Cyclic and special wear-adapted rail profile grinding - experience gained on Malmbanan heavy-haul railway, and scope for implementation elsewhere

摘要

Heavy-haul railways were the first ones to adopt regular rail grinding as a cyclic maintenance action aimed at controlling rolling contact fatigue (RCF), in order to extend the service life of the rail and, thus, optimise its life-cycle cost (LCC). Also, special asymmetric rail head profiles, different from the as-rolled ones, have been developed and successfully introduced. This article looks at experience gained with cyclic and special wear-adapted rail profile grinding on the Iron Ore Line (Malmbanan) in Sweden, and the ongoing fine-tuning of target profiles that is aimed at further optimising the grinding strategy. Finally, the scope for implementing this grinding strategy on railway lines elsewhere is addressed.