31 October 2015, Ketohalli, KA.
Machines: Plasser India 08-32 Tamper, and DGS-62 PLS Dynamic Track Stabiliser.
Getting to see the highly complicated machinery that are used by Indian Railways for track maintenance was always on my to-do list, but that involved getting lucky since we have no idea exactlywhen and where these machines are used.
This footage is from when I got lucky to see these machines arrive at exactly the spot I was waiting to shoot trains, and the crew were kind enough to let me take photos and videos of the machines in operations.
This is how it works:
Powered by a 300+ hp engine, the 08-32 tamping machine gets to work by lifting the rails and packing ballast underneath to achieve a stable base in case there are issues with the rails sinking in a bit. Based on the configuration, these machines can lift two, three or four sleepers in one go.
Once the tamper is finished, the DGS 62 is fired up. It is primarily used to restore the resistance of the rails to lateral movement brought forth by passing trains. It is equipped with a vibrating unit that grips the rails and applies vertical loading combined with horizontal vibration to simulate thousands of tonnes of trains passing over it in a very short period of time. This helps the Railways avoid imposing speed restrictions until the rails have recovered their resistance while also creating an even more stable ballast base. One pass of this stabiliser is equivalent to 100,000 tons of train traffic, which is why it is very beneficial. The vibration generated by this machine is so high that I could feel the ground beneath my feet vibrating strongly when the machine passed by the camera.
As soon as these machines are done, they travel to the next station, and reverse on to the adjacent track to return to their base; rail traffic is resumed as soon as they clear the line, and most of the times no speed restrictions are imposed unless the tamping has been performed on a bridge. Stabilisers are not used on bridges as the huge amount of vibration generated can damage their foundations.
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