Discover The Truth About Rail Track Inspection

By Eugenia Dickerson


The mode of transportation in the early 1700s was by rail transport. It was then intended to improve the mining industry. It was not later in the 1800s that this mode of commuting was opened to the riding public. As much as safety of the passengers are concerned, the way of checking this is called rail track inspection.

Both and steel and metal comprised the tracks. Concretes are also used as a foundation. It is a must that the base of the train should be very strong and sturdy for it to be able to withstand the mammoth of a load that it has to carry and the long span of mileage that it has to cover.

Several strategies are employed for inspection, though the early recorded method was by ocular observation. Catastrophic accidents have been told in history, and the cause for the shocking loss of lives went down to human error. One noted reason for the incidents that occurred is the transverse fissure. A crack is found in the perpendicular part of the rail, owing to the continued use of the track. One cannot possibly blame it all on the inspector who has to check it for several miles.

Many companies have come up with strategical approaches that not only its riding passengers will get the most out of, but also the companies who owns these trains. Economically speaking, it will do them more good even. Eventful loss of lives and goods are at stake for a single miss. In these modern times, railroad companies must be at par with the fast changing world, which has also touched up on locomotive transportation.

It is given that modernization has also taken its toll on railroad transportation, making it faster by means of electricity whereas before it ran on coal fired engines. Electricity made train travel speedier, thus increasing the fatality of accidents, if it will arise. In physics, the higher the speed, the stronger the impact of collision between two moving objects.

Good thing though that engineers did not just stop on jackhammers and headlamps for visual assessment. Slowly, new approaches were utilized, such as magnetic testing, also known as magnetic induction. Flux leakage was spotted out. A number of staff were also employed as per the degree of difficulty of the process.

Radiography or Xray, which is a common tool in the medical field, was also tapped. Through this method, composition of a certain subject may be viewed either as either two or three dimensional. This method was mostly applied in areas of the tracks where repair was already done through welding.

As an Xray uses images, ultrasound detects flaws in welding and points out the exact spot that needs to be checked through sound waves. Ultrasound is the most popular methodology. It is also an active member of the medical procedure package for clinical patients.

Looking at the not to distant future, one may posit that there should be another method which can somehow lessen human exposure to unwanted accidents and risky procedures. Currently, what the engineers have requires them to be in contact with a moving locomotive, increasing the probability of work hazards. The answer to this is laser, and rail track inspection needs it badly.




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