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.

The components of the tracks varies. Others are made up of steel, concrete, metal and, some, a combination of both or all three. It is an imperative that these vehicles be founded on a sturdy base as it is mostly made to carry massive cargoes and numerous passengers. Inspection for a train is likewise also very necessary.

Primitively, this was done thorough observation. Train drivers and their staff would look into the tracks, no matter how long it stretched, and spot out flaws, breaks, cracks, and loose parts. Human as they are, it was no guarantee that misses are spotlighted. Records in history showed that eventful accidents and loss of lives were blamed on the lacking focus and perhaps lacking thoroughness of the inspectors. Transverse fissure was the cause of that disaster, and it remains as a common wear and tear problem as well.

By heavily thinking of safety, several organizations and companies offered methods that can greatly benefit railroad companies and its passengers, owing to the fact that a fatal accident will ensue if this is taken for granted. Nowadays, high technology strategies are being utilized as these vehicles have also been upgraded, speed and materials wise, since time.

Your grandfather may tell of stories about these coal powered choochoo trains, but now, you can boast of electrically charged vehicles that can pass you by in a blink of an eye. Electricity rendered these vehicles to be as swift as a sound. As what you learned at school, the principle of physics states that two kinetic objects moving at a high rate of speed has a higher impact of collision.

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.

Ultrasonography, by the word itself, it implies sound, was another popular method. Through sound waves, exact locations of flaws are pointed out in images. Ultrasound remains as a well used tool in clinical diagnosis in the biomedical field.

At present, what the engineers have requires them to be in contact with a speeding train. They hope that in the days to come, they may be able to make use of laser to better inspect the trains. Rail track inspection should not be shrugged off as lives and livelihood are at stake.




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