The combination of rails, fitted on sleepers and resting on ballast and subgrade is known as the Railway Track or Permanent Way. Sometimes temporary tracks are also laid for conveyance of materials during construction of Permanent Way.

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In permanent way , the rails are joined in series by fish plates and bolts. Then they’re fixed to sleepers with the help of fastenings. The sleepers are properly spaced, resting on Ballast. However the layer of ballast rests on the prepared subgrade called formation.

How load transfers from train to earth ?

The rails act as girder, which transfers the wheel load (train’s wheel load) to sleepers. The sleepers transfers the load from rails to the ballast. The ballast distributes the load over the formation and also holds the sleepers in position.

Requirements of Ideal Railway Track or Permanent Way

• Gauge should be correct and uniform.
• Rails should be in proper level.
• Alignment should be correct i.e. free from irregularities.
• Gradient should be uniform and also as gentle as possible.
• Track should have enough lateral strength, so that alignment is always maintained.
• Railway Track should have low initial cost as well as maintenance cost.
• Drainage system must be perfect for enhancing safety and durability of railway track.
• Track structure should be strong.

Capacity of a Railway Track

Capacity of a Railway Track or Track Capacity is the hourly capacity of the track to handle the trains safely. In other words it is the number of trains that can run safely on track per hour.

The track capacity can be increased by the following ways –

• By achieving faster movement of trains on a track.
• By decreasing the distance between the successive trains.

Some general measures to increase the track capacity are –

• All the trains should be made to run at the same speed. So that the uniformity of gauges and traction should be achieved in the country.
• All sections should be made of equal length.
• Multi-color light signalling should be adopted to alert the driver in advance of position of various sections e.g. danger-red, caution-yellow, attention-double yellow, clear-green.
• The speed of train can be increased by adopting diesel or electric traction.
• Speed of train can also be increased by making suitable removing the speed restrictions, if any.
• The speed of train can be increased by improvements in the existing tracks.
• Reduction in the time of stoppages of trains.
• For operational and industrial purposes, new lines should be constructed.
• Quick arrangements for shunting to attach or detach the coaches.
• Control and signalling system should be electronic. So that it maintains high speed continuity.
• Telecommunication facilities for short and long distances.
• Operation of new wire lines.