A stroll along an old countryside railway station can look cinematic, with those rusting signboards, quiet platforms and tracks disappearing into the distance.
Then when you decide to take a pretty video of yourself walking along the railway track, you suddenly look like you twisted an ankle or are new to legs, because of the stones on the ground.
Wouldn't it be better if the stones were not there? Do they actually serve any real purpose?
Verdict:
TRUE
Trains are extremely heavy, and their weight is concentrated onto narrow rails. So these stones, known as track ballast, form a supporting bed beneath the rails and around the sleepers (the horizontal support beams placed underneath train tracks to hold the rails in place).
They are a crucial part of conventional railway engineering, helping to support the track, hold it in place, drain water, reduce movement and cushion the repeated pounding of passing trains. Without them, the track could sink or shift unevenly.
If you are wondering if the stones are just dumped and forgotten, you will be content to find out that they are regularly cleaned and replaced. Yes, replaced.
Maintenance crews adjust and compact the track bed using machines such as tampers and ballast regulators. These machines redistribute and compact ballast beneath sleepers to maintain the track’s geometry.
Rails also expand and contract as temperatures change. A track that dips, twists or shifts can create a serious safety risk.
Ballast is made from hard crushed stone, rather than smooth river pebbles, which would risk the stones sliding apart from each other as a train passes over. The rough stones lock together and create friction, helping to resist movement.
The gaps between ballast stones also allow rainwater to drain away.
While slab tracks, where rails are mounted on a concrete base, are common in some tunnels, metro systems and high-speed rail routes, ballast remains widely used.
References:
https://www.cargo-partner.com/
https://www.alpharail.co.nz/
