’s capex program involve replacing some of the aging bridges on the system, including: • Two in the Hannibal subdivision • ●Two in the Emporia subdivision • ●Three in the Fallbridge subdivision.

Canadian National Mainline basic track maintenance investment is expected to decline 5 percent in 2019 to $840 millon from a year earlier.

Under its basic track maintenance program, CN will replace 369 track miles of rail this year, a drop from the 383 miles seen in 2018. Jim McLeod, CN’s chief engineer for structures, design and construction, told the NRC conference the railroad would replace 950,000 ties this year. But that on a “steady state basis, (CN is) ideally looking

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capital spending

boxcars continually inspecting 4,800 miles of key core mainline track.

Any of the above could change. CN had not reported 2018 earnings or its official spending forecast for 2019 by presstime.

BNSF employees perform track work along the Class 1’s network.

to replace 2.1 million ties overall annually.”

CN is also “looking at” adding 75 miles of doubletrack this year, well up from the 50 miles of 2018.

The railroad will invest $65 million in

its strategic bridge initiative this year, well above the $45.6 million seen in 2018.

CN also plans to roll out fully automated track inspection this year. Phase One involves use of eight track inspection

Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway will hold its 2019 capital spending to the same US$1.2 billion seen last year..

In particular, the railroad will lay some 240 miles of new rail this year, up from the 210 miles built in 2018. CP will add about 1.2 million crossties, the same as last year, according to a presentation by John Leonardo, CP’s general manager for wayside train control and communication, at the NRC Conference. Other engineering track programs planned for 2019 are: • 30 miles of relay rail • 70 miles of out of face ballast renewal (BC & North Line) • 820 miles of shoulder cleaning • 75 Turnouts Spending on work on bridges and structures will be flat in 2019. But there are

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capital spending

some historic projects planned. The most interesting, and perhaps the most difficult, project that the CP will tackle in this area is a massive overhaul of its famed MacDonald Tunnel in Rogers Pass (see Industry Today in this issue).

Other work includes: • 65 bridge design or construction projects • 40 bridge tie replacement projects • 110 culvert design or replacement projects Rail grinding will be the railroad’s “most significant non-capital program investment” this year, according to Leonardo. In addition, the railroad plans to expand its track geometry testing program dramatically by adding a new manned geometry consist late in 2019 and bringing an additional autonomous box car on line in the third quarter.

CSX CSX capital spending will be roughly unchanged in 2019, coming in somewhere between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion.

Perhaps the biggest capital program of 2019 will involve the 75th Street Corridor

Track Inspectors Derrick Beard and Greg Wilson operate an ultrasonic rail inspection vehicle outside Chicago, Illi..

Improvement Project (75th St. CIP), a massive plan involving multiple government agencies to “untangle” a series of tracks in Chicago. CSX will spend some

$250 million as part of the project, building 6,500 feet of elevated double-track, and eliminating eight diamonds.

Contractors are eager for a piece of the

Maintenance in every season Herzog’s specialized material handling equipment tackles the toughest MOW tasks with the most experienced operators.

• Snow removal • Vegetation control • PTC infrastructure installation • Rail or tie distribution & pick-up • OTM material retrieval • Aggregate hauling • Ditching

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February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 27

capital spending

“

When spending falls flat with our customers, we try to identify ways we can help our customers save money or resources.

— Tim Brake, Pandrol

75th Street pie, but it’s unclear what bidding procedures the state wants to use. “I’m gonna wait for the state of Illinois to tell us,” Tod Echler, assistant vice president, engineering, CSX, said at the NRC Conference.

Other work expected to be covered in CSX 2019 capital expenditure plan are a series of capacity expansion projects, including the Lineville double-track

extension, which includes more than 6 miles of track and two bridges; the Wildwood double-track extension (2 miles); and the Stouts siding expansion.

CSX also plans to finish the Fairburn Intermodal terminal expansion sometime in the second quarter of this year. That plan calls for a total modernization of the facility and the installation of six rail-mounted Gantry cranes. Terminal expansions are also planned in 2019 in Nashville, Syracuse, and Charlotte.

The railroad is also building a new intermodal yard in Rocky Mount, NC. Design and permitting work has already begun on the $100 million project, which calls for 16,000 feet of new track.

There are numerous trackwork projects planned for the year across CSX’ intermodal facilities. Ties, surfacing and grade-crossing renewals are scheduled for Chicago-Bedford Park, Columbus, and Kearny, NJ. Turnouts, ties and surfacing work is planned in both Jacksonville, FL, and Portsmouth, VA. The Savannah Support Yard will see turnouts, rail relay, ties and surfacing work.

Work will continue on the long-running 25th Street Viaduct in Philadelphia. This year should see the start of the final phase.

KCS Kansas City Southern (KCS) plans to increase capital spending to between $640 million and $660 million this year, up substantially from the $530 million in capital expenditures in 2018. But those capex numbers include $140 million for the purchase of 50 new locomotives, while spending on maintenance of way and other engineering projects will stay “pretty much steady state.”

But in good news for the contractor community, “steady” apparently means “more” in at least some areas of maintenance.

Mark Wille, assistant vice president engineering field operations, told attendees at the NRC Conference, that KCS would replace 460,000 ties this year, up from the 323,000 of last year.

Although much of the tie work would will be done by KCS employees, there is work coming for contractors and third-parties

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—most notably a 4,500-tie project on the Delisle Branch. “We’re probably going to contract that out,” Wille said.

System curve work should continue at about 20 miles per year, and the railroad “typically contracts that out,” he said.

Among some of the larger projects expected in 2019 are 10,000foot siding expansions at Spear and Weatherford, and an expansion of the Corpus Yard.

On the technology front, KCS plans to develop “Dynamic Track Charts” and a tie/rail/ballast database. All of that work is “coming up for bid,”Wille said.

Norfolk Southern Norfolk Southern is expected to hold its 2019 capital spending on par with 2018 levels—about $1.8 billion.

Jon Zillioux, NS assistant vice president - sourcing, told attendees at the NRC Conference the railroad was looking to “enhance and tweak” infrastructure as it pursues lower operating ratios. Design and construction (D&C) spending will be “on par with 2018.”

But that could change. In an earnings call Jan. 24 with Wall Street analysts, the railroad said it would not release its formal capex forecast for several weeks.

Overall, the railroad is “progressing 72 projects” in 2019, Zillioux said. Six network capacity projects, spread across Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Pennsylvania, are in the design stage now. Four other projects are already under way.

NS is also planning considerable work at its intermodal facilities, including expansion plans in both Kansas City-Voltz and Chicago-Calumet.

Other projects include a rehab of the tower in Elkhart, Ind., and construction of an operations building in Pitcairn, Pa. Rail replacement will be down slightly overall in 2019, but the railroad plans to add nearly 253 miles of double track. By contrast, a slight increase is expected in tie replacement as some 2.5 million wood crossties and 2.1 million metric tons of ballast will make its way onto NS property.

For grade crossings, NS is looking to keep spending at roughly 2018 levels.

Wayside spending will return to “roughly pre-PTC levels,” while grinding and testing will “tip up a bit,” Zillioux said.

Union Pacific The Union Pacific railroad forecast capital spending $3.2 billion in 2019, the same amount it says it invested 2018.

But the spend on positive train control (PTC) is forecast at just $115 million this year—a dramatic decline of $43 million as the PTC initiative moves from revolution to everyday operations.

That will leave the lion’s share of 2019 capital spending for infrastructure replacement.

Eric Gehringer, vice president of engineering at the UP, told the NRC Conference in Marco Island, Fla., that railroad would invest in: • 3.7 million ties • 515 miles of rail • 170 miles of ballast renewal • 4000 mies of out-of-face surfacing Gehringer told attendees at the conference there were multiple areas where work could be found, most notably an expansion of the La Salle and Tyler yards, grading and mainline improvements at the new Brazos Yard (which is expected to be finished by year end), and track extensions around the network. rtands.com

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Winter Maintenance

Thermon Heating Systems’ Hellfire 400s keep the line open during a storm.

FIGHTING THE COLD Suppliers and transit agencies continue their efforts to keep safety at top-of-mind while considering machinery requirements during the harsh winter months.

By Kyra Senese, managing editor

S

evere winter storms and extreme cold snaps are an inevitable challenge year after year, but suppliers and transit systems remain vigilant in their efforts to focus on safety, productivity and reliability. This year, RT&S checks in with NJ Transit and railroad industry suppliers on their efforts to combat harsh winter conditions that can erode safety along the right-of-way.

32 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

NJ Transit As with all railroads across the country, the fall and winter seasons present challenges to NJ Transit. As leaves drop onto tracks, they are crushed under the wheels, producing an oily substance that coats the rails and causes poor traction.

NJ Transit uses two AquaTrack machines to clean and remove leaves from the rails to prevent “slippery rail’’ conditions

throughout the fall season. Additionally, branches that have fallen and are caught in the catenary also impact service and create delays. NJ Transit has a year-round preventative maintenance program during which the agency inspects tree growth and trims branches that hang too closely to the catenary and right-of-way, the transit system said.

As in recent years, NJ Transit prepares rtands.com

“

Railroads can no longer afford the delays associated with winter weather,” – Gregor Harris, Thermon Heating Systems

by winterizing hundreds of rail cars and locomotives.

“This process includes checking onboard heating systems, ventilation, thermostats, weather stripping and electronic components,” the transit system said. “Additionally, NJ Transit maintenance forces stockpile stone, while inspecting culverts, drainage pipes and rights-of-way to ensure they are clear of blockages that could exacerbate flooding and disrupt service. “ NJ Transit’s preventative maintenance program also entails the inspection and winter maintenance of more than 750 switches and switch heaters, overhead wire systems, a dozen moveable bridges and wayside power at storage yards and terminals, officials said.

During or following a storm, the agency has two jet-engine-powered snow blowers available to remove ice and snow from tracks and critical switching areas. All locomotives are equipped with snow plows to clear snow from the rails.

“Our year-round tree trimming program proactively minimized downed trees or limbs along the right-of-way and on our overhead electric system,” NJ Transit explained. “Personnel are on standby to quickly respond to reports of trees or limbs that could damage overhead wires or prevent the safe passage of [trains].”

In addition, NJ Transit said its Emergency Operations Center (EOC), coordinated by the New Jersey Transit Police Department Office of Emergency Management (OEM) may be opened to monitor conditions statewide when needed. The EOC allows the transit system to quickly share and disseminate information to respond to potential service impacts.

As with any emergent situation, crews can also be impacted by winter weather storms.

NJ Transit monitors the weather along with its OEM from the police department.

“When storms or bad weather such as heavy rain, high winds, and coast storm surges are coming, we do assign staff from mechanical and infrastructure in strategic rtands.com

Winter Maintenance

locations to protect our service,” NJ Transit said. “If weather conditions warrant it, we activate our EOC along with the state and local municipalities to protect our service.

In cases of extreme weather, we may activate our CEMP process to temporarily suspend service to our crews, infrastructure and equipment.

NJ Transit said jet-engine powered snow blowers are particularly helpful in efforts to clear critical switches.

Suppliers weigh in While transit systems like NJ Transit are winterizing rail cars and managing their crews, suppliers throughout the U.S. have been modifying their offerings to better support the railroads. Heating solutions, snow- and ice-removal equipment and detectors are just a few options on the market that can help make winter transit rides smoother and safer. nVent nVent offers a full line of rail infrastructure heating solutions intended to help railways operate safely and efficiently in harsh winter conditions. nVent provides systems for heating switches, third rail (contact rail) and catenary (overhead) wires, from its product portfolio, including heating technology from nVent RAYCHEM, and cable-to-rail fastening solutions from nVent ERICO, a rail industry supplier for more than 100 years. nVent supplies switch heating systems with self-regulating heating cables, providing a solution that aims to deliver robust heat for melting snow and ice on track switches that is also energy efficient, the company said.

Self-regulating heating cables work by automatically adjusting their power output to compensate for rail temperature changes, allowing the cable can feel the rail temperature, automatically releasing heat only when it is needed, and varying heat output along the length of the cable based on rail temperature variations.

Self-regulating heating cable technology is based on a conductive polymer core that reacts to rail temperature drops by contracting, increasing the number of heat delivering electrical paths. Conversely, nVent explained that the conductive core expands as temperatures raise, cutting down on the number of electrical paths to restrict heat output.

“Because the reaction is happening in the cable itself, nVent self-regulating switch heating solutions do not require a complex

underlying systems,” the company said.

The nVent switch heating product line provides numerous control options that are meant to easily integrate into existing infrastructure and make operations simple.

“You can virtually set it and forget it knowing that it will automatically begin releasing heat when temperatures drop,” nVent explained. “Because it only is operating when it needs to, self-regulating switch heating systems eliminate wasted energy consumption, making it up to 30 percent more efficient than conventional tubular heaters.”

Rails Company Rails Company offers a complete line of snow removal equipment, including five types of switch heaters, snow detectors, automatic control systems, including a new wireless control and monitoring system and accessories.

“There is a Rails Switch Heater for every requirement; all available for dispatcher control or automatic operation,” the company said.

In addition to HAB Hot Air Blower Switch Heaters, the company offers Tublar Electric Switch Heaters that it said can be controlled and monitored by the Rails Wireless Remote Control Systems.

The Rails Co. High/Low Hot Air Blower Switch Heater also now uses a more powerful 5 hp high-pressure blower to distribute high velocity, high volume hot air throughout the switch area via ducts and nozzles,

A fully functioning high-speed switch in Minneapolis keeps things moving during one of the worst recent snow storms in the area.

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 33

Winter Maintenance

The nVent Self-Regulating Switch Heating System is a solution intended to keep turnouts free from snow and ice build-up.

keeping the switch open and operative in severe winter weather.

The unit delivers 3600 cfm of hot air to the switch area, which the company said is more than double the volume of previous models. It is equipped with a useradjustable High/Low BTU output which minimizes fuel usage, and a variable, timerbased Hi/Lo flame control is also provided that is adjustable to each application.

The 5hp High/Low HAB Switch Heaters can be fueled by natural gas or propane. The company said its simple design and control package—there are no proprietary printed circuit board controls as all control components are off-the-shelf—assures high reliability and lower service costs. They provide the power to protect single or multi-track operations and are adaptable to switches with or without covers installed.

Units can be operated automatically by a snow detector, dispatcher or manual method. When combined with Rails’ Wireless 900MHz Radio Control System, a wireless communication network, the company said units provide wireless control and monitoring of the heaters.

“Wireless controls eliminate control wires buried in the ground in new or existing installations,” Rails Co. said. “Switch heaters may be started or stopped and running status monitored from a local bungalow or control room or remotely.

When the heaters are initiated, the system performs a status check to assure that it is working properly.”

For remote control and monitoring, the company said its system can be integrated with a controller and secure VPN router to provide remote control and monitoring via the internet. The secure network can 34 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

be connected and accessed with a personal computer, mobile phone or tablet.

Railway Equipment Company Winter weather has the ability to drastically reduce train velocity. From frozen switches, to hot box detectors that are not reporting, to the dangers involved in personnel traveling during winter events, Joe Ashley, VP & general manager, says the network can come under a tremendous strain if a railroad is not prepared for these harsh conditions.

“

Every year across North America, railroads face insurmountable odds to keep trains running when the worst weather hits,” – Joe Ashley, Railway Equipment Company

Ashley notes the importance of preparation during these extreme weather events.

“In our case, that means the railroad ensures they have the best, most reliable equipment in any and all locations that could have a significant impact on their ability to service their shippers,” Ashley said. “The reliability of our switch heaters combined with enhanced remote visibility of how they are operating continues

to reduce our customers’ exposure to winter events.”

He said the challenge faced during the cold months is twofold. First and foremost, he said it is crucial to ensure the company can supply its customers with the right equipment in a timely fashion. The company also works hard to keep its internal technical support staff available around the clock to help with any trouble-shooting that may be needed to keep the trains rolling, he explained.

“Every year across North America, railroads face insurmountable odds to keep trains running when the worst weather hits,” Ashley said. “Be it multiple feet of snow falling in the mountains to high winds causing what could be impassable drifts, if not for the tenacity of the railroads and the equipment supplied to them.”

During a particularly bad winter event, he said the company often sees needs from its customers to get products in their hands immediately. For the most part, Ashley said railroaders in tough winter environments are very good at preparing for the winter by ordering the necessary equipment ahead of time.

Thermon Heating Systems Although weather forecasts provide warning of extreme weather, Gregor Harris, business development manager-Rail for Thermon Heating Systems, said aspects of this weather such as drifting snow, plowed and dragged in snow, blocks of snow and extreme cold conditions pose particularly difficult challenges.

“In the days and weeks after a snowfall, wind-blown snow creates ground level snowstorms,” Harris explained of drifting rtands.com

Winter Maintenance

A fully functioning high-speed switch from Railway Equipment Company keeps things moving in Minneapolis during one of the worst recent snow storms in the area.

snow. “When these cross a switch, snow settles on the leeward side of the rails, or

packs in between the stock rail and the points, which eventual interferes with the switch operation.”

Plowed and dragged-in snow and can be problematic as trains passing through large a accumulation of snow on the tracks will plow and drag snow into the points. Harris explained that blocks of snow and ice interfering with the points allow for snow to build up on rail cars passing through the storms, which then fall into the switch points later. This can occur a day or two later, and in an area not directly affected by the storm, he notes.

When snow is accompanied by extreme cold weather, undersized heating systems can create icing conditions that lead to frozen points, switch rods and restricting proper ballast drainage, Harris said.

He added that when the company initially began supplying Snow Clearing Devices (SCDs), they were considered a nice product to have but were rarely given serious consideration.

“Railroads can no longer afford the delays associated with winter weather,” Harris explained. “Most railroads now

have assigned the responsibility of preparing for winter weather to one or more departments, and winter preparedness is part of their standard operating procedures and budgets.”

Reliable and effective SCDs are, in Harris’ opinion, the best assurance of smooth winter operations.

“They have to operate during the worst winter conditions and at the same time survive the shock and vibration from yearround train traffic,” he explained.

Thermon products have been in service for decades throughout North America.

Harris said the company’s designs have evolved through customer feedback and cooperation to offer a reliable, effective and efficient solution for the market.

Controls have to work at temperatures as low as -40C, he notes, while gas-fired hot air systems need to light and run reliably during snowstorms, while electric heating elements need to maximize heat transfer to the rail, he said.

SCDs need to be implemented as soon as it snow begins to fall, Harris said.

“Our systems operate automatically by

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Winter Maintenance

detecting falling or drifting snow, and freezing rain,” he explained. “This avoids dispatch having to turn them on ahead of time, which increases energy consumption and cost. Worse yet, when dispatch fails to turn them on until it is too late, and trains delayed.”

Harris explained that it is important to use adequately sizes switch heaters to ensure they can quickly recover a switch, such as when it is necessary to clear dragged and dropped-in snow and ice from passing trains or clearing accumulated snow following a power outage.

Locations experiencing difficult-todetect drifting snow, Harris said the company’s Hellfire gas fired blowers are configured for continuous fan operation, keeping air flowing within the switch and minimizing snow accumulation.

The company also offers its Horizontal Air Curtain systems (HACs), which Harris said are suited to extreme cold locations, where snow is dry and light. Directing high-velocity cold air at the points prevents snow from entering the switch, and HACs are used to maintain a clear line of sight for

hot-bearing and wheel scanners.

Although not a typical application, Harris said the company has had a customer approached it for a solution concerning the formation of ice on the walls of a mountain tunnel.

“Ground water seeping into the tunnel continually froze and accumulated until it violated the track clearance envelope, at which point trains could no longer pass,” he explained. “After a prolonged delay, excavators arrived to clear the ice from the walls as far as 900 feet in from the entrance. Thermon supplied a pair of our Hellfire 900’s and a custom duct system and has successfully kept the tunnel clear ever since.”

He explained that many of Heating Systems’ customers understand the importance of being prepared for winter by the fall. Those who are not prepared do tend to place last-minute or post-snowstorm orders, Harris said.

“We understand this and stock our standard product offering with next-day delivery of spare parts and two-week delivery of complete systems,” he said. “After

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Membership in AREMA demonstrates that you are a professional dedicated to improving your knowledge and are interested in advancing the railroad engineering industry.

Renew your membership today.

www.arema.org

AREMA helps further your education by offering numerous seminars, webinars and also the recommended practices for railway engineering infrastructure. Through your membership, stay connected as a member of AREMA Technical Committees.

If you have not already done so, be sure to renew your membership today to take advantage of what AREMA can offer you. Login now to www.arema.org and renew your 2019 dues. Not a member? Join today.

Professional Development

Message from the President

AR EMA is foc use d on yo ur education and helping you advance in the railway i n d u s t r y. A R E M A’s w e b courses and in-person seminars provide Professional Development Hours (PDH) to serve your educational needs.

Design & Construction of Highway/Railway Grade Crossings webinar Date: Feb. 19 Time: 2 - 3:30 p.m. EST PDH: 1.5 hrs Micropiles for Railroad Structures webinar Date: March 6 Time: 2 - 3:00 p.m. EST PDH: 1 hr Introduction to Practical Railway Engineering Seminar Date: March 20-22 Location: Las Vegas, NV PDH: 20 hrs Introduction to Practical Railway Engineering seminar Date: May 20-22 Location: Lanham, MD PDH: 20 hrs Please visit www.arema.org for more information on our webinar and seminar programs and to register.

Follow Arema on Social Media:

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T

his month I will continue highlighting the “behind the scenes” work that goes on at AREMA, which may not be evident to many of our members.

While AREMA members are familiar with the technical committees that meet and produce the excellent materials that go into the Manual for Railway Engineering, Communications and Signals Manual, the Portfolio of Trackwork Plans and other publications; organize and present webinars and seminars; and are a key part of producing the technical sessions at our Annual Conferences, did you also know AREMA features several standing committees that provide significant contributions to the general operations of the association?

This month, we will take a look at the Membership, Nominating, Finance and Publications Committees. Next month I will follow up with a look at the Program, Seminar and Conference Operating Committees. Standing Committee members provide a valuable contribution to the association through their participation on these committees and need to be recognized for their significant efforts.

The Membership Committee is chaired

by Frank Miller and includes representatives from each of the Functional Groups (Anne Bean, John Danyluk, Greg Grissom, Ted Niemeyer, Amanda Stahlnecker and Herbert Wescott), a Student Chapter Liaison (Amanda Limburg), two student liaisons (William Dancy and Dylan Waddell) and AREMA staff.

The committee evaluates yearly and longterm membership retention and recruitment goals and trends, and recommends membership recruitment and retention strategies to meet established goals. The committee is currently reviewing the results

of the Membership Needs Assessment Survey recently completed by AREMA members to guide the committee in developing membership strategies.

Ongoing Membership Committee initiatives and projects include: • Designing a link for the home page of the AREMA website for the Railway Careers Network to integrate with the current careers database and adding a “Careers and Resources” link under “Membership” on the website • Exploring the potential for developing “Maximizing Member Benefits” and “Communities” webinars • Adding a “Member Tips” section to the AREMA bi-monthly newsletter highlighting member benefits • Expanding outreach, recruitment and support of college professors and the next generation of college students • Restructuring the current “Member Get a Member” campaign AREMA has two Nominating Committees established through the By-Laws – Governance Nominating Committee and Board of Directors Nominating Committee.

• The Governance Nominating Committee consists of the three most recent past presidents of the association and the executive director/CEO (ex-officio, non-voting).

The immediate past president serves as the chair. Their responsibility is to evaluate candidates for a Board of Governors role and provide recommendations to the Board of Governors.

• The Board of Directors Nominating Committee consists of the immediate past president serving as chair, a member at large and one representative from each of the six functional groups. Each year this committee is provided with a list of vice president and director vacancies on the Board of Directors that need to be filled.

The committee meets in January and prepares a recommended slate of nominees for presentation to the Board of Directors for approval at their June meeting.

The most important function of the Board of Directors Nominating Committee, though, is to provide a nominee to the Board of Directors for the senior vice president position since the person nominated for this role will move on to serve as AREMA’s president.

The Finance Committee includes AREMA’s immediate past president serving February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 39

as chair, the president, senior vice president, treasurer and executive director/CEO (ex-officio, non-voting).

The chair meets with AREMA’s executive director/CEO and senior director, finance and human resources early in the fall of each year to review AREMA’s finances and prepare a recommended budget for the upcoming year.

The recommended budget is distributed to committee members and discussed at a committee meeting in late October. After any final revisions are made to the budget, the committee prepares a recommendation for the next Board of Governors meeting.

Following budget approval, AREMA’s staff is charged with operating within the

approved budget.

Each year the technical committees complete new work for inclusion in the Manual for Railway Engineering and the Communications and Signals Manual and update existing material in these manuals.

Once this work is completed and approved by the committees, it is presented to the Functional Group Board of Directors for approval. All approved materials are then proofed and formatted by AREMA staff for inclusion in the following year’s manual updates offered by AREMA. A key part of this process is the final review and approval of all materials by the Publications Committee.

The Publications Committee is chaired

by the senior vice president (Ed Sparks) and includes representatives from the Functional Group Board of Directors (Rob Aanenson, David Clark, Frank Miller and Jerry Specht). The committee meets twice each year to review material for upcoming manual revisions – in January for the Manual for Railway Engineering and June for the Communications and Signals Manual.

I hope that this series is helpful in understanding the many activities that occur on a regular basis within the AREMA organization to make this the preeminent railroad and railway engineering organization that it continues to be. I’m looking forward to talking to you again next month!

Upcoming Committee Meetings February 19 - 20 Committee 37 - Signal Systems Jacksonville, FL

March 21 Committee 12 - Rail Transit Teleconference

February 20 - 21 Committee 7 - Timber Structures Georgetown, TX

March 24 - 26 Committee 11 - Commuter & Intercity Rail Systems Raleigh & Charlotte, NC

February 20 - 21, 2019 Committee 36 - Highway Rail Grade Crossings Warning Systems Jacksonville, FL February 21 Committee 12 - Rail Transit Teleconference February 27 - 28 Committee 27 - Maintenance of Way Work Equipment Racine, WI March 12 - 13 Committee 38 - Information, Defect Detection & Energy Systems Jacksonville, FL March 13 - 14 Committee 39 - Positive Train Control Jacksonville, FL

Committee 17 - High Speed Rail Systems Raleigh & Charlotte, NC April 2019 Committee 14 - Yards & Terminals Norfolk, VA May 2019 Committee 34 – Scales San Diego, CA May 14 - 15 Committee 15 – Steel Structures Kansas City, MO May 15 - 16 Committee 5 – Track Little Rock, AR

June 18 - 19 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Petaluma, CA September 10 - 11 Committee 15 - Steel Structures Columbus, OH September 22 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Minneapolis, MN 2020 January Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Albuquerque, NM June Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction New York, NY September 13 Committee 10 - Structures, Maintenance & Construction Dallas, TX

If you’d like to learn more about the AREMA Technical Committees and would like to get involved, please contact Alayne Bell at Amanda Hongisto abell@arema.org. For a complete list of all committee meetings, visit https://www.arema.org/events.aspx.

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Negotiated airline CSX discount information for Inc. AREMA Committee meetings can be found online at: http://www.arema.org/ Transportation, meetings/airlines.aspx.

40 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

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Student Chapter RT&S Highlight

T Franco Fanucci is delivering a lecture on maintenance practices in the railroad industry at NDSU on Oct. 29.

Dr. Ying Huang, student chapter faculty advisor, presenting a gift to Bryan Remer during his visit to NDSU.

FYI

Students are enjoying light refreshments during the chapterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s October monthly meeting at NDSU.

Renew your Membership: Be sure to renew your membership today online at www.arema.org to not miss out on what AREMA can offer you.

Do you want to generate leads, promote a product and reach a target audience?

Sign up for sponsorship at the AREMA 2019 Annual Conference in conjunction with Railway InterchangeTM. Please visit www.arema.org or contact lmcnicholas@ a re m a .o rg fo r m o re i nfo r m a ti o n o n sponsorship investment opportunities!

Re-released after four years, order the NEW 2018 edition of the Por tfolio of Trackwork Plans. This edition features new plans and specifications that relate to the design, details, materials and workmanship for switches, frogs, turnouts & crossovers, crossings, rails and other special trackwork. Order online now at www.arema.org or contact mbruins@ arema.org for more details.

Please join AREMA in welcoming its newest Student Chapter at the University of Massachusetts - Lowell! AREMA Student Chapters represent the next generation of the railway industry and bring together students interested in railroading where they can be directed toward activities that foster their academic curiosity in railway engineering. If you are an AREMA member interested in speaking to a

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he AREMA student chapter at North Dakota State University (AREMA@NDSU) was established in November 2017. There are now 25 members registered with the chapter.

Asif Arshid, a Ph.D. student within the civil engineering department, is the current and founding president of the chapter. The chapter began fully functioning in the fall of 2018. A three-member group was facilitated to attend the AREMA 2018 Annual Conference & Exposition in Chicago in September of 2018, and one member participated in the Graduate Student Poster Competition.

In addition, the chapter has organized two guest speaker lectures from industry professionals in October and November.

The first guest speaker was Franco Fanucci, PE, from Loram Maintenance of Way, and the other speaker was Bryan Remer, PE, associate, project manager at SEH. Another industry professional, Dan Peltier, project engineer at BNSF, lined up for a lecture on Nov. 20 at NDSU. The chapter leaders are looking forward to invite three industry professionals in the upcoming Spring semester along with a field trip to a railway yard or construction site.

Student Chapter or a student curious about starting a new Chapter, please contact the Student Chapter Coordinator: scc@arema.org.

Call for Entries for the 2019 Dr. William W. H a y Awa rd fo r E xce l l e n ce. Th e Selection process for the twentieth W. W. Hay Award has begun. Entries must be submitted by May 24, 2019. Please visit www.arema.org for more information.

Leverage the power of your trusted associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Railway Careers Network to tap into a talent pool of job candidates with the training and education needed for long-term success. Visit www.arema. org/careers to post your job today. Use code RAILCAREER to receive a discount.

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 41

Getting to Know: Mark Austin of CSX as a civil engineering consultant. I was able to get a glimpse of what he did as an Engineering Department employee and found his work fascinating. I took the initiative to apply for Management Trainee programs with various Class I railroads. CSX was not only the first to offer me a job but was the most advantageous for me and my wife.

Mark E. Austin, PE Director Corridor Services, CSX Transportation Chair, Committee 4 - Rail

E

ach month, AREMA features one of our committee chairs or committee members. We are pleased to announce that our September featured member is Mark Austin, PE, chair of Committee 4 - Rail, who also serves as director of Corridor Services for CSX Transportation.

AREMA: Why did you decide to choose a career in railway engineering?

AUSTIN: I have always had a fascination with the railroad industry since I was a child. Throughout my childhood, I remember watching CSX trains at the square in Marietta, GA with my mother. This was a special treat for me. Little did I know I’d get the chance to hi-rail that very same track many years later.

AREMA: How did you get started?

AUSTIN: My father-in-law, James “Kaz” Kazmierczak, was an Assistant Division Engineer – Structures for Norfolk Southern and we would have conversations about working in the railroad industry. At the time of these conversations, I was working

Get your copy of the NEW 2019 AREMA Communications & Signals Manual today.

There are over 50 new, revised, reaffirmed or extended Manual Parts in over 2,500 pages of the 2019 Edition.

This reference material is grouped into five volumes and is available in print or thumb drive formats. Downloadable Sections 42 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

AREMA: How did you get involved in AREMA and your committee?

AUSTIN: My former coworker Jim Beyerl, who was the Chair of Committee 5 – Track, encouraged me to join Committees 4 and 5.

About a year or so into my membership in Committee 4, Joe Smak of Amtrak asked me if I would consider running for the Chair’s position in Committee 4. I was humbled that he asked me, as Joe was a respected engineer within the industry. Upon my acceptance, he nominated me before the Committee and the rest is history.

AREMA: Outside of your job and the hard work you put into AREMA, what are your hobbies?

AUSTIN: I enjoy spending most of my time bike riding with my family. Because of my passion for bike riding, I met my wife, Laura on the Silver Comet Trail. This very same trail was built on the roadbed of the former CSX Birmingham sub. Little did we both know how much CSX would soon be a part of our lives!

AREMA: Tell us about your family.

AUSTIN: I am blessed to be a father of two healthy and happy boys, Andrew and Jacob as well as to be married to my wonderful wife, Laura of twelve years. We enjoy spending time outdoors even with something as simple as being in our backyard playing sports. Did I mention that I like to bike ride? Bike riding is another outdoor activity that my family and I like to do.

AREMA: If you could share one

are available (PDF format) and can be purchased and downloaded from the AREMA online store.

The AREMA Communications & Signals Manual of fers recommendations representing current signal practices for new installations and for replacement on existing installations when general

interesting fact about yourself with the readers of RT&S, what would it be?

AUSTIN: I am a licensed private pilot.

Although I am no longer an active pilot, I look back on my flying days with fond memories. I even got to fly my then fiancée a couple of times.

AREMA: What is your biggest achievement?

AUSTIN: Obtaining my Professional Engineer (PE) license was not only a goal of mine but a wish of my mother. After obtaining my bachelor’s degree, my mother soon pushed me towards working for my PE license. I attained my Engineer-In-Training certificate after starting in the engineering consulting industry and worked to meet the requirements for licensure. My coworker Chris Moale helped me over the finish line by encouraging me to sit for examination. Preparing for examination was not easy as I earned my engineering degree many years prior. With the steadfast support and encouragement of my wife, I studied for hours after putting the boys to bed. I was with her and my children when I found out I had passed the exam. We were about to head out that evening for dinner so it was a perfect time to celebrate!

AREMA: What advice would you give to someone pursuing a career in the railway industry?

AUSTIN: As I stated earlier, I applied with various Class I railroads. This was not an easy task as some were not as organized. One in fact, had me fly out to their headquarters to begin the initial interview. I came to find out from the recruiter of a competing railroad that the particular session I was attending was only for Transportation candidates not Engineering. Nonetheless, I persisted and landed my career with CSX. I have not looked back since. To those that are having difficulty landing a job with the railroad industry and find themselves hitting a roadblock, never give up!

renewal or replacement is to be made.

The Manual is written in the interest of establishing uniformity, promoting safety or efficiency and economy.

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Calendar

FEBRUARY 2 8 . Wisconsin Railroad A s sociation Freight Rail Day. The Westin Milwaukee.

Milwaukee, Wis. Contact: Shari Liebe.

Phone: (608) 512-1280. Website: https:// wisconsinrailroadassociation.com/.

MARCH 11-15. Railroad Track Inspection & Safety Standards. TN Valley Railroad Museum.

Chattanooga, Tenn. Website: http://ttap. utk.edu/.

12. Next-Gen Freight Rail, presented by Railway Age. Union League Club Chicago.

Website: /www.railwayage.com/ngfr/.

14-15. Passenger & Freight Railroads Unite 2019. Westin Washington, D.C. City Center. Contact: Dan Elliott, Conner & Winters LLP. Phone: 202-887-2112. Email: DElliottIII@cwlaw.com. Website: www. cwlaw.com.

17-19. APTA 2019 Legislative Conference.

Grand Hyatt, 1000 H Street NW Washington, D.C. Phone: 202-496-4800.

Contact: Kwakuita Spence. Phone: (202) 496-4845. Email: kspence@apta.com.

Website: www.apta.com.

26-27. 24th Annual AAR Research Review.

Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Transportation Technology Center Inc. in Pueblo, Colo.

APRIL 6-9. American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association’s 2019 Connections Convention. Orlando, Fla. Contact: Kathy Cassidy. Phone: 202-585-3443. E-mail: kcassidy@aslrra.org. Website: www.aslrra.org.

24. Light Rail 2019, presented by Railway Age and RT&S. Le Méridien Delfina Santa Monica, Santa Monica, CA. Website: www. railwayage.com/lightrail/ An event for transportation professionals in planning,

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JUNE 5-6. Rail Insights 2019, presented by Railway Age. Union League Club Chicago.

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Backbone switches

Digi International®, a global provider of Internet of Things connectivity products, recently released the Digi® WR54, a secure, high-performance wireless router intended for complex mobile and industrial environments.

With dual cellular interfaces, the router provides immediate carrier failover for continuous connectivity, particularly as vehicles travel throughout a city or for locations with marginal cellular coverage. Digi International® says the router offers a milspec-certified (United States Military Standard) design and built-in Digi TrustFence® security framework. The company adds that the LTE-Advanced router is designed to meet the connectivity challenges inherent in on-the-move conditions, including such conditions found in freight rail and public transit.

The Digi WR54 is intended to offer an LTE-Advanced cellular module built on a platform with higher speeds to optimize bandwidth.

Digi International® said the Digi WR54 also supports performance requirements with four Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired systems and the latest 802.11 ac Wi-Fi to meet the needs of any user.

Website: www.digi.com.

Belden, Inc., a global provider of signal transmission solutions for mission-critical applications, has released a new version of its Hirschmann brand Layer 3 backbone switches – the DRAGON MACH4000/MACH4500 Series. The company said its new devices allow engineers to transfer larger quantities of data quickly without compromising network availability or performance.

“Increasing data density is making it challenging for engineers to get information from the field level to the control room quickly and on time,” said Sebastian Preiss, product manager. “Hirschmann has updated its classic MACH4000 switch with extended flexibility and bandwidth capabilities. The new solutions will help engineers handle evolving data requirements and ensure their networks are performing at the highest level.”

The DRAGON MACH4000/MACH4500 series offer redundant power supplies, as well as new, advanced interfaces and variants with either four or eight ports that can be set up for 2.5 or 10 Gigabit speeds. Website: www.belden.com.

The Railway Educational Bureau

BKTMA

Advanced Principles of Track Maintenance

John W. Barriger III -

Advanced Principles of Track Maintenance takes your crewmembers to the next level. They'll benefit from a comprehensive presentation of FRA Track Safety Standards as well as an introduction to track inspection.

In John W. Barriger III: Railroad Legend, historian H. Roger Grant details the fascinating life and impact of a transportation tycoon and "doctor of sick railroads."

Advanced Principles of Track Maintenance

Railroad Legend

BKJOHN

$140.00

Volume II, Track Safety Standards

This book consists of the guidance the FRA provides to its inspectors to properly apply the Track Safety Standards. Released March 2018.

Track and Rail-TSS Comp. Manual

$38.00

The most comprehensive collection of definitions relating to track. Over 1500 terms from antiquated forgotten slang to today's jargon. Clearly illustrated line art enhances the text.

BKRTT

BKFRTE

The Railway Educational Bureau 1809 Capitol Ave., Omaha NE, 68102 www.RailwayEducationalBureau.com 44 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

$35.00

Dictionary of Railway Track Terms

The Frog Gauge

Fundamentals of Railway Track Engineering Gain a deeper understanding of the evolution of track technology. This book presents the knowledge needed for rational design and maintenance of passenger, freight, and transit track.

Fundamentals of Railway Track Engineering $135.00

$45.00*

John W. Barriger III

Dictionary of Railway Track Terms

Track and Rail and Infrastructure Integrity Compliance Manual -

BKINFRA18

Track Resources

Easy-to-use, this gauge is made of rugged, indestructible, composite material. Ideal for track inspectors, maintenance and welders repairing frogs. The compact gauge measures the flangeway gap and checks proper spacing for guardrails. Order 10 or more and get a 20% discount.

MSFROG

$40.00

Frog Gauge

800-228-9670

www.transalert.com

Add Shipping & Handling if your merchandise subtotal is:

UP TO $10.00 10.01 - 25.00 25.01 - 50.00 50.01 - 75.00

U.S.A. $4.50 7.92 10.78 11.99

CAN $8.75 12.65 16.80 21.20

Orders over $75, call for shipping

rtands.com

Ad Index

COMPANY

PHONE #

FAX #

E-MAIL ADDRESS

PAGE #

AREMA Marketing Department

301-459-3200

301-459-8077

marketing@arema.org

38

Danella Rental Systems

561-743-7373

561-743-1973

SBolte@danella.com

28

Diversified Metal Fabricators, Inc.

404-875-1512

404-875-4835

sales@dmfatlanta.com

6

Fastrax-Thermon Heating-Systems

855-244-3218

303-979-7350

sales@fastraxind.com

37

Harsco Rail

803 822-9160

803 822-8107

railinfo@harsco.com

2

Herzog Railroad Services, Inc

816-385-8233

jhandsen@hrsi.com

27

Light Rail

212-620-7208

212-633-1165

conferences@sbpub.com

30-31

Loram Maintenance of Way, Inc..

763-478-6014

763-478-2221

sales@loram.com

Cover 2

contracts@scrra.net

7

tfrancis@nevadarail.com

25

conferences@sbpub.com

8-9

Metrolink NRM

816-708-9088

Next-Gen Freight Rail

212-620-7208

212-633-1165

Pandrol USA, L.P

1-800-221-CLIP

856-467-2994

Plasser American Corp

757-543-3526

757-494-7186

plasseramerican@plausa.com

Cover 4

Progress Rail, A Caterpillar Company

256-505-6402

256-505-6051

info@progressrail.com

36

Racine Railroad Products, Inc

262-637-9681

262-637-9069

dennishanke@rcequip.com

22

Rail Insights

212-620-7208

212-633-1165

conferences @sbpub.com

Cover 3

Railway Equipment Co.

763-972-2200

763-972-2900

sales@rwy.com

35

RCE Equipment Solutions Inc.

866-472-4510

630-355-7173

dennishanke@rcequip.com

29

Railway Education Bureau, The

402-346-4300

402-346-1783

bbrundige@sb-reb-com

7,43,44

Wheel Rail Seminars

847-808-1818

Brandon@wheel-rail-seminars.com

23

26

Advertising Sales MAIN OFFICE Jonathan Chalon Publisher 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7224 Fax: (212) 633-1863 jchalon@sbpub.com AL, KY, TN Jonathan Chalon 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7224 Fax: (212) 633-1863 jchalon@sbpub.com

CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Canada – Quebec and East, Ontario Jerome Marullo 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7260 Fax: (212) 633-1863 jmarullo@sbpub.com AR, AK, AZ, CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, In, KS, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NM, ND, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WI, WY, Canada – AB, BC, MB, SK Heather Disabato 20 South Clark Street, Suite 1910 Chicago, IL 60603 (312) 683-5026 Fax: (312) 683-0131 hdisabato@sbpub.com The Netherlands, Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal,

Switzerland, North Germany, Middle East, South America, Africa (not South), Far East (Excluding Korea / China/India), All Others, Tenders Louise Cooper International Area Sales Manager The Priory, Syresham Gardens Haywards Heath, RH16 3LB United Kingdom +44-1444-416368 Fax: +44-(0)-1444-458185 lc@railjournal.co.uk Scandinavia, Spain, Southern Germany, Austria, Korea, China, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe Baltic States, Recruitment Advertising Michael Boyle International Area Sales Manager Nils Michael Boyle Dorfstrasse 70, 6393 St. Ulrich, Austria. +011436767089872 mboyle@railjournal.com

Reader Referral Service This section has been created solely for the convenience of our readers to facilitate immediate contact with the RAILWAY TRACK & STRUCTURES advertisers in this issue.

Italy, Italian-speaking Switzerland Dr. Fabio Potesta Media Point & Communications SRL Corte Lambruschini Corso Buenos Aires 8 V Piano, Genoa, Italy 16129 +39-10-570-4948 Fax: +39-10-553-0088 info@mediapointsrl.it Japan Katsuhiro Ishii Ace Media Service, Inc. 12-6 4-Chome, Nishiiko, Adachi-Ku Tokyo 121-0824 Japan +81-3-5691-3335 Fax: +81-3-5691-3336 amkatsu@dream.com CLASSIFIED, PROFESSIONAL & EMPLOYMENT Jeanine Acquart 55 Broad St., 26th Floor New York, NY 10004 (212) 620-7211 Fax: (212) 633-1325 jacquart@sbpub.com

The Advertisers Index is an editorial feature maintained for the convenience of readers. It is not part of the advertiser contract and RTS assumes no responsibility for the correctness.

rtands.com

February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 45

New & Used Equipment

R. E. L. A. M., INC.

SALES – SERVICE – RENTALS – PARTS – HI-RAIL & CRANE INSPECTIONS HI-RAIL TRUCKS IN INVENTORY AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SALE OR RENTAL (NEW AND USED)

SECTION TRUCKS – GRAPPLE TRUCKS ROTARY DUMP TRUCKS ... PICKUP TRUCKS … AND MORE ALSO HEAVY DUTY HI-RAIL TIE & RAIL CARTS Omaha Track Equipment 13010 F Plaza • Omaha NE 68137 (402) 339-4512 Contact PAUL WARD • (402) 651-6632 paul@omahatrack.com

Sales

aspenequipment.com/railroad

Rentals

Service Parts

New and Used Hi-Rail Trucks Available Medium Section Truck $159,000

Email: RelamCFE@aol.com Tel: 440-439-7088 Fax: 440-439-9399 Visit our website at: www.relaminc.com EQUIPMENT FOR SHORT OR LONG TERM LEASE HARSCO AND NORDCO TAMPERS 6700S, 6700SJ, 6700SJ2 Switch and Production Tampers Mark IV Switch and Production Tampers 3300 and HST Chase Tampers 3000 Tampers w/Raise & Line or Chase Tampers 2400 Tampers w/Raise & Line HYDRAULIC STABILIZERS HARSCO TS-30HDs TIE INSERTERS/EXTRACTORS Nordco TRIPPs TR-10s and TKOs 925 S/Ss, Standards, KTR-400s KNOX KERSHAW PRODUCTS KBR-860s and 925s, KSF-940 Ballast Regulators & Snow Fighters KBR-940 Dual Head Brush Cutters KTC-1200 Tie Cranes KKA-1000/1050 Kribber-Adzers KPB-200 Plate Brooms NORDCO ANCHOR APPLICATORS, SPIKERS & GRABBERS Models CX and SS Spikers M-3 Screw Spike Machines Model F Anchor Machines and BAAMs Model SP2R Dual Spike Puller/Grabbers RACINE RAILROAD PRODUCTS Dual Anchor Spreaders, Squeezers, Knockers (Anchor Removers), Anchor Applicators, DAACs (Dual Anchor Adjuster Cribber), Dual e-Clip Applicators, Ride-on Regauge Adzers, TPIs, Tie Straighteners, OTM Reclaimers, SAFELOK IIIs (SAR IIIs) HI-RAIL CRANES, SPEEDSWINGS & RAILHEATERS Pettibone Model 445E/445F Speedswings w/Multiple Attachments (F’s with Tier 4 Engine) Geismar 360/360-Tronic Hi-Rail Excavators, (Cold Air Blower, Brush Cutter, Grapple, Heel Boom, Train Air & Knuckle available) Badger 30 Ton Cranes w/Hi-Rails Propane and Diesel Railheaters - Single & Dual Sided, Self-propelled w/Vibrators HI-RAIL TRUCKS, EXCAVATORS, & CARTS Hi-Rail Gradalls, XL3300 Series III w/Digging Buckets & Brush Cutters Hi-Rail Rotary Dumps, Various Hi-Rail Pickups Hi-Rail Grapple Trucks (available w/Magnet, Rail Racks & Creep Drive) 25-ton Hudson Ballast Cars 25-ton Rail and OTM Carts, 5-ton Tie Carts

Available for Lease

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- Flatbeds - Bucket Trucks

- Section Trucks - Grapple Trucks

- Track Inspector Trucks - Boom Trucks

CAll Tim Marr: 612-716-2878 • TMarr@aspeneq.com 46 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

3000 cu ft Covered Hopper Cars 4650 cu ft Covered Hopper Cars 4300 cu ft Aluminum Rotary Open Top Gons 65 ft, 100-ton log spine cars equipped with six (6) log bunks 60 ft, 100 ton Plate F box cars, cushioned underframe and 10 ft plug doors 50 ft, 100 ton Plate C box cars, cushioned underframe and 10 ft plug doors 26,671 Gallon, 263k GRL, NC/NI Tank Cars Contact: Tom Monroe: 415-616-3472 Email: tmonroe@atel.com rtands.com

Products & Services An Authorized Harsco Remanufacturing Facility Let Precision remanufacture your non-functional, outdated 6700 into a fully functional 6700 with the latest technology. If you have an old, worn-out 6700 tamper, we have your solution.

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Professional Directory

ERIC HEADRICK President 205 N. Chestnut/PO Box 404 Arcola, IL 61910

Ph217-268-5110 cell217-259-4823 Fax217-268-3059 email eric@rrcri.com Exchange Units/Related Tamper Parts and Assemblies To purchase parts, contact: New & Rebuilt sales@rrcri.com Electromatic/Hydraulic Units available for same Workheads day shipping

GET THE INSIDE SCOOP ON & OFF THE TRACK

REESE WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?

• Track construction and maintenance • On-track ditching and rotary dump service • On-track tree trimming and brushcutting • Storm and flood cleanup and debris removal • Tie distribution, removal and disposal

K. W. Reese, Inc.

Box 298 • Mercersburg, PA 17236

(717) 328-5211 • fax (717) 328-9541 • www.kwreese.com

RAIL BRIEF rtands.com

The Weekly RT&S Email Newsletter

2016 NRC PlatiNum Safety awaRd wiNNeR

Subscribe at: www.rtands.com/RailBrief February 2019 // Railway Track & Structures 47

New & Used Equipment

MOW Equipment Lease & Sale Brushcutting Specialized Hauling Track Surfacing Low Boys with Rail

www.RailwayEquipmentServices.net “A full service company with over 25 yrs exp!”

MARKETPLACE SALES Contact: Jeanine Acquart Ph: 212/620-7211 Fax: 212/633-1165 Email: jacquart@sbpub.com

MOW Integrated Carbide Tools 6700 Tamping Tool JK-635

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Replace worn components with Harsco Rail’s complete line of integrated carbide tools.

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48 Railway Track & Structures // February 2019

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4/16/18 1:17 PM

rtands.com

5th Annual

RAILWAY AGE CONFERENCE & EXPO

JUNE 5-6 Union League Club of Chicago Chicago, IL

EXPLORE THE CHALLENGES, ISSUES, AND TRENDS AFFECTING THE NORTH AMERICAN RAIL MARKET

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Patrick Ottensmeyer

President & CEO Kansas City Southern

Ian Jefferies

President & CEO Association of American Railroads

REGISTER NOW WWW.RAILWAYAGE.COM/INSIGHTS • Precision Scheduled Railroading: Is it Working?

• Regulation in the 116th Congress

EXHIBITS & SPONSORSHIPS AVAILABLE 212.620.7224 | jchalon@sbpub.com

• Suppliers and Emerging Technologies • Short Line and Regional Insights • Pressure from Wall Street • The Car and Locomotive Market

SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS

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