Concrete sleeper

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A concrete sleeper is a railroad tie made out of steel reinforced concrete.

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Contents 1 Types 2 Advantages 3 Disadvantages 4 Characteristics 5 Manufacture 6 Transport 7 Installation 8 Oldest 9 Problems 10 Examples 10.1 Ghana 10.2 Pakistan 11 List of plants 11.1 Australia 11.2 Ethiopia 11.3 Germany 11.4 Ghana 11.5 India 11.6 Iraq 11.7 Kenya 11.8 Korea, South 11.9 Malaysia 11.10 Mozambique 11.11 Saudi Arabia 11.12 South Africa 11.13 Switzerland 12 See also 13 References

[edit] Types

Concrete sleepers can be of one piece of uniform dimensions, or of variable dimensions. Concrete sleepers can also consist of two separate blocks connected by a steel tie rod. Exceptionally, the concrete can be poured as two separate longitudinal slabs as has been used in Namibia.

Slab track consists of a continuous concrete roadbed without division into separate sleepers, and these are most often used in tunnels.

[edit] Advantages

• do not rot like timber sleepers.
• extra weight makes track more stable, particularly with changes in temperature.

[edit] Disadvantages

When trains derail and the wheels hit the sleepers, timber sleepers tend to absorb the blow and survive, while concrete sleepers tend to shatter and have to be replaced.

Concrete sleepers are heavier and need more strong people to carry them.

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Manufacture

[edit] Transport

[edit] Installation

[edit] Oldest

• Chaired bullhead concrete sleepers have been around since at least the 1950s. ^[1]

[edit] Problems

German rails have experienced cracking of their sleepers on high speed lines. ^[2]

[edit] Examples

[edit] Ghana

Concrete sleeper plant at Huni Valley, Ghana:

• Number: 2 m
• Cost: Euro 85m
• Cost each: Euro 42.5 per sleeper.
• Cost of plant: Euro 7
• Jobs: 130
• Output: 400,000 per annum
• Output: 1096 per day (about 0.5km of track).
• Makers: Kampac and Rail.One
• Gauge: possibly dual gauge 1435mm/1067mm

[edit] Pakistan

• Line: Karachi - Lahore main line.
• Gauge: 1676 mm gauge.
• Cost per km: Rs33·85m
• Rail: UIC-54 rails
• Number per km: 1,640
• Fastenings: Vossloh

[edit] List of plants

[edit] Australia

(clockwise)

• Townsville - 1067mm - defunct ^[3]
• Mackay - 1067mm - defunct ^[4]
• Rockhampton - 1067mm ^[5]

• Bomen - 1435mm
• Mittagong - 1435mm
• Taree - 1435mm
• Denman - 1435mm
• Mittagong ^[6]
• Grafton ^[7]
• Wagga Wagga - 1435mm
• Geelong - 1600mm

• Avalon - 1600mm

• Port Hedland - 1435mm
• Wedgefield - 610mm, 1067mm, 1435mm ^[8]
• Wickham - 1435mm

• Katherine - 1435mm - defunct ^[9]
• Tennant Creek - 1435mm - defunct ^[10]

• Austrak ^[11]

[edit] Ethiopia

• Dire Dawa - 1000mm ^{[12] [13]}

[edit] Germany

• - 1435mm ^[14]

[edit] Ghana

• Huni Valley - 1435mm/1067mm dual gauge (?)

[edit] India

• ^[15] First use in 1977 ^[16]
• Patil Group - 8 plants - first in 1971 ^[17]

[edit] Iraq

• Abu Ghraib ^[18]

[edit] Kenya

• 2005 - proposed ^{[19] [20]}

[edit] Korea, South

• Pusan ^[21]

[edit] Malaysia

• Malaysia - 1067mm - proposed ^[22]

[edit] Mozambique

• Dondo ^[23]
• Sena - 600 per day

[edit] Saudi Arabia

• - Ha'il - Transport in Saudi Arabia 32.5T axleload - 1435mm ^[24]

[edit] South Africa

• ^[25]

[edit] Switzerland

• Tribeton ^[26]

[edit] See also

• Tubular Modular Track
• Bi Block sleepers ^[27]

[edit] References