STRESSES IN THE RAILS, THE BALLAST AND IN THE FORMATION RESULTING FROM TRAFFIC LOADS. STRESSES IN FASTENING SYSTEMS. STATIC AND FATIGUE TESTS MADE IN THE LABORATORY ON VARIOUS TYPES OF FASTENING SYSTEMS (GERMAN, ENGLISH AND FRENCH SYSTEMS)

The object of Section II of the Programme of Work of the D 71 Specialists Committee is to complete the studies of rail fastening devices, which were already started by the D 11 Specialists Committee. It concerns in particular: 1) The study of the resistance offered by rail fastening devices to lateral forces. 2) The study in the track of the dynamic stresses in these devices during the passage of trains and the study of the reduction of the tightening forces. This Report contains a description of the tests made in the laboratory on several types of fastening systems, mainly concerning their resistance to lateral farces and the drop in tightening force following repeated loads exerted by a pulsating load device. Six types of fastenings on wooden sleepers have been tested: German fastenings, Type K, with baseplates held by 2 coach screws and spring washers; German fastenings, Type K, with baseplates held by 4 coach screws and spring washers; English fastenings, Mills Type MRC 2/3; French fastenings, rigid type, on baseplates with 3 coach screws; French fastenings, elastic type, on baseplates with 3 coach screws; French fastenings, elastic type, without baseplates with 2 coach screws; While allowing for the conditions under which these various types of fastenings are used, these tests have shown that these fastenings afford an important safety margin relative to the lateral forces currently encountered in the track. They have also shown a gauge widening for all the types of fastening systems by at least 2 mm after 2 million stress cycles and that this gauge widening had nearly reached its total magnitude after only 200,000 stress cycles. Finally they have shown that in elastic fastening systems the dynamic stresses and the loss of the tightening forces in the coach screws are favourably reduced.

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

  International Union of Railways

  Office of Research and Experiments
  Utrecht,   Netherlands 
• Publication Date: 1966-6

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 21 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Dynamic tests; Fastenings; Fatigue tests; Inspection; Rail fasteners; Railroad rails; Railroad tracks; Safety; Static tests; Stresses; Structural tests; Tests
• Old TRIS Terms: Question d71; Rail stress; Rail tests; Track component investigations
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00052868
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: International Union of Railways
• Report/Paper Numbers: D71/RP 3/E Intrm Rpt.
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 13 1976 12:00AM