Railroad MaintenanceA presentation created for Lesson 3: Efficient Railroad Maintenance of the Exploring Transportation Maintenance Module

So what is Railroad Maintenance?Railways are made up of complex mechanical and electrical systems and there are hundreds of thousands of moving parts. If a railway service is to be reliable, the equipment must be kept in good working order and regular maintenance is the essential ingredient to achieve this. A railway will not survive for long as a viable operation if it is allowed to deteriorate because of lack of maintenance. Although maintenance is expensive, it will become more expensive to replace the failing equipment early in its life because maintenance has been neglected.

http://www.railway-technical.com/train-maint.shtml

What would I do if I worked in track maintenance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn5e2EXjb1Y

What kind of equipment is used in railroad maintenance?

Mechanized Road-Bed Maintenance Machines

Ballast Cleaners (Shoulder Cleaners)

Ditch Diggers

Jordan Spreaders

Defect Detection Cars

Undercutters

What kind of equipment is used in railroad maintenance?

Surfacing Machines

Ballast Regulators

Spike Inserters

Spike Pullers

What kind of equipment is used in railroad maintenance?

Surfacing Machines

Tampers

Tie Cranes

Tie Extractors/Inserters

What kind of equipment is used in railroad maintenance?

Other Maintenance Equipment

Rail Grinders

Snow Plows

Speeders/Motor Cars

How do railroads maintain their MOW?

• MOW= Maintenance of Way

• In simple terms, its the job of keeping track and roadbed in good condition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpkAT7cWgjM

Resources• For more information on this topic, please visit the following

webpages:• http://www.american-rails.com/railroad-maintenance.html • http://www.nrcma.org • http://arema.org/ • http://www.railway-technical.com/train-maint.shtml