Since 1954, Loram has provided some of the most advanced, productive and innovative railroad maintenance services and equipment around the world.
Loram’s comprehensive solutions are designed to help its customers achieve operational excellence, extend rail and track asset life and enhance efficiency to new levels.
Rail grinding
This includes rail grinding, the cornerstone of virtually every railroad maintenance program. It safely increases the usable life of the rail by reducing surface defects, shaping the rail head to maintain proper wheel rail interaction and control rail vertical and lateral wear.
This provides railroads with an increase in fuel/energy savings, the ability to move larger loads and allow faster speeds.
Loram’s rail grinding product offerings include equipment and services that serve heavy haul, urban and commuter railroads.
As Loram Head of Business Development Tom Smith explains, before any grinding happens, Loram collects all the necessary data to maximise equipment productivity and quality.
“This includes understanding the size of the railroad, rail specifications, tonnages, axle loads, current profile/surface conditions and the track time available for maintenance,” he said.
“After the data is collected, Loram analyses the data sources relating to rail wear, rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and defect generation to help understand any trends that may cause different areas on the railroad that require more or less grinding. This then helps to create the overall grind program.
“The collected data is used to determine the appropriate size and number of grinders needed to adequately maintain the system.”
Loram offers multiple different grinders for different needs ranging from production rail grinders, specialty rail grinders and transit rail grinders.
Below rail
Loram focuses on using the latest technology available to plan for efficient ballast maintenance.
Loram pairs GPR, LiDAR, high resolution video, GIS, track geometry, and other forms of data with advanced analytics to create a multifaceted track health report. With a complete picture of the ballast section and drainage characteristics, the root causes of poor track performance can be understood and appropriate maintenance solutions can be identified.
“Loram utilises GPR technology to determine where shoulder ballast cleaning is needed by understanding the fouling level of the crib and both shoulders,” Smith said.
“In areas where there are long track sections with fouling requiring remediation, the GPR data is used to prioritise and maximise maintenance efforts based on the capital plan and maintenance budgets available.
“With the shoulders’ fouling level identified, Loram is also able to determine how much the shoulder volume will be reduced during shoulder ballast cleaning. This information is combined with the initial shoulder profile to determine how much ballast needs to be dumped before or after cleaning to ensure the desired shoulder profile is restored.”
Loram’s high performance shoulder ballast cleaner is a productive solution for cleaning ballast past the end of sleepers, regardless of how highly fouled it is, and discards the fines and fouled ballast from reusable ballast and restoring the reusable ballast to the shoulder.
New research is quantifying how shoulder ballast cleaning reduces the fouling level of the crib section of the track along with the shoulders.
“In track sections where the crib is moderately to highly fouled, the drainage improvement from shoulder ballast cleaning is shown to mitigate the effects of fouling accumulation over time, and allow rainwater that falls onto the track to carry fouling material from the crib out to the shoulder and then to the ditch,” Smith said.
“These additional improvements in ballast life demonstrate an increased value in shoulder ballast cleaning compared to the understood improvements in drainage and track moisture reduction.”
For targeted ballast maintenance, the Loram TracVac (LTV) is a productive machine of choice. With its powerful, rail-mounted specialty excavating machine, it can remove up to 28 cubic meters of material per hour using mechanical agitation and airflow.
The compact footprint and industry-leading 2300 kg of downward force break through cemented material.
A rotating nozzle can further break up material. The power and control make the versatile and compact LTV ideal for excavating specialty trackwork, trackside equipment and yard applications, with the ability to traverse and operate within restricted clearances, including tunnels, passenger platforms and bridges.
Friction management
Adverse wheel and rail interaction pose one of the biggest threats to the life and performance of rail and rolling assets.
Loram offers both gauge face and top of rail friction management solutions, with the modifier consumables available in biodegradable, synthetic, and water-based versions.
Loram’s gauge face lubricants are designed for transit or heavy haul applications, designed to be pumpable in extreme temperatures, and are biodegradable.
EcoCurve Heavy Haul is readily biodegradable, carries the European Ecolabel and is rated suitable to use near bodies of water.
EcoCurve Trackside is also readily biodegradable and has found wide acceptance in the transit market worldwide.
Rail King HL is inherently biodegradable and has high load carrying additives, best suited for heavy haul applications.
“Our top-of-rail friction modifiers are specifically designed for wayside applications, help reduce noise, extend rail and wheel life, and contribute to fuel/energy savings,” Smith said.
TOR-Extend is a clean synthetic friction modifier that has a low evaporation rate, uses less material per application versus competitive products and has a carry distance of six to 10 kilometres in most applications.
“Loram has also introduced a family of modular tank sizes from 95 litres/90kg to 2875 litres/725 kg in carbon steel or stainless-steel configurations,” Smith said.
“These units are available for top of rail or gauge face applications and can be solar or AC/DC powered.
“Easy to maintain and install, the 95/90 tank size is the solution for low traffic areas like switching yards and industrial spurs and can also manage lower tonnage mainlines and transit systems.
“The larger tank sizes are more suitable for heavier traffic mainline applications.”
To learn more about Loram’s product offerings, please visit www.loram.com.au, and visit stand 232 at AusRAIL PLUS, which runs from November 13-17.