PROBLEMS OF INTERACTION OF VEHICLES AND TRACK. METHODS OF REDUCING WEAR OF RAILS AND TYRES BY LUBRICATION (STATE OF DEVELOPMENT 1959)

The effect of wear on rails and wheel flanges constitutes a regular and very considerable item of railway expenditure. To this must be added the costs which the immobilisation of the vehicles involves during the time required for returning tyres, etc. The "Methods of reducing the wear of rails and tyres" were dealt with under ORE Question C 19. It was pointed out in the report that there was no agreement as to the best method of applying the lubricant. Several Administrations lubricated the wheel flanges of locomotives, other used rail lubricators in certain curves. During the 16th International Railway Congress in London in 1954, valuable data were supplied by a number of Railway Administrations for Question No. 10: "Wear of rails on curves", sub-section C "Results of the investigations made and proposed remedies. Use of rail lubricating processes". The information available in this field, supplemented by economic-technical investigations, was to be collected by the C 9 Sub-Committee. In accordance with the decision taken by the ORE-C 9-Specialists Committee during its meeting in Paris on 15th April 1955. This would enable the Committee to make recommendations to the Railway Administrations regarding the choice of the most suitable lubrication methods. In particular, the lubrication methods used in normal service these days (manual lubrication of rails, lubricators mounted in the track, flange and rail lubrication carried out from the vehicle) should be analysed and assessed. The simple rail moistening devices, fitted to the locomotives, which still occupied such a place of importance during the discussion on Question No. III "Relations between vehicle and rail and their effect on maintaining safety in operation at high running speeds" during the 12th International Railway Congress in Cairo in 1933, as well as the simple needle lubricators and oil wicks, have not proved adequate to the exacting operating demands of the railways in the long run. This has led to the construction of special, automatically operating lubricators, fitted to the motive power units, which transfer the lubricant on to the rail or wheel flange by means of compressed air or steam.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Restrictions on the use of this document are contained in the explanatory material.
• Corporate Authors:

  International Union of Railways

  Office of Research and Experiments
  Utrecht,   Netherlands 
• Publication Date: 1961-4

Media Info

• Features: Appendices;
• Pagination: 25 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Dynamics; Flanges; Lubrication; Maintenance of way; Railroad rails; Train track dynamics; Vehicle maintenance; Wear; Wheels
• Old TRIS Terms: Car maintenance; Question c9
• Subject Areas: Maintenance and Preservation; Railroads; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00053195
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: International Union of Railways
• Report/Paper Numbers: C9/RP 3/E Intrm Rpt.
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 8 1994 12:00AM